This was actually my third time applying to YC. First time I applied (last summer) the application and idea were pretty crappy, so we never came close. We had a slightly better application during the winter round and almost got an interview.
I guess the third time was the charm. This is great news of course, but it only increases your chances - the real test will be at the interview.
The second time around I thought we had a pretty good application and they emailed me back asking some extra questions, so unlike the first time around I was a bit surprised and pretty disappointed. I emailed them back and they told me we almost made it, but others were doing similar things and were further along. Turns out, what were trying to do was quite similar to Heroku, who had already been funded, but were still in private beta at that time.
I think what helped this time around is that we have (IMO) a decent and somewhat newish idea, combined with a working, if early, version of the app.
When I was visiting Harvard one time before undergraduate college applications, my tour guide mentioned something that stuck with me -- that after a round of auditions for the highly selective a capella groups on campus, the students that were passed over for all the existing groups decided to band together and form a new group. And that that group ended up training more seriously and later that year came in first in some a capella competition.
There's a lot of potential value floating around HN.
Perhaps an informal BarCombinator of sorts could be formed?
(incidentally, we made it past this round, but...)
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I've just created a LinkedIn group for Hacker News (unrelated to this thread, but reading it reminded me I was planning on creating it). I'll post the details here and in a new article when it's live. I've also added my LinkedIn profile to my HC profile.
I couldn't find the group rms posted at all. There are already a few members that have joined the new one that I created. I created a post here with some possibilities for networking:
Does that link for people? I can't figure out a better way to link to it, it is called "Y Combinator News Group"
>The groups directory is not currently open. We are working on creating a searchable directory for all groups. If there are groups you wish to join, you may click on the group logo from the profile of a group member and request to join.
Given I couldn't find a co-founder (and I'm aware my own programming experience is limited) I didn't really expect to win. Will apply stronger next time.
But I'm not giving up on my project. I may just take my time with it as opposed to investing all energy in it. I have so many things I want to do and learn.
This will allow the end product to be better than it would be if I hammered it sloppily into existance.
I might even come up with something better in the mean time.
Don't be discouraged. I'm 100% sure my idea is rock solid, I've executed successfully before AND I have a cofounder, but I was turned down. You don't have a good startup-tale without getting turned down a few times. I think of it like this:
> I'm 100% sure my idea is rock solid, I've executed successfully before AND I have a cofounder, but I was turned down.
Send them a letter rejecting their rejection letter and show up anyhow. From gettingintogradschool.com:
Thank for your letter of April 9. After careful consideration, I regret to
inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me admission
to our department.
This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large
number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of
candidates it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.
Despite W.M.U.'s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in
rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at
this time. Therefore, I will join the ranks of graduate students in your
department this September. I look forward to seeing you then.
Sincerely,
Upon hearing the news that YC decided not to fund us, my co-founder refused to take no for an answer and decided to call PG on the phone and plea. PG was really really cool and even offered additional advice to help us, but wouldnt budge on their decision.
My advice for those rejected now and after interviews is to simply accept the rejection and continue to build your product as aggressively as you can. I didnt take our rejection very well, and probably wasted more time than I should have dwelling on it. There is not enough time in this field to focus on defeats. Your competition will simply kill you if you do.
Consider this rejection to be a practice round of many more to come.
Haha, brilliant!
The problem is, you need at least one person (someone who has deciding power) to be impressed enough with your pure stubborn flippancy to let you in even after having been rejected.
If anyone actually went through with it I'd like their chances. If you have that kind of chutzpah why stop there? Hit up every other VC/Angel in the area and something will stick.
I don't think there's anything wrong with positive self-talk. A founder being confident about his or her ability to execute shouldn't make anyone else feel insecure.
When you're rejected, you can interpret it as this "says something about me" and take it personally, or you can interpret it as an opportunity someone else missed out on for whatever reason, (not a good match, not web 2.0 enough, who knows!) and move on. If you believe in your idea and yourself strongly, there's usually only one clear interpretation you should take. And yes, self confidence is generally a productive strategy.
