
Ask HN: Women who've applied to YC? - limedaring
We know the number of women accepted to YC is pretty low, so I assume the number of women simply applying is pretty low as well. Being that Startup School was 99% guys, I wanted to see how many women are on here and who've applied (if only to say hello and rock on. :P). Or even, women who read HN regularly and haven't applied, and why.<p>Personally, I've applied this round with http://weddingtype.com.<p>EDIT: Also, any guys who've applied with a woman on their team, speak up. :)
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iamelgringo
My wife and I are applying for this winter session.

She's been co organizing the Hackers and Founders SV, SF and Berkeley meetups
with me for the past 9 months. And, she's the primary reason that our
membership has tripled in the last 9 months. She works quietly in the
background and makes everything run like clockwork.

I've recruited her as my co founder for several years. And, she just signed on
three months ago. We're building a financial news search engine at
<http://Newsley.com/search>.

~~~
PStamatiou
I had a thread about moving to SF on HN back in May. Jonathan personally
reached out to me offering help finding a place, introductions to other like-
minded folk, help finding a job, etc. Went to one of his H&F's earlier in the
summer. Fantastic person. Thanks again!

~~~
iamelgringo
Awe shucks. You're going to make me blush. :)

Silicon Valley needs more people like you. I'm more than happy to help in
whatever little way I can.

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shelly
I'm a girl (and an engineer), and I applied for the summer round this year
with <http://wordchuck.com>. I never got a response from YC after submitting
my application, which was a bit disappointing.

I haven't had any trouble launching and getting traction on my own, so don't
get discouraged, no matter what happens with YC :)

That said, WeddingType looks like a terrific idea, and I hope you do get
accepted!

~~~
pg
I just investigated. You submitted a late application, and with late
applications we didn't reply individually; we just posted a notice in late May
saying we'd contacted everyone we were going to.

Summer 2010 was the first time we accepted late applications, so we were still
figuring out the procedure. We'll probably email all the late applicants from
now on, in case they miss an announcement. Sorry if we kept you hanging.

~~~
shelly
I assumed that was the case, but it's good to hear you might change the
response process for future applicants.

Thanks for checking!

------
Female
I'm a relatively active HN user. This is a throwaway, because I'm not "out" as
a girl on HN.

I have not applied, and I'm not going to, because my husband would never let
me spend 3 months in SF by myself (and he has a job where he couldn't come
with me.) And this is not a hypothetical, we've discussed it and he put his
foot down.

~~~
vietor
Could you go into more detail about what the reasons given were? My initial
reactions on reading that was ... unreservedly hostile.

Given the likely upside of going through YC if accepted, 12 weeks of
separation seems insignificant.

(On topic: I applied this year and one of my two co-founders is female.)

~~~
Female
...and this is why I created an alt account, so I could answer honestly.

I would cheat on him. I was dating two other guys when we met, and we agreed
when we became serious that our relationship would be exclusive. It was worth
it to me. However, I'm not terribly good at resisting temptation.

Add to the fire that my type (surprise!) is geeky males, and there's no way I
could resist. A Y combinator class for me would be like tempting an Ethiopian
to a buffet.

He's absolutely right; it would destroy our marriage. Some things are more
important than funding.

~~~
sahillavingia
I don't really have the experience to comment, but if that would destroy your
marriage, are you sure your marriage isn't destroyed already...?

~~~
bkrausz
Were someone to ignore their issues or hide them from their partner, I would
claim it destroys the relationship more than anything else. But admitting
one's flaws? As much as you may judge someone for a lack of self-control, you
have a respect the honesty it takes to admit to your S.O. that you lack that
self control.

Even moreso, it's a very strong indication of your commitment to the other
person when, after admitting your lack of self-control, you consciously choose
not to put yourself in those situations because you know how much it would
hurt your S.O.

tl;dr; - A relationship where both parties are honest with each other and ok
with the situation after being fully informed is the strongest possible
relationship.

~~~
anigbrowl
_consciously choose not to put yourself in those situations_

What do you call this, if not flirting with the idea?

------
Mz
I'm female. I started an application at some point, mostly for the process
involved in thinking things through, and contemplated whether or not I thought
applying would be realistic. I ultimately decided, no, that's not really the
right path for me. But I hang out here a fair amount.

(I made a wish list at some point and one of the items on it was something
like "Get feedback from Paul Graham" (another was "get feedback from Millard
Fuller", er, who happens to be dead it turns out). Decided I didn't need any
special favors, I could just keep reading pg's articles and also hang here. So
far, so good. Still don't have any answers for the impetus behind the Millard
Fuller wish. Que sera, sera.)

~~~
limedaring
> I ultimately decided, no, that's not really the right path for me.

