You asked about Automation
286 people built something like it. 29 are gone.
That is 11% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 26 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-02-17 | bardeen.ai | still up |
| 2012-06-01 | YCZapier The easiest way to automate your work. · zapier.com | still up |
| 2014-06-01 | Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. · ginkgobioworks.com | acquired |
| 2022-11-15 | retool.com | still up |
| 2022-04-15 | automate-notion.com | moved |
| 2019-06-01 | Building the safety net of the future · pairteam.com | still up |
| 2022-11-15 | fn12.com | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCSimetrik No code enterprise SaaS for financial control automation. · simetrik.com | still up |
| 2023-01-25 | automatisch.io | still up |
| 2022-07-29 | docscube.io | still up |
| 2022-02-17 | socialchamp.com | still up |
| 2022-02-24 | paperless.io | still up |
| 2022-08-23 | crawlee.dev | still up |
| 2017-01-01 | YCSnappr Snappr is the one-stop-shop for visual content creation · snappr.com | still up |
| 2023-08-01 | magicloops.dev | still up |
| 2022-02-03 | testsigma.com | still up |
| 2022-03-31 | threado.com | unverified |
| 2022-07-25 | ab.bot | gone |
| 2022-02-09 | niftypm.com | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | YCTennr Fast, Transparent Patient Experiences · tennr.com | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | Vertical AI for Audit & Advisory Firms · fieldguide.com | still up |
| 2022-07-21 | getopenflow.com | gone |
| 2022-06-16 | uibakery.io | still up |
| 2022-08-05 | rocketride.io | gone |
| 2020-01-01 | Robotic Process Automation and Document Processing Platform · electroneek.com | still up |
| 2022-10-10 | bugbug.io | still up |
| 2022-04-19 | meta-api.io | unverified |
| 2022-07-30 | albato.com | still up |
| 2021-08-17 | tara.ai | still up |
| 2013-06-01 | YCLob Lob is the only automation platform that transforms direct mail into… · lob.com | still up |
| 2022-07-18 | overloop.com | still up |
| 2022-01-17 | loopcv.pro | still up |
| 2022-03-14 | hilos.io | still up |
| 2022-05-16 | ortto.com | still up |
| 2022-07-20 | momentum.io | still up |
| 2022-01-31 | candymail.saasbase.dev | gone |
| 2011-01-01 | YCClose CRM and sales automation tools for startups and SMBs · close.com | still up |
| 2022-11-18 | posterity.life | gone |
| 2022-02-16 | blixo.com | still up |
| 2022-02-09 | snowflake.so | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCCamber Admin automation for healthcare · camber.health | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | Applied AI for The Emerging Economies · latentspace.sh | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | Learning platform for job seekers with job applications automation · careerist.cc | still up |
| 2023-05-20 | embedworkflow.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCConfido AI-enabled financial automation and intelligence for CPG Brands · confidotech.com | still up |
| 2014-06-01 | YCHive Marketing automation for event promoters (email, sms, ads, CRM) · hive.co | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | Robotic Automation for cancer diagnostics - Robotic Microscopes &… · morphlelabs.com | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | YCStackAI The Enterprise AI Transformation Platform · stackai.com | acquired |
| 2020-06-01 | YCHeron Underwriting automation for SMB finance · herondata.io | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCMindee AI Document Understanding API · mindee.com | still up |
| 2021-11-07 | wobaka.com | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCHeru Tax Automation Infrastructure · heru.app | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCSoraban AI tax workflow platform for accounting firms · soraban.com | still up |
| 2023-06-01 | Digital-native home painting franchise · craftwork.com | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | YCArtisan The GTM orchestration platform. Ava, Aaron and Aria replace your stack · artisan.co | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCPaces Agentic AI for Power Projects and AI Infrastructure · paces.com | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | Marketing automation platform for selling to local businesses. · re2.ai | still up |
| 2023-06-01 | Navigating patients to the right place, first time. · healthtech1.uk | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | YCVooma Automation platform for logistics · vooma.ai | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | We help companies scale marketing campaigns through WhatsApp · treble.ai | still up |
How this compares
Y Combinator reports its own outcomes, including acquisitions. The other two are judged by asking the domain, so they are not measured the same way and are never averaged together.
Older launches have had longer to die, so this slope is expected. A year that broke it would mean something is wrong with the checking.
The register re-probes every domain it holds. Some that answered last month stop answering. We send that list — what went quiet, and what it was — once a month. Nothing else.
How this was made. Show HN entries are every post from 2021 to 2023 with at least five points that linked to its own domain; code hosts and free hosting are excluded, because a repository outlives the effort behind it. Product Hunt entries needed 100 votes — a far higher bar, so they are the promoted top slice rather than a like-for-like sample. Both are judged by asking the domain whether it still answers: gone means it no longer resolves, refuses the connection, serves a parking page, or says plainly that it shut down. An HTTP error is not counted as gone — a server answering 404 is one somebody still pays for, and an audit of 25 gone-calls found two such sites alive with only a moved homepage. Y Combinator entries use the status YC publishes itself, which is why only those can say acquired. Squatted domains — a lapsed name now serving somebody else's site — are not detected, so these figures run slightly low.