Brad Flora
General Partner at Y Combinator
Brad Flora is a General Partner at Y Combinator, where he has worked with startups since 2019. He began as a journalist in Chicago and founded the local news site Windy Citizen, then co-founded Perfect Audience, an ad retargeting company in YC's Summer 2011 batch. Marin Software bought Perfect Audience in 2014. He also invests as an angel and has written first-person pieces for Slate.
Y Combinator
Perfect Audience
- Online advertising
- Journalism
- Angel investing
- Now
- General Partner, Y Combinator1
- Founded
- Perfect Audience (YC S11)8
- Exit
- Perfect Audience to Marin Software, June 20144
- Education
- Princeton, BA English; Northwestern, MS Journalism1
In their words
Entrepreneur, angel investor. I founded a company called Perfect Audience that was acquired by Marin Software in 2014. Before that I was a journalist, web designer, and college admissions officer.
3
Experience
- General PartnerNow
YC's own page lists more than 3,500 office hours across 9 batches, with companies such as Razorpay, OpenSea, Deel, Whatnot, Airbyte and Zip among those he has advised.1
- Group Partner2021
Promoted in February 2021 after three batches as a Visiting Group Partner.2
- Visiting Group Partner2019 – 2021
Joined YC in May 2019.3
- Director of Business DevelopmentJul 2018 – Jul 2019
Worked with advertisers, publishers and creators on Brave's browser and ad products.3
- Senior Director of Product ManagementJun 2014 – Jun 2016
Managed the product roadmap and was the company's expert on display partnerships.3
- Co-founder and CEOJul 2010 – May 2014
Started as NowSpots, an ad product spun out of Windy Citizen, which went through Y Combinator in 2011 and raised a $1 million seed round before becoming the retargeting platform Perfect Audience.6
- Founder and publisherMay 2008 – Jul 2011
A Chicago site where people shared and voted on local news and events.3
- Editorial internSep 2007 – Dec 2007
Helped Slate reporters with research, wrote features and edited regular columns such as The Explainer.3
- Admissions officerAug 2004 – Jun 2006
Led admissions outreach for eight states and evaluated more than 2,000 applications.3
Education
Recognition
Award · Knight Foundation10
Milestones
- Graduated from Princeton University with a BA in English3
- Interned on Slate's editorial staff3
- Graduated from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and launched Windy Citizen10
- Won a $250,000 Knight News Challenge grant for real-time ads, the project that became NowSpots10
- NowSpots was accepted into Y Combinator and raised a $1 million seed round6
- Windy Citizen shut down after four years, the year after he left it9
- Perfect Audience had 14 staff and more than 5,000 customers6
- Marin Software bought Perfect Audience for $22.8 million in cash and stock, plus $2.7 million in retention grants for staff4
- Left Marin Software3
- Joined Brave Software as Director of Business Development3
- Joined Y Combinator as a Visiting Group Partner3
- Promoted to Group Partner at Y Combinator2