Automate Scraping Y Combinator Startups with Apify & Google Sheets

This n8n workflow enables automated extraction of valuable company and founder information from Y Combinator's directory. Using a manual trigger, it leverages an Apify actor to scrape data from specified YC search URLs filtered by batch, industry, or region. The scraped details—including company names, descriptions, websites, and founder info—are retrieved in structured JSON format.

The workflow then seamlessly appends or updates this data as new rows in a Google Sheet, creating an organized prospecting database. Ideal for sales teams, SDRs, VCs, angel investors, market researchers, and startup founders, it minimizes manual effort in building lead lists.

Key benefits include time-saving automation of data collection, customizable scraping parameters (e.g., max companies per run), and easy integration with self-hosted n8n instances using community nodes. Setup involves connecting Apify and Google Sheets accounts, replacing the search URL placeholder, and running manually as needed for fresh data.