
We mistakenly marked about 50 applications as late - pg
Due to a bug in our (my) software, a bunch of on-time applications got marked as late when people edited and re-submitted them after the deadline.  Fortunately we can tell which applications these were, and we're going to take a look at them all and respond in the next couple days.  Sorry about that.
======
goatforce5
I'm totally going to pitch an application submission management system in the
next round. I know of at least one potential customer.

~~~
piousbox
Already exists: <http://angelsoft.net/>

~~~
nfm
Don't let a little competition get in the way!

------
EGreg
Hey, pg ... does that include our application by any chance?

I realize you don't have to answer this, but I am just curious:

It seems on the surface that our company is much closer to what you say YC is
looking for, than many companies you had in W10, S10, etc. Let me just
illustrate a couple points:

1\. You emphasize resilience: we got rejected by YC in the past and went ahead
and raised funding, launched and already have 70k (and counting) users since 3
months ago. The vast majority of our reviews are 5 stars.

2\. You care about companies with huge potential. We're building a next-
generation, distributed social network which gives users control over their
data, and helps their social lives in the real world instead of online.

3\. You want to see founders who did extraordinary things: I went to college
at 14, played in Carnegie hall when I was 7 years old.
(<http://magarshak.com/piano>) My co founder can father a small child just by
looking at a woman... (<http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7203877/fundraising>)

4\. You care about a capable team that has been together for a long time:
<http://qbix.com/about> . We have made websites such as this:
<http://blurts.com> which is now worth over $5 mil.

etc.

So I am curious why YC didn't even want to interview us, but then again, your
rejection letter doesn't leave many clues :)

~~~
baberuth
_"My co founder can father a small child just by looking at a woman"_

Hilarious.

With great power comes great responsibility...

~~~
mceachen
The fathering comment is an in-joke with our batch: <http://adgrok.com/?p=666>

~~~
revorad
From the first footnote on that blog post, this has got to be the best non-
computer hack I've read so far:

 _One of the Y Combinator questions asked you to name one non-computer system
that you’d hacked in some interesting way. My answer concerned a man-in-the-
middle attack I once did on Craigslist personals. I placed an ad as a woman
seeking a man, and as a man seeking a woman, and then simply crossed the email
streams by forwarding mail from one to the other, and vice versa. Most
Craigslist personals didn’t even have photos back then, so the switch went
undetected, even after the couples had met. I handed off the relationship by
telling one that the other’s email address had changed, from my fake one to
the real one, and likewise vice versa. For all I know, those couples are still
together and having kids. They probably don’t know to this day what happened
or what brought them together._

~~~
abbasmehdi
I hate to be a killjoy but neither party ever asked why the e-mail address was
changed resulting in the other one jumping in and saying "I never changed my
email address, you changed yours!!"? And thus opening up an investigation as
they show each other the emails from the past. Secondly, neither party ever
asked "Was this the first time you posted an ad on craigslist?" and finally
neither party ever said "I don't usually respond to ads on craigslist but..."
(people say this out of insecurity not because they actually mean it, this is
just to make themselves look good).

I know this because I use to do this all the time in college over skype ,
record long awkward conversations between distant aquaintences and roll on the
floor laughing daiwa try to figure out who called whom and who they are. This
was actually a lot of fun, it was an exercise in psychology, we would try to
predict how crazy explosive weird conversations could get and see what happens
based on people's personality profiles.

My point is that they would have to be really really stupid to not know that
somebody else connected them...

------
invalidOrTaken
This is none of my business, but I'm a little confused. I don't see why pg/yc
has to apologize. When was the last time a vc acted like he was obligated to
hear your elevator pitch, let alone read your huge application---and not only
do that, but do it FAIRLY, without giving undue advantage to some other guy
with a plan and an MVP (...or not)?

</none of my business>

~~~
pg
We'd promised to reply by a certain time.

------
skrebbel
Ok, well I'm rather new here, but if 50 applications were accidentally marked
as late, does that mean there were like 100+ applications overall? That's a
_lot_ of new companies. Are all these already for real, or are the bulk of
them in the "programmer with an idea" stage?