As for my success, I built a shareware business that made me significantly more than my salary, as a single founder, while still working full time. It enabled me to leave my job and work for myself.
I hear you! And doesn't it feel great to be able to say you've done that? I'm in the same boat: been working for myself for 7 years, now just trying to duplicate that success on a (much) larger scale :)
We're far enough along, and we have enough buzz among companies testing our app already, that we're not worried at all. YC wasn't a make-or-break deal for us by any means. Good to hear it's not for you too. If you really believe in your idea, it shouldn't be for anyone on here.
I agree... but it would be nice to know if there was something that gave me (or anyone else) a black mark.
I think my idea is great.
It's more of a "can I do anything to improve". I believe in always trying to find ways to be better. If my idea was rejected because they thought it was too niche, I would want to know. If it's because I couldn't think of other things I've done, I'd like to know. etc, etc.
I agree, I'd have loved a reason as well--it would have justified the time spent on the application. Although I would love it, it's probably not practical and may just open them up to angry emails.
I agree that a positive, confident attitude is probably productive, but you made your point by turning the positivity against Y Combinator because you are upset that you were not accepted. Right?
Readmore I think your application is a good idea. Have you considered letting people choose their own charity instead of the preselected ones you have listed?
Or even better, people could choose their own cause (whether it's a charity, fundraising event, boyscouts, girlscouts etc etc) and could encourage friends, family and acquaintances to use the site to raise money for their cause.
I've thought along those same lines, and I'm hoping to make that an option in the future. Currently I'm not confident that I can track everything well enough to attribute purchases to an individual user. I didn't want to say a user could pick their own charity and then not actually be able to donate the money for them.
As I get traffic I'm hoping to find a way to pull that off.
Maybe you could set something similar to what ebates.com has done? Each user has an individual login and everytime they go to an affiliate site they are provided with a tracking ticket. It's a really cool system and I've made over a few hundred dollars with them related to business trips for my "real job". If your site ever starts marketing towards fundraising groups, a user could be asked to enter a simple identifier code to tell the system that all proceeds should be directed to XX cause OR the group could be provided their own sign up link which automatically associates the user with XX cause.
Do the decision letters for accepted groups ask them not to post that they were accepted? It seems like, after every funding cycle, no one admits they were accepted in these after-threads.
I think it more has to do with modesty. It would make me feel bad to exclaim how great it was that I got an interview when so many other people are really sad about getting rejected.
I'm not sure, but there's a few reasons not to post if you got accepted:
1) just getting picked to go to the interview really only gives you like a 1 in 3 or so chance of getting in to YC.
2) the news of getting accepted into YC is pretty
noteworthy and shouldn't be squandered -
it's useful for PR purposes when you launch your product.
If you blow the news too early, you miss out on a
potential PR-based influx of users from TechCrunch for
example.
Congrats to those who were picked to go to the interview!
The classic, the best thing to read about rejection. It's by Teresa Nielsen Hayden, an editor at Tor (also a moderator at Boing Boing now). The context is science fiction publishing, but the feelings are all the same. And it's a good laugh.
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html
For instance, some of the "didn't peruse my website" stuff starts to sound familiar:
"But let’s assume the author’s right, and the reader didn’t get all the way through the submitted material. Is that a fair evaluation? When we’re publishing books that readers are going to glance at, briefly browse, then either buy or put back on the shelf, you bet it’s a fair evaluation. Again, when you think about this with your reader-mind instead of your writer-mind, it all comes much clearer."
"Your job is only to write your heart out, and let destiny take care of the rest."
"I have a friend who’s an Italian filmmaker of great artistic sensibility. After years of struggling to get his films made, he sent an anguished letter to his hero, the brilliant (and perhaps half-insane) German filmmaker Werner Herzog. My friend complained about how difficult it is these days to be an independent filmmaker, how hard it is to find government arts grants, how the audiences have all been ruined by Hollywood and how the world has lost its taste…etc, etc. Herzog wrote back a personal letter to my friend that essentially ran along these lines: “Quit your complaining. It’s not the world’s fault that you wanted to be an artist. It’s not the world’s job to enjoy the films you make, and it’s certainly not the world’s obligation to pay for your dreams. Nobody wants to hear it. Steal a camera if you have to, but stop whining and get back to work.” I repeat those words back to myself whenever I start to feel resentful, entitled, competitive or unappreciated with regard to my writing: “It’s not the world’s fault that you want to be an artist…now get back to work.” Always, at the end of the day, the important thing is only and always that: Get back to work. This is a path for the courageous and the faithful. You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place."
congratulations whether you got a no or a yes, you just made another step of a very long walk with many paths to choose from, before reaching where you dream.
