

Applications open for winter 2010 YC funding - pg
http://ycombinator.com/2010changes.html

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dbul
_We haven't decided for sure, but we have to change something, because reading
all the applications is becoming overwhelming._

Why not have someone create a simple, private site which makes salient
application information: a screenshot which may lead to the site's demo, video
of founders, answers to questions. Then certain trusted people, partners or
alumni, can rate the applicants over time. Instead of going days without
shaving and being exhausted, you could spend a few minutes each day flipping
through applications. Surely over time those you are interested in for an
interview will be apparent. I'm pretty sure there was a reason not to use this
approach, but it may be worth it to bring it up again.

~~~
pg
Half the groups who apply only do it in the last day or two before the
deadline.

~~~
dbul
Eliminate an explicit deadline. It may affect the applicant pool at first, but
subsequent iterations should be normalized.

~~~
teej
Removing the deadline removes the likelihood of groups applying.

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sutro
PG, just outsource the entire selection process to Mechanical Turk. It could
be an experiment similar to that proposed in the finance classic "A Random
Walk Down Wall Street" in which a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a stock
page out-invests stock-picking experts. If Mechanical Turk picks a more
successful crop of startups than the YCombinator average, you will have
succeeded in making yourself completely redundant -- a worthy goal of any
enlightened manager.

~~~
kirubakaran
If the applicants have a demo-ready B2C product, MTs [1] might even be
consistently better at picking winners than YC, as the ultimate success
depends on what MTs think, since MTs[2] approx= common people approx=
customers.

[1] Given enough MTs

[2] Provided you restrict allowed MT demographic to match your target market

~~~
bigbang
Except that I believe (from YC terms) founders(and thier ability to persevere)
are more important than thier ideas.

~~~
kirubakaran
Yes, which is why I said "If [they] have a demo-ready B2C product". YC is more
early stage than what you can meaningfully show MT.

Also: If users love your product (not just the idea) and pay, you have already
demonstrated that you are a good team, and it is pretty easy to persevere when
you have an increasing number of paying customers.

------
bjnortier
The Application Form link (<http://news.ycombinator.com/apply>) still results
in:

"Sorry, but applications for summer 2009 are now closed. Check back in a few
months for the application form for winter 2010."

~~~
lsb
Perhaps that how they're going to reduce the number of applications to read.

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cperciva
_we may ask some YC alumni to help us review applications_

Why limit this to YC alumni? Obviously you don't want to fully "crowdsource"
the process (both for reasons of quality and for reasons of confidentiality);
and YC alumni presumably have an advantage of knowing what being in YC is like
-- but conversely, using YC alumni has the disadvantages that (a) they're
liable to be busy running startups, and (b) there's a good chance that they
would fall into the people-like-us trap.

Can't you think of any smart and trustworthy non-YC-alumni?

~~~
catch23
Shouldn't big name VCs like Sequoia do the same? I think confidentiality is
probably the biggest reason. Who else would YC trust better than their
previously funded startups?

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kirubakaran
The amount is more solo-founder friendly than before. Has YC become more solo-
founder friendly than before?

~~~
dannyr
I wonder how many solo founders are there in YC. Anybody know any of them?

~~~
cperciva
I don't know any examples, people have asked on several occasions how many
single-founder companies YC funds, and IIRC pg said it was roughly 5% of the
companies.

~~~
abossy
I think PG's advice against solo-founder companies would remain true, hence
not rendering YC any more solo-friendly. I'm surprised that number is even 5%,
considering the number of high-quality YC applicants that could potentially be
paired together.

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joez
Any tips for the application? (Other than the obligatory, don't ask on HN)

We have a solid business plan, plenty of lines of code and are looking forward
to applying.

~~~
rms
Make the questions look easy.

~~~
joez
You made my question look easy!

I had to think about it but I do get what you mean. Let me see if I can
summarize. If one can make difficult questions seem trivial, then it shows
potential.

Thanks.

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kwamenum86
Is it me or is this application coming out much sooner than it has in the
past? Not complaining though- this is always a welcome YC submission.

~~~
pg
We've been getting lots of people asking about it. Maybe it was the _Inc_
article.

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pclark
are startups allowed to reapply? we didn't get in last time, but we're still
making awesome progress ...

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vegashacker
4 founders should get $23k, right?

~~~
cperciva
No: "we're going to invest $11k + $3k per founder, _for up to 3 founders_ "

~~~
vegashacker
Whoops! Thanks. I think I was distracted because at first I thought "k" was
the variable representing # of founders, and then when I figured that out...
ah, forget it. I'm an idiot.

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vaksel
why not just hire someone to help out? Pay them by charging a small($10)
application fee to filter out the bs applications.

~~~
wheels
Because the sort of people that would work for $10 aren't the ones you want
reviewing funding applications.

~~~
vaksel
I'm not saying that the person would review all the apps at $10/pop. Just the
extra that pg can't manage.

\+ its not like it'd be peanuts. Let's say YC gets 1,000 applications this
summer. That'd be $10-20-$100K(depending on how much they'd charge) to go
towards the extra person to review the app.

I dunno about you, but 10-20-100K for a month's worth of work is hardly
peanuts. If you use the $100 price point, that's $200K/yr just to review
funding apps for 2 months. Plenty of cash to "hire" some angel investor as a
"consultant", who'd be able to do this and still have the time to do his
regular "job", the other 10 months out of the year.

\+ talk about synergy, the angel investor would be able to get in on the
ground floor, to fund the program graduates at show and tell, and if pg passes
on some project that the angel thinks has merit, he can fund them outside of
YC.

~~~
mrtron
I would rather have 6 or 7 more companies funded than drop 100k having someone
sort through applications.

~~~
wlievens
Under this proposal, the applications pay a small fee, so the total operation
is neutral.

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zackattack
Will you read every application all the way through?

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Ardit20
I have been on this site for like a long time, but could someone explain
thoroughly what is it that they are funding, how it really works, do they get
any percentage of the company in return and why would anyone want to be funded
by Mr. Graham?

~~~
mshafrir
<http://ycombinator.com/about.html>

