FounderTrace is a data visualization platform that maps the genealogy of Y Combinator startups founded by former employees of other YC companies. It tracks chains of founders who previously worked at YC-backed companies and then went on to start their own YC-funded ventures, creating a comprehensive family tree of entrepreneurial lineage.

The platform tracks over 6,000 YC companies and identifies 277 companies that have founder trees. It shows multi-generation chains, with examples including a 4-generation chain spanning Auctomatic (w07), GoCardless (s11), Duffel (s18), and Vizzly (s22). The system identifies 'founder factories' - companies that have spawned multiple YC founders, with Stripe alone having spawned 50+ YC companies according to the Product Hunt description.

FounderTrace provides search functionality across 5,983 YC companies and displays statistics including that 46% of founders were engineers. It tracks 705 second-generation YC startups and provides rankings of top founder factories based on various metrics.

The platform offers several analytical views including 'Top Founder Factories' showing companies that spawned the most YC founders (Twitch: 18, Zenefits: 15, Cruise: 14, Brex: 13, Stripe: 11), 'Fastest Acceleration' showing YC founders per year since founding (Brex: 1.6/yr, Twitch: 1.3/yr, Zenefits: 1.3/yr, Cruise: 1.2/yr, Stripe: 0.8/yr), and 'Hot Right Now' showing most YC founders since 2020 (Brex: 13, Twitch: 13, Cruise: 12, Zenefits: 11, Stripe: 8).

The tool is designed for exploring founder relationships and entrepreneurial patterns within the Y Combinator ecosystem. It provides detailed company pages for exploring specific founder trees, with examples including Stripe, Twitch, and Brex. The platform is building genealogy trees for all YC companies and includes an infographic download feature.