I'm planning on applying next summer when I'm done my CS degree and have a bit more experience under my belt, but I would love to know what are usually the reasons of rejections?
As for now I'm looking for a cofounder and a great idea, but I would love to improve on possible weaknesses I have that are import to the eyes of YC.
Yeah, unfortunately most of us here were turned down and most of those who got interviews will be turned down as well. That's just how the numbers are.
The more interesting question is how many of you expected to be turned down but applied anyway? I suspect a lot. It's funny that this round their application had a boolean question asking whether you were a single founder, non-technical group, full time jobs, etc. I even half joked to a friend that YC has an automated filter that queues up your rejection letter if the answer is "yes".
This time around I did not expect to get funded, as I don't have a co-founder yet. Funny thing is, this time I also believe in my idea much more strongly than both times I applied in the past (with co-founders) and got invited to an interview. I guess that's why I still went for it.
I've never applied at YC, but I've got a couple of failed startups under my belt. If you got a no, think about why, and consider it free advice from someone whose opinion you trust. If you disagree, then use it as fuel to work hard - as hard as you can; and show everyone else that when you were down on your luck you put your nose to the grindstone and made it happen anyways.
That being said, this isn't a win or lose sort of scenario; remember that it's a two way street. YC has certain types of companies or founders that they like to invest in; every investor does.
Take a few days for introspection, decide if you believe in what you're doing. If you do, then keep on slogging.
If you got in, then congrats... Start working on taking notes, because I hear you get an amazing amount of information from being a part of YC... even the face-to-face interview portions.
> If you got a no, think about why, and consider it free advice from someone whose opinion you trust.
I honestly think they are just too pressed for time to do a thorough review. Applicants can check their web logs and see if YC even looked at their stuff. Submitting early is probably a major advantage if it means they (YC) actually have time to take a gander at what you did.
"Too pressed for time" is a valid reason for a rejection. If it doesn't sound compelling enough after the first sentence then you probably need to work on your pitch.
May I ask where the web logs I should look at are? (I see comments and submit logs)
I agree with you otherwise though. I think submitting the day before was... not a mistake... but I found YC a week before the deadline and spend the time working up an application and looking for a co-founder.
No for us too. But hey, to be honest I thought I'd be disappointed but I'm totally relieved because at least now we can plan our summer, and we'll be launching soon enough anyway!
We had a huge design meeting today going over how all our user/accounts management stuff should look, then we relaxed with some amazing Thai food, and we're totally pumped moving forward in any case.
I thought the letter they sent was really nice too. If we're not too far along by winter session, we'll certainly apply again :)
For real. Although YC is certainly a great judge of talent and predictor of success, they aren't the be all and end all, and are forced to rely on a lot of proxies/indicators in making their decisions. Give it a go yourself!
Sorry to hear about the majority which all got a no. Keep your chins up and your hopes alive.
I would not worry about it. It might be time for a reality check though.
Step back and take a look at your idea. Does it have legs. Is it something that people want. Can you monetize it. Don't take your own opinion seriously, ask people if they would use it and see ads or pay for it. If you can't find anyone who would, come up with another idea.
Figure out what it would take to get to the next step. If the answer is a boatload of money or a team of people then it may be time to come up with another idea that has a lower bar to clear. If the answer is a couple of months of working nights for the founders go for it.
One more thing. I've been lurking here for awhile and I see the passion and desire to make things happen here all the time. It motivates me to work harder and make it happen for my project. I think this small community is a great virtual community. We can all use it to push each other to succeed. I know I am. I wonder how many YC rejects will succeed? I'm guessing a lot more than normal.