~~~
cperciva
Last I heard, the YC crew doesn't announce numbers because they don't want to
get into phallus-measuring competitions with other organizations; but based on
numbers published in the past I'm guessing somewhere between 500 and 1000
applications.

~~~
kalvin
It's probably more. Based on public numbers/guesses (Harj:
[http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-companies-that-
get-a...](http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-companies-that-get-a-Y-
Combinator-interview-wind-up-getting-funded), [http://www.quora.com/How-many-
people-teams-get-rejected-by-Y...](http://www.quora.com/How-many-people-teams-
get-rejected-by-Y-Combinator-during-each-application-period/answer/Harjeet-
Taggar), [http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Y-Combinator-
applica...](http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Y-Combinator-applicants-
get-called-in-for-interviews)) and some handwaving, last cycle was roughly
1000 applications, 10% got interviews, 4% (40 startups) got in. This cycle
there's already ~145 slots taken, so I'd guesstimate 1500 applications (all
else staying constant, etc) minimum. Maybe more like 2000.

~~~
piousbox
Surprising to me that so little. Since there is no fee to enter, I imagine
every high schooler who knows how to write a `hello, world' would apply.

~~~
xuki
Here's an idea, put a $100 fee on every application. If you're a serious
applicant this would not be an issue.

~~~
xuki
I don't mind the downvote, but could someone who downvoted me explain his/her
view?

~~~
asifjamil
i guess because money shouldn't really be a qualifier on a brilliant idea

------
katieben
Hi pg - didn't get an interview, but thanks anyway for HN/YC and your essays.
(: Consider me inspired!

------
mcdowall
Thanks for the update, I did explain that to Kirsty in my mail. I know there
are some folk over in the Convore chatroom in the same position, Convore's
proved pretty useful today.

------
karanjassar
Have the rest been notified? I did submit on time but haven't heard so far.

~~~
jl
Yes, you should have been notified. Check your spam folder perhaps.

~~~
Punter
nothing so far

------
cneals
Phew! I was sure there was a glitch in the system. Now it all makes sense.

------
dreamux
release early, release often?

~~~
pg
The whole problem is that this sw only gets used once every 6 months.

------
abbasmehdi
Being at the stage we're at things move/happen quick. I looked at our app
recently and it looked _dated_ \- since the app we've had some game-changing
developments (signed on 2 major customers - we're B2B etc.). It'd be cool if
your s/w could accommodate for things like that, and secondly I’m surprised
you guys don’t do phone/skype screening/interviews. Might help reduce the risk
on your investment. Just some thoughts. :-)

------
tiabasnk
It's funny but I noticed this when I submitted my application. I had been
frantically trying to polish it up and was suprised by the fact that I was
still able to resubmit even after the deadline (at this time the page didn't
state that it would be counted as a late submission). The late submission page
came up about two and a half hours after the time of the deadline and after I
had done about 10 resubmissions. lol!

------
tkasten
PG - We still have not heard yes or no to our application for Responsely. We
applied in January...but we also updated our application after the deadline to
reflect our progress. So I am guessing this glitch effected our application.

Can you let me know the status?

Thank you,

Ted

------
VaedaStrike
Were those on-time-marked-as-late applications sent the rejection e-mail by
default?

~~~
pg
No. We haven't replied to them yet, because we mistakenly believed they were
late and that we thus didn't have to reply on April 7.

------
chacemuse
Since we're already at a disadvantage of being the over-quota bunch, I say all
50 should be allowed to pitch in person if they pay for their own trips. ;)

~~~
kovar
I happen to be in California this week for a client. I'd be happy to run up to
Palo Alto .... :-)

------
truthsayer
I forgive you. Most of us are human.

------
bpeters
Awesome! Was worried for a bit ;)

------
zbruhnke
PG ... Ive already got a stable of pretty solid investors and a house in Palo
alto ... what do ya say I just give you the equity and you let me go through
this cycle without giving me any cash? lol Im just looking for sound advice
and a good sounding board

------
saifa
is that ok to edit application now and resubmit? i'm in the list of 50's

~~~
idiotb
how do you know you are in the list?

------
phlux
So, assuming I got a rejection letter AND I updated after the deadline, I'm
guessing my rejection still stands? ;)

~~~
pg
Yes, sorry. This bug got fixed at a certain point, so not all the late edits
marked the application as late.

~~~
rabble
So if we edited late, and got a rejection letter, then we were reviewed and
rejected. This is only for folks who did NOT get a rejection letter, right?

~~~
pg
Right.

------
leon_
I guess this shows that marketing-people shouldn't write code.

------
Punter
great news... these things happen

a couple of days sound good

