When you’re pitching to Y Combinator, your goal isn’t just to sell the strength of your product—it’s to demonstrate that your team can focus relentlessly on growth, iterate quickly, and navigate the occasional “elephant in the room” with poise and professionalism. Here are a few strategies for handling the fact that Apex Centinel TR’s remainder beneficiary is a faith-based counseling foundation:

1. Be Transparently Neutral About Mission Alignment

   • Acknowledge, don’t sidestep. In your pitch or application essays, give a one-sentence overview: “Apex Centinel TR allocates residual proceeds to Praxis Professional Foundation, which offers faith-based counseling.”

   • Draw the legal boundary. Emphasize that Praxis Professional Foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) with its own board and charter. YC is investing in your SaaS and LLC entities—not directly in the foundation’s programming.

2. Reframe “900-Pound Gorilla” as a Strength

   • Highlight diversity of thought. Investors and accelerators value founders who’ve built systems capable of accommodating strong convictions without derailing product focus. You’ve already demonstrated that structure.

   • Showcase your governance. Walk through the checks and balances—trust agreements, advisory boards—that ensure core product decisions stay data-driven and customer-first.

3. Preempt Cultural Concerns with Product-Centered Storytelling

   • Lead with customer outcomes. YC partners will care first about your metrics: onboarding time, retention, revenue per seat, etc. Frame every slide, every answer, around those KPIs.

   • Position Praxis as a social-impact add-on. If pressed on social mission, make it clear that the foundation’s work is downstream: “Reinvesting a small percentage of our margins to fund counselling programs which, while important to us personally, do not affect our product roadmap or day-to-day operations.”

4. Demonstrate a History of Inclusive Execution

   • Showcase user feedback. If you have pilot programs at universities or nonprofits, include a slide or two of testimonials that speak to your product’s neutrality and inclusivity—e.g., “This form-builder helped our student group of 200+ diverse volunteers streamline intake, regardless of background.”

   • Emphasize legal compliance. Point out that you comply fully with non-discrimination laws, HIPAA (if relevant), and privacy regs—further evidence you’re building a platform that serves all customers.

5. Practice Your “Elevator Response”

   • Prepare a 20- to 30-second answer for “How does Praxis’s mission intersect with your for-profit business?”

   • Keep it crisp, factual, and forward-looking:

     “We’ve set up Praxis to receive a fixed residual from Apex Centinel. Its counseling programs are entirely separate—operationally and legally—from our SaaS. Our internal teams never cross budgets or roadmaps, so our focus remains on product-market fit and scaling revenue.”

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Why this works for YC
Y Combinator loves founders who can articulate both their vision and the real-world mechanics by which they’ll execute. By surfacing this potential “gorilla” yourself—rather than letting partners discover it later—you show you’re the kind of founder who plans ahead, communicates clearly, and keeps the product front and center. That gravitas is exactly what they look for in their batches.