I couldn't apply with my reality. I'm too old. I need too much money. I can't move. etc...
But it does not matter. I will finish my project and I will release it and see if it has legs.
I can't wait to see more new products announced here by the YC rejects. I'll keep lurking...
I’m passion about our application and will continue to work on it. YC challenge helped us to make it faster, but we started to do it before we found out about YC (4 months ago).
Continue to do what you do! Thanks to YC
No as well, but frankly I expected it (as my idea really has very little programming in it). For a form letter, the email they sent was pretty well written. I feel more challenged after reading it, and fully plan on making some serious money and turning around and sending them an email of how successful I was, and what exactly they missed out on.
I got a no as well and my feeling is that the entire process is pointless for an applicant without any feedback. I'm not bitter about being rejected, but going into this I expected at least some amount of commentary, and not 5 hits on my site and a form rejection letter. Maybe I should have tapered my expectations or the website should have been more clear about saying that if we don't pick you, you won't hear anything from us.
Learn to love rejection, to thrive off of it. when people say no - or, even worse, give lukewarm support - they're saying they don't get it. Only one thing for you to do: prove it. Keep hearing no, keep moving on, keep building, keep getting stronger, keep doing what you do. Pain is good, pain makes you stronger. This - this industry/community/dream/passion/life - will never be easy. It's going to hurt and suck and make you want to quit (or die), so be ready to cry and bleed. Yeah, learn to take a punch - but that sure won't be enough. You need to learn to love it.
This isn't about them, the naysayers and the unbelievers. This is about you and your conviction to build something great and lasting. Every NO is more than a test; every NO is a challenge. So what are you going to do about it?
Given how many applications they receive, it'd probably be impractical to give feedback to each and every one - but the biggest reason is probably that doing so would open them up to arguing and disagreement from those rejected.
I think the value comes from the application form itself. If you didn't feel 100% confident in some of the answers, they might be points for improvement.
No for me too. I'm a little annoyed at myself for applying at the last minute. My plan was to solve some key technical issues before applying next cycle, but I changed my mind and applied without thinking it through. Maybe spending more time properly presentating my concept would have made all the difference... on the other hand maybe it wouldn't.
My idea is fairly wacky, and may need to be seen to be believed, so back to plan A: solving problems and building the alpha!
Just got the "rejection" letter, I'm a bit disappointed I couldn't get the team reviewing the proposals as passionate about the project as I am.
I think being a solo founder hurt me, but I've been working on the project full-time for four months (over 12k lines of code). This won't slow me down. =)
What is your company going to make?
We make it easy to jot something down from any device and then share that note with your friends or colleagues to have a discussion.
We are building a web version and apps for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry.
Sample use: You are at a restaurant and like a bottle of wine. You whip out your phone and snap a picture. Now that picture is part of your notes which you can access from anywhere. One more click and the note is shared on your Facebook News Feed so you can have a threaded discussion with your friends.
There are a ton of Notepad apps out there, but they are all clunky to use.
My goal is to make 3banana as easy to use as a Google search. I'm writing plugins so you can post notes from QuickSilver, shell, FireFox, or write your own using the Python API.
Here is my updated pitch:
3banana makes it easy to jot things down and makes your notes more useful, whether it is by helping you find something on the go or by allowing seamless collaboration with your friends.
Tap into your friends' ideas and expertise, and get instant feedback by sharing your notes on Facebook, Twitter, Email , AIM or wherever your social graph lives.
I am working on building an online pencil and paper rpg play system. It would support a character database, dice rollers, major P&P systems, the usual forums, npc character search, all sort's of toy's for players/ST's,GM's,DM's, and a chat system. And eventually support for a subscription service for the books. Much like O'Reilly's Safari.
thats pretty cool. One project I'm working on is designing a much of tools for algorithmically determining when either a game design or a map for a game is "fair", for various notions of fair.
i like the concept.
Right now, I email myself the small interesting tidbits i find or in some txt file which I later forget abt it.
if executed well, i can see many ppl using it .or atleast me:)
Hehe, I also use text files. I can never find anything.
