<div class="portada"><div class="meta">Menteia · Holding · October 2026 · Confidential</div>

# Y Combinator strategy

**Menteia** — An applied artificial intelligence product studio for industries in Mexico and LatAm.</div>


> YC invests in a company with one product and a full-time team. A holding of 11 products with three founders is exactly what a partner will question first.

## The short answer
1. **Do not apply as a holding.** Apply with a single product and all three founders dedicated to it.
2. **Recommended product: SAVANT AI.** It is the only one with a paying customer and public usage metrics. Second choice: Copiloto Aero (fits the manufacturing RFS).
3. **Winter 2027 deadline: Nov 2, 2026, 8 pm Pacific time** [verify at ycombinator.com/apply]. YC keeps reading late applications, but with no response deadline.
4. **Before submitting:** separate SAVANT's revenue from KYC's, land at least a second carrier (even as a paid pilot) and record the one-minute video of the three founders.

## Candidates, with real data
| Product | For | Against | Verdict |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SAVANT AI | Paying customer (3 brands), 63% containment and 430 calls in 30 days (public dashboard) | A single customer group; revenue not separated from KYC | First choice |
| Copiloto Aero | Daily use at INDUMET, 929 historical quotes; fits the manufacturing RFS | No confirmed revenue; depends on a third party's pricing engine | Second choice |
| Menteia KYC | Customer paying per use; vertical AI in regulated industries RFS | One month old, one customer and a data-loss incident | Third choice |
| PlaneTech Air Express | Real customer (ALE) and per-transaction margin | No documented sales; YC rarely funds brokers | Not now |
| Doble D | 95 funded accounts | No license, negative results (-55% maximum drawdown) | Do not apply |
| Vamo, Seguro Sin Vueltas, Hedge, Sommelier IA, SinHumanos | Working product | No revenue or usage metrics | Do not apply |

## What a partner will ask about the group
- **What are you working on on Monday?** With 11 products the honest answer is 'everything', and that is a red flag. The answer that works is 'on SAVANT; the rest is paused or run by someone else'.
- **Are you default alive?** No. Actual revenue is ~US$3.2k/month between SAVANT and KYC and does not cover the team.
- **Why do you charge so little?** US$0.39 per verification and plans of US$805 per month are local-vendor prices; you need to show margin.
- **Why so many products?** It can be told as speed (eight products in production within months), but only if followed by 'and we picked one'.
- **Legal structure:** YC invests in companies incorporated in jurisdictions such as Delaware; Menteia is a Mexican S.A. de C.V. You would need to create a US company and make the Mexican one a subsidiary [verify current requirements at ycombinator.com].

## What changes in the holding round
- Product valuations were anchored in real data: YC (≈ US$1.79 M post for 7%), the LatAm pre-seed average (US$2.1–2.2 M, Equidam) and comparables by vertical (Truora, Treble, Paperless Parts, ePlane AI, etc.). See document 06 of each product.
- At those valuations, raising 24 months of spend per product dilutes 20–35%. That is why we recommend raising in tranches (12 months) or concentrating capital in one or two products.
- Revenue projections are assumptions, not data. YC considers 5–7% per week good growth; our models assume 13–17% per month (≈3–4% per week).

## References
| Reference | Data | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Y Combinator standard deal | US$125k for 7% on a post-money SAFE (≈ US$1.79 M post) + US$375k on an uncapped SAFE with MFN | ycombinator.com/deal; ycinsight.com/yc-deal |
| YC Winter 2027 deadline | 2-Nov-2026, 8 pm Pacific time; batch Jan–Mar 2027 [verify at ycombinator.com/apply] | buildmvpfast.com; blog.mean.ceo |
| Pre-seed in LatAm | Average valuation US$2.1–2.2 M (1H-2025); no verifiable public median exists for Mexico | equidam.com/startup-valuation-delta-h1-2025 |
| Pre-seed SAFE caps in the US | Median ~US$10 M post for US$250k–1M rounds (2025); 93% of pre-seed rounds are SAFEs | carta.com/data/state-of-pre-seed-2025-full-report; carta.com (Q2-2026) |
| Growth YC considers good | 5–7% per week in the main metric (revenue or active users) | paulgraham.com/growth.html |
| Default alive | At current growth and spending, does it reach profitability before the money runs out? | paulgraham.com/aord.html |

Each product folder includes its **08_Solicitud_YC**: the draft application ready to paste and the blunt critique.