Did you continue to start/continue a business, or was the path you decided on
a non-entrepreneur path?

~~~
Mz
I still hope to figure out how to support myself via some kind of online
income. I am 45, a lot older than most of the YC applicants as I understand
it, I have a very serious medical condition and two grown sons who still live
with me. I have lived in the SFBA previously, in Fairfield about 45 miles from
San Francisco (halfway between SF and the state capital). My sons are very
against returning to Cali. I liked it but I have my reservations. I think I
need to go someplace that meets my health needs. Keeping myself (and my sons)
well is my highest priority and it is very clear in my mind that this is the
single most important criteria for me ever having any kind of financial
success.

I have figured out how to get myself (and my oldest son, who has the same
diagnosis) well when doctors and most of the world believe it cannot be done.
I joined HN to ask how to quickly learn a programming language. I did this
more than a year ago, shortly after I got off the last of my medication and
finally had a clear head for the first time in many years, but I still have
not learned the first thing about a programming language. The reason for the
request for info on a programming language: I have concluded that I need a
more information dense means to convey what I know. The written word on my
website is just not cutting it. Only people who aren't already deeply rooted
in current views of the problem seem able to use it at all. Everyone else is
openly hostile. I think a simulation (aka game) could potentially solve the
problem. But I still do not know a programming language and I am still working
full time and still have a significant time burden in terms of continuing to
get well. I have never met a single person who was as sick as I was and came
back the way I have. So I have zero yardstick for judging how long this
"should" take. I will get there when I get there, thus I am in no position to
make promises to outsiders in terms of deliverable timeframes.

I also waffle a lot between this idea and other interests. The massive open
hostility I have gotten for trying to help people doesn't go over terribly
well with me. I often wonder if I should bother to try to solve this issue or
if I should go off and try to live the "normal life" I always wanted now that
I am nearly well enough to do something like that.

~~~
mkramlich
I've been programming games and simulations since I was a kid, and I have an
interest in making educational and therapeutic games. So if you'd like any
advice or anything, just contact me (details in my HN profile).

~~~
Mz
I will take you up on that.

------
patio11
Not female and also not applying this go round, but congratulations on your
launch. This and related spaces _desperately_ need product innovation, while
so much of our collective effort goes to creating an iPad-enabled FourSquare
for dogs.

~~~
mkramlich
great, patio11 gives away my stealth startup _doh!_ :)

------
jlees
Good luck @limedaring! You know me, but to weigh in: I am XX, applied three
times (once as solo founder), got one interview, didn't get into YC, found my
way to the Valley (from the UK) anyway.

I intend to apply again in future if the startup I'm working on turns out to
be the right sort of thing for it, and especially if I can team up with other
hackers, especially a couple of people I've known a long time (last time my
cofounder was non-technical and I had met him while looking for a cofounder).
Gender balance or anything like that has never, ever been an issue for me with
things like YC. Currently doing Women 2.0 Labs where it is a tacit issue,
which would be interesting to contrast when I do go through YC.

I know of another woman who is applying this round and has not posted in the
comments yet.

------
sbowles
I am a woman and I applied for this round along with my male co-founder. I'm
moving back to SF from LA at the end of this year, specifically because I
recognize it is a better location for my startup. Although I still have a
decent network in the Bay Area to tap back into, I do value the mentorship and
camaraderie a program like YC could offer an early stage venture. When I
described my startup or did a demo of my app for other people at Startup
School, I was impressed by the intellectual generosity. People gave a lot of
great feedback, freely. Acceptance by YC won’t make or break my startup, but
it would make networking and fundraising a little easier as it implies a
certain ‘quality’ stamp.

FYI, if you haven’t read it, Illuminate Ventures’ whitepaper on the
performance of female founders in tech relative to male founders, it is an
interesting read: <http://www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/>. You’ll have to
request the whitepaper via email, but they respond quickly.

------
curlyque5000
I'm applying with my long-time boyfriend. We've been working on our app for
about a year now. It's a social media management application that helps
companies measure and optimize their return on investment from social media
marketing. <http://www.socialblazeapp.com>

We're actually about to launch a public beta soon.

Go female founders! :)

------
SabrinaDent
I'm female and my co-founder is also female. I bring the design and the
marketing; she brings the tech. We didn't apply this round because we're
already edge case candidates and a conflict with the schedule made us pretty
much a non-starter for winter.

We're older than the average YC applicants by a couple of decades and we have
partners, kids, dogs and mortgages that complicate things slightly. My co-
founder has primary custody of her school-aged son and absolutely cannot
relocate to SF for three months. I can go though, and would be _delighted_ to;
my husband would be equally delighted to hold down the fort here.
Unfortunately, I have an immoveable commitment in February, so the winter
schedule just wasn't going to fly. We're going to apply for the spring
instead, and we're looking forward to the process.