One of the cool things that 3banana does is that it labels your notes automatically based on basic patterns, so you can query it to give you all the Phone Numbers you jotted down in the last week.
The first is that I want to keep track of small bits of information and make it easy to retrieve them from any device. Right now I email myself notes, which is clunky. The site has full text search and allows you to label your notes.
The site also automatically labels stuff like Address/Phone Numbers/etc, so you can query it to give you all the Phone Numbers you jotted down in the last week.
The second itch is that sometimes you have an existing note that you want to share. You click one button and the note is shared to Facebook/Twitter/Email/AIM/wherever your social graph is. Your note is now a instant threaded discussion forum.
I dig the idea for sure. I am constantly jotting down "memos" or lyric scraps/ideas for projects etc. in my black berry notes deal and I ALWAYS forget they are there til I write another one. I really like the idea of broadcasting your idea to a group of people immediately as well and I definitely see it as different than email. Keep scratching!
Good question, but how about "is" instead of "was." The world always gives you a few thumps to the chest to make sure you really mean it before you succeed.
I was rejected, but to be honest, I didn't expect too much. My project is in Panama and is in Spanish, so my chances were low to begin with. But I was happy just to get a chance to participate and a great forum to bounce ideas.
I really wasn't expecting to get in this time, but it really can be a big hit on the ego seeing all these people getting in and not being on the list. However, it shouldn't deter me - I will continue on fighting the good fight. Best of luck to the other applicants.
My idea is great, and I have just starting working on it. I will keep you guys updated, hopefully release before demo day, and with some luck nobody will notice I wasn't in this round.
You have to realize that while Hacker News may be a community, Y Combinator is actually business. Businesses tend to strive to efficient processes.
Applying to Y Combinator is like applying to any other competition, so don't take the lack of direct feedback personally. If you got a rejection letter, it didn't state things like "You didn't pursue enough extracurricular activities, plus the grammar in your essay was horrible".
I think that what people that werent accepted should do is become a part of this community. Because while you may not get feedback from your application, we will give that feedback, we will give you that support when you are down, we will be the first users of your website, heck we may even be your first competitors.
So, dont drop your idea or stop coming here because you werent accepted or didnt get feedback. It's not personal. Really.
Hoping for some personalized feedback, some intel. When you are first starting out, generally that's the most important thing - since even if you get a "yes", what your going to get besides $5k+$5kN is lots of community and feedback. Cash can be burned through, especially that little. I mean, McAffee has a Stadium and computers still get viruses. But the truth, well, that's a bit more persistent.
We got a no as well. Probably could have spent more time editing/polishing our application but sometimes time gets away from you. Would have loved to get more feedback, though I am sure there were far too many applicants for that.
Wild guess: the parsing barfed at the hyphen in name@la-fem.com and sent it to name@la -- and the email system will fill in the local domain name if you don't use a FQDN. They sent it through anybots.com's mail system so it got filled in as la.anybots.com
Life deals out a lot of set-backs, but each one contains some very useful information (ideally examined in the rear-view mirror). Despite being rejected, I do think that the self-reflection involved in applying to ycomb was worth it.
No as well. I'm a single founder and my app's pretty much done already so it wasn't much of a surprise. Looking forward to hearing about some of the ideas they accepted.
It would have been nice to get more feedback. It's pretty discouraging when they tell you that they invited more applicants for interviews than ever before, and you get a generic rejection email instead.
regarding feedback, consider how many applicants they get and how many people they have to go thru apps (Paul, Jessica, Trevor, I think). 10 minutes of thoughtful feedback times 1000 or so (I'm guessing) rejected folks.... 10,000 minutes of feedback. If you want feedback, crowdsource it and post it here. You'll get plenty.
I understand that, but I also don't think it would be too complicated for them to just jot their thoughts/comments down as they are going through the apps and have those included in your email, but it isn't a big deal. I'm just disappointed.
I think a good deal of the applications may have to be overlooked (filtered out by app questions) so there might not be any notes, other than something like "doesn't have a co-founder."
