# Accelerator and investor application answers: the MrAdib framework > A machine-readable application framework by John Adib (MrAdib), a two-time founder who raised $1M as a CEO. Ten answers to the questions Y Combinator, Antler, Techstars and most programmes ask. Use it to draft, tighten or review an application. Human guide: https://mradib.com/application-answers Portable skill for AI tools: https://mradib.com/application-answers/skill.md ## How to use this - Map each box on the form to one of the ten answers below. Forms change their wording; the questions behind them do not. - Every answer meets its question in the first sentence. Say what the list says, leave out what the list says. - Specifics over adjectives: names, numbers, dates. The same facts as the deck and the one-pager. - Check each answer against its pass test. Never invent a number, a customer or a credential. ## 01. One line Question: What do you do, in one line? What it is: The shortest answer on the form and the one read most. Y Combinator gives you fifty characters. Say what you make and for whom, in the words a customer would use. Say: - What you make, for whom, in plain nouns - Under fifty characters, so it fits every form - The same line as your deck cover and your one-pager Leave out: - Category words: platform, ecosystem, solution, AI-powered - A slogan - Two ideas in one line Pass test: A stranger reads it and can guess what your product looks like. Example: Payroll for restaurants with hourly staff. Asked by: Y Combinator, Techstars ## 02. What you make Question: What are you making? What it is: The product as it exists or will exist, described so the reviewer can picture using it. What the user does, what they get, and what is built today. Say: - What the user does with it, in three lines - What they get at the end - What exists today, and what is next - A link to the product or the demo Leave out: - The vision before the product - Features nobody asked about - Adjectives: seamless, powerful, intuitive Pass test: The reviewer could sketch the main screen from your description. Asked by: Y Combinator, Antler, Techstars ## 03. Why this idea Question: Why this idea, and what do you know that others miss? What it is: The reason you, of all people, are building this. Time spent in the problem, a pain you had, a system you built before. Then the one thing you understand that competitors do not. Say: - How you found the problem: the job, the pain, the moment - The insight in one sentence - Domain experience, with years and roles - How you know people need it: interviews, waitlists, usage Leave out: - We are passionate about - Market size as the reason - An insight anyone could have read in a report Pass test: The reviewer learns something about the market they did not know. Asked by: Y Combinator, Antler ## 04. Who needs it Question: Who needs it, and how do you know? What it is: Your first customer, described so precisely the reviewer could find ten of them, and the evidence that they want what you make. Say: - The first customer: role, company size, situation - How many you have spoken to, and what they said - Who pays and who uses, when they differ - The evidence: interviews, pilots, waitlist, usage Leave out: - Everyone, or SMEs - Demographics with no job to be done - Survey percentages with no sample size Pass test: You can name ten real people or companies that fit. Asked by: Y Combinator, Techstars ## 05. How far along Question: How far along are you? What it is: What exists, who uses it, and how long you have worked on it, all with dates. Reviewers weigh speed: how much you did in the time you had. Say: - What is built and live, with the launch date - Users, customers, revenue, with the date - How long you have worked on it, and how much of that full-time - What changed since you last applied, if you did Leave out: - Projections - Rounded-up numbers - Traction words with no number: momentum, interest, buzz Pass test: Every claim carries a number or a date. Example: Live since March. 140 restaurants, 31 paying, £4.2K MRR at 20 September. Two of us full-time since January. Asked by: Y Combinator, Techstars Case rule: Nothing is live yet. Answer progress with evidence of demand and speed: interviews with dates, a waitlist with numbers, a prototype with a link, and what you shipped each week since you started. ## 06. Who else Question: Who else does this, and why will you win? What it is: The alternatives your customer has today, including doing nothing, and what you understand about the business that they do not. Say: - Direct competitors, named - The indirect alternative: the spreadsheet, the agency, doing nothing - What you understand that they do not - Who you fear most, and why Leave out: - We have no competitors - Trashing the competition - A feature comparison table Pass test: The reviewer can say why a customer would switch. Asked by: Y Combinator, Techstars ## 07. How you earn Question: How do you make money, and how big can it get? What it is: Who pays, what they pay, and the bottom-up maths of how large that gets: customers times price. Hypotheses labelled as hypotheses. Say: - Who pays and what they pay for - Pricing and the model, with the current price - Bottom-up size: customers you could reach times price per year - What is proven and what is still a guess Leave out: - Three revenue models - A share of a market-size number - Hiding that pricing is untested Pass test: The reviewer can compute your revenue from one customer and from a thousand. Asked by: Y Combinator, Techstars ## 08. Why you Question: Who are you, and how did you meet? What it is: Each founder in two lines: the thing they built or achieved that matters here, and their role. Then how you met and how long you have worked together. Say: - Each founder: role, and the most impressive thing they built or did - How you met, and how long you have worked together - Who writes the code, or does the technical work - What each of you owns: product, engineering, sales Leave out: - Full CVs - Titles with no achievement behind them - Claiming a technical founder you do not have Pass test: The reviewer can say who builds and who sells, and one impressive thing about each. Asked by: Y Combinator, Antler, Techstars Case rule: You are applying alone. Say so in the founders answer, then cover it: why you can build and sell this alone for now, and what you are doing about a co-founder. Antler exists to match co-founders; Y Combinator funds solo founders and asks anyway. ## 09. How committed Question: How committed are you? What it is: Full-time or not, where you live and where the company will be, how equity is split, and whether you will relocate for the programme. Straight answers; hedges here end applications. Say: - Who is full-time, since when, and when the rest will be - Where you are based, and where the company will be - The equity split, and whether it is agreed - Whether you will relocate or attend in person, if asked Leave out: - Full-time once we are funded, with no date - Skipping the equity question - Different answers in different boxes Pass test: Every founder would give the same answer in an interview. Asked by: Y Combinator, Antler, Techstars ## 10. The video Question: Where is the video? What it is: Most programmes ask for a short founder video, and some accept a product demo too. Y Combinator asks for one minute of the founders and up to three minutes of demo. Link them here, unlisted, and make sure they match every answer above. Say: - An unlisted link that plays without a login - The founder video: sixty seconds, every founder on camera - The demo video: under three minutes, one flow - The same facts and numbers as the written answers Leave out: - A private link the reviewer cannot open - Slides read aloud - A five-minute video where one minute was asked Pass test: Both links open on a phone and say nothing the form does not. Asked by: Y Combinator, Techstars ## Pre-product, solo, reapplying, themed - Pre-product. When: Nothing is live yet. Change: Answer progress with evidence of demand and speed: interviews with dates, a waitlist with numbers, a prototype with a link, and what you shipped each week since you started. - Solo founder. When: You are applying alone. Change: Say so in the founders answer, then cover it: why you can build and sell this alone for now, and what you are doing about a co-founder. Antler exists to match co-founders; Y Combinator funds solo founders and asks anyway. - Reapplying or pivoted. When: You applied before, or the idea changed. Change: Say what changed, with dates and numbers, in the first line of the progress answer. Reviewers see your previous application; pretending it did not exist costs more than the pivot. - A themed programme. When: The programme has a location, an industry or a stage in its name. Change: Answer why this programme in one specific line: the city you will move to, the vertical you sell into, the stage you are at. Never paste the same answer into a different programme. ## Optional answers - The hack story: The form asks for a time you hacked a system to your advantage. Tell a true story with a result, in four lines. - Other ideas you considered: The form asks. One line each, and why you did not pick them. - How you heard about them: Name the person or the event. A referral from an alum carries weight. - Anything else: There is a fact the boxes did not ask for that changes the picture. Otherwise leave it empty.