------
jedwhite
Not me. Co-founder (3-person team) is @mediamum who is doing a PhD as a
Research Assistant at the School of Computer Science at CU (alum include David
Morin from Facebook and Woz). She's doing research into the use of social
media for crisis communications (hurricanes, wildfires etc) in the Crisis
Informatics Lab there. Doesn't hang out on HN so much (must be startup and PhD
getting in the way).

Interestingly, Woz got kicked out of the CS school at CU for hacking side
projects on the timeshare system as an undergrad - something other schools
might have encouraged, and which CU today I am guessing would also not frown
on the same way.

~~~
blackguardx
To which CU are you referring?

~~~
seehafer
University of Colorado at Boulder. Like the commenter above notes, Dave Morin
and in earlier times the Woz are alumni.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak> (search for Colorado)

------
pmjordan
Not this time, but applied with a female cofounder previously. (no interview,
pretty sure it was a combination of technically unproven idea and no terribly
impressive achievements between us so far; also, lame video) The application
wouldn't really have improved much at this point, as developing the product
part-time didn't work out (too many distractions from consulting customers).
Instead we've been focusing 100% on consulting to get some cash to keep us
going, now transitioning to 100% product dev. Might apply again once we get
some traction with a beta.

~~~
limedaring
> also, lame video

Since the videos don't have to be that polished, what do you mean?

~~~
pmjordan
I think we tried too hard, and it came over unnatural and pitch-y.

------
Jun8
This is a wonderful area that you've addressed, definitely beats going through
thick, heavy binders of invitation examples to select one. I wish this was
around when I got married.

~~~
limedaring
Thanks, just got to launch now... :)

------
kfool
My sister applied for the Winter 2011 batch with me as a co-founder. Frankly,
her idea puts to shame all ideas I've ever had.

In my opinion, women possess a unique perspective of what people may want.
With 99% of founders being male, it sounds that women founders are likely to
introduce unimaginable ideas.

I may have pushed her a bit to apply, and she may have needed the push, but
she had no trouble filling a well thought-out application.

(I am dying to see the response)

------
sheena
I'm a female co-founder (Mockingbird - <http://www.gomockingbird.com>). My co-
founder is a guy. We interviewed with YC last year, though we didn't end up
getting funded. Best of luck with weddingtype and your application; whatever
the outcome, I think the process itself can't help but be useful.

------
abraham
I have an application submitted for the current round with my sister. She is
not active on HN as working on her PhD currently takes much of her time. She
is awesome though.

------
katieben
I'm female and I've applied for the winter session. (: Rock on!

~~~
limedaring
What did you apply with?

------
saifa
Good luck girls! Remember you can make it, look at indinero's story...

------
ahoyhere
At Startup School a few years ago, I pitched my idea to Paul and he invited me
to apply for the summer class even though I'd missed the deadline.

I against it. That whole "dropping out of high school and college" thing
pretty much proved how much I chafe against what I consider hoop-jumping and
YC was too much hoop-jumping for me.

Didn't stop me though: <http://unicornfree.com/2010/i-made-216668-from-
products/>

(Different product than the one I pitched.)

~~~
limedaring
Really dislike people who downvote because they disagree, rather than arguing
against. Very passive aggressive.

Can you expand on the hoop jumping and YC with some specific examples? I'm
sincerely curious.

~~~
ahoyhere
It's all really summed up in "Startup School," don't you think? You have to
move somewhere (Cambridge) for 3 mos, for very low resources, and the whole
thing just smacks of a system -- for people who claim they want to buck "the
system." Sure, it's less controlling than regular investment but a whole lot
more than a bank loan.

~~~
limedaring
Actually you move to the Silicon Valley, not Cambridge anymore. Technically,
having living expenses to cover 3 mo in SV would make most out-of-state
startups happy. :) $17k for 2 founders to last 3 months doesn't seem that bad
to me personally, but to each their own.

~~~
ahoyhere
So, are you interested in "discussion" so you can justify your choices, or did
you actually want to know why I didn't do it? "Actually" everything I said is
true, because it is about my decision, when I made it.

~~~
limedaring
Was that vitriol really necessary?

I thought your comment was talking about YC as a whole and your opinions on
them. I thought I was correcting a mistake on your part about YC today, and
then giving a counterpoint. I believe discussions usually consist of two
people talking and giving opinions.

~~~
ahoyhere
If you think that simple question was "vitriol," you're going to have a really
rough time running a business. My advice to you is to learn when it's not
about you (which is most of the time) so you don't feel everything so
strongly.

~~~
limedaring
Look, we got off the wrong foot, and I sincerely apologize for
misunderstanding your response about YC to mean YC today. In any case, your
products are awesome and I remember seeing Twistori a couple years ago and I
totally dug it. Nice job.

