YC Fantasy
Type: Software Status: In Progress Deadline: Soft launch around YC Demo Day — 2026-06-14 Created: 2026-05-28
What is this?
A lightweight, web-only fantasy/ranking game for the current YC batch (Spring 2026, 177 companies). Visitors pick the companies they think are most interesting, then see how their picks compare to (a) the aggregate of all players and (b) a proprietary algorithm. The game is hosted on its own subdomain/site — not inside the DealDeck app — and acts as a top-of-funnel exposure play with a clear bridge back to DealDeck.
Motivation
- Distribution: Demo Day is a moment of peak attention on YC; a shareable, low-friction game rides that wave.
- Positioning: Demonstrates that DealDeck has a credible opinion (the algorithm) about which startups matter — not just a content app.
- Lead capture: Email-gated reveal (TBD) seeds the DealDeck v2 waitlist with a self-selected VC/operator audience.
- Re-use of existing assets: Taylor’s tracker is already a working daily-scraping + scoring pipeline. Wrapping it in a public game is the cheapest way to make it visible.
What does success look like?
- Site live on or before 2026-06-14 with a clean, playable mechanic and a satisfying reveal screen
- Clear, prominent path from result screen → DealDeck app waitlist / TestFlight
- Some volume of plays + shares from the elite-VC and YC-orbit Twitter / LinkedIn audience
- Post-Demo Day scoring window keeps the page sticky for ~4 weeks as event points accrue
Relationship to DealDeck
- Codebase: separate — lives at
~/projects/yc-fantasy/(stack TBD) - Documentation: separate — this folder
- Brand: distinct surface, but co-branded (“by DealDeck” or similar) and visually consistent
- Data: shares the YC ingestion logic conceptually with DealDeck’s existing YC scraper (M-42), but the source of truth for this project is Taylor’s tracker (Google Sheet + Apps Script)
- Bridge: result screen CTA → DealDeck waitlist / app
Technical
- Stack: TBD — leading candidates: static HTML + Tailwind (CDN) + vanilla JS for the prototype; possibly Astro on Cloudflare Pages for production (matches dealdeck.vc landing)
- Repo:
~/projects/yc-fantasy/→ github.com/djt53/yc-fantasy (private) - Deploy target: Cloudflare Pages (likely, under a subdomain of dealdeck.vc or a fresh domain)
- Intended users: VCs, operators, founders, YC-orbit Twitter — broader and more casual than the DealDeck app audience
Data sources
- Primary: Taylor’s
YC Company Updates Tracker.xlsx(Google Sheet, daily Apps Script scrape of YC’s API)YC Fantasy Leaderboardsheet — 177 Spring 2026 companies withdraft_base_score,pre_demo_total_score,total_score, event counts, last-event datesYC Scoring Configsheet — full algorithm definition (~60 rules)Companies to Watchsheet — 31-company editorial list with qualitative notes (potential third “opponent” — editorial picks)YC Fantasy Eventssheet — 4,954 scored event rows feeding the post-Demo Day momentum loop
- Snapshot exported to
assets/yc-leaderboard.json(177 rows) andassets/companies-to-watch.json(31 rows) on 2026-05-28 for prototyping
Open Design Decisions
- Mechanic primitive — pick-em vs tiered-bucket vs swipe-portfolio (or some hybrid). Goal: show Taylor 2-3 options 2026-05-29.
- Opponent(s) — algo only / algo + crowd / algo + crowd + editorial?
- Timing arc — pre-Demo Day lock + post-Demo Day settlement, or rolling?
- Anonymous vs email-gated — drives data model and conversion measurement
- Branding — own brand or “by DealDeck”?
- Domain — subdomain of dealdeck.vc, or fresh domain?
Milestones
| # | Name | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| M-1 | Scoping + 3 mechanic prototypes | 🔶 In Progress | For Taylor meeting 2026-05-29 |
| M-2 | Pick mechanic + commit to design | ⬜ Queued | Post-Taylor meeting |
| M-3 | Production build | ⬜ Queued | Build chosen mechanic in real stack |
| M-4 | Backend (rankings, opt. email capture) | ⬜ Queued | If mechanic requires it |
| M-5 | Branding + content + DealDeck bridge | ⬜ Queued | |
| M-6 | Pre-Demo Day soft launch | ⬜ Queued | Target: on or before 2026-06-14 |
| M-7 | Post-Demo Day scoring loop | ⬜ Queued | 4-week settlement window |
Risks
- R-1: Demo Day timing (high / high) — 17 days from kickoff to launch. Scope discipline is everything.
- R-2: Cold-pick problem (medium / medium) — Pre-Demo Day, casual visitors don’t know these companies. Reduction mechanic + interesting one-liners must compensate.
- R-3: Audience mismatch (medium / medium) — Game framing may feel too gimmicky for elite VCs; needs polish to land.
- R-4: Dependency on Taylor’s sheet (low / medium) — Single source of truth is a Google Sheet + Apps Script. Fine for v0, may need to harden if it goes viral.