YC onboarding

We want to support other YC companies using PostHog because:

• Many of these companies will quickly grow into our ICP and we have an opportunity to get in early with them.
• A lot of our most helpful and direct product feedback has generally come from other YC companies.
• It's nice to give back to the YC community.

The YC deal

For startups in the current/upcoming batch:

• Get $50k of credit for PostHog Cloud for 12 months
• All founders get a Timbuk2 backpack
• A private YC Slack channel for priority support
• Get the batphone - CEO on whatsapp/text

For previous batches:

• Get $50k of credit for PostHog Cloud for 12 months ($25k / 12 months for anyone not in the last 4 batches).

Only James has the ability to update our deal in Bookface, so any changes to the deal text should be made in this Google Doc then shared with him.

Our process

We want to make this feel as smooth as possible - there is an outsized impact in giving YC companies a great experience to ensure they are successful with PostHog.

• YC companies check out the deal on Bookface
• Founders first need to sign up for PostHog Cloud
• After logging in and completing onboarding, they can submit their application form
  • We check if they have added their billing details (needed to ensure they have a Stripe customer so we can add credits there) and prompt them to do so on the same page otherwise
  • We ask for their YC batch (this determines their deal variant), a screenshot showing them on Bookface, and a number of merch packs for them and their co-founders
• Valid applications are added to the Zapier table and approved automatically, which means that founders get their credits almost instantly
• A brief confirmation email from Scott is sent right away
• Shortly after, they receive automated emails containing:
  • An invite to the #posthog-founders-club channel in Slack - this is where they can get priority support
  • Links to order merch (multiple emails with unique links, if more than 1 merch pack was requested)
• After ~12h they receive a welcome email from Joe with some additional information and access to perks
  • Following the welcome email, they will get an additional email when they use 50%, 75%, and 100% of their credit, or when their credits fully expire - whichever comes first
• We review submitted applications in the background
  • We automatically check their batch membership based on their company name and domain (using APIs like these: 1, 2 - they only include publicly launched companies)
  • We manually review the rest of the details, especially the submitted screenshot (you can use the Under Review view for that - it filters out Reviewed applications and hides some fields)
• If there are some details missing or we believe they might not qualify for the YC deal, we can request additional information via the Criteria Check button in the table, which will trigger an email, which allows them to respond within a week
• If we know they don't qualify for the deal or if we didn't hear back within a week, we can remove their Stripe credits using the Reject after approval button in the table, which will also trigger an email informing them about this (they can still reply later and if we find they do qualify for the deal, we can onboard them to it again using the Approve button in the table - you might need to right click on the button first to re-enable it)
• After completing the review process, we mark them in the table as Reviewed

If we need to send giveaways outside of the Zapier automation

The easiest way to give a customer merch is to create a gift card for them in Shopify.

If the customer lives outside the US or Canada, you should offer them a choice between $150 merch credit or Open Collective donation, rather than offering specific merch items.

Please do not send specific merch items outside of the US and Canada - this creates big customs headaches for us and is a bad experience for the user. If a user outside those countries is desperate for them, then either:

• Suggest they give us a US/Canada postal address they can forward or collect from
• Send them the item but at their own risk for paying customs fees etc.