

Ask HN: Any advice for single founders applying for YC Summer '09 round? - cthan323

I'm currently an undergrad graduating in December of this year, and I decided to apply for the YC summer round. Unfortunately, I'll be applying as a single founder as I've failed to convince my friends to renege on their full-time offers from Microsoft and other companies.  They’re not willing to sacrifice the safety of a nice salary in this economy for my untested idea.<p>Google search results revealed that getting funded as a single founder is nearly impossible.   With this in mind, is there any thing that we single founders can do to increase the probability of getting in the YC summer round?  The only thing I can think of is having a working demo ready.  I’m currently hacking out a demo before March 18 comes around, but I feel like that’s the only thing I can do.  Am I just S.O.L.?<p>For the single founders that have been funded, could you provide us (single founders) with some advice on what you did?<p>EDIT: For clarification, I've been developing a demo for several weeks now and it's about 30% there, but I'm starting to ramp up and I'm trying and get as much functionality built before the due date.
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dbrush
I was a single founder in the summer '07 YC batch. I don't know why they
selected me precisely, but having the ability to say, 'It's friggin Photoshop
online' certainly didn't seem to hurt. I was also willing to bring on a co-
founder (which I eventually did) after I'd built and launched (a process that
took about two years working by myself and happened before I ever applied).

The goal is value. I guess... build something to build it, get it launched,
and try to build value (because you believe you can, not because you think you
can convince someone to believe you can). Building something to reach an
artificial deadline is probably not the shortest path to creating real value.

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suhail
I imagine this is going to be a tough sell, prove you can ship early, fast,
and iteratively and that there is no way you'll stop trying (even if you're
living on other people's couches).

With that, that's a difficult story to tell if you're starting today--you may
have to wait for the next round.

My personal opinion: Start by yourself, produce 2-3 iterations of your
product, your friends will follow when they see the idea start to come to
fruition. No way someone is going to deny you an opportunity with that much
heart, a solid demo, and some early indicators of success. I think you have to
gun it alone before you can really prove to them that you're not easily
demoralized.

This is coming from someone who used to be a single founder himself, good luck
--there's hope =)

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wwwjscom2
You have my attention. How did that single founder attempt go for you?

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suhail
Still in progress, I found a co-founder--it's going well. There are more
followers than leaders, be the leader and start now rather than waste time.

People are more likely to feel like they are missing out when you're willing
to do it with or without them. You have to sell yourself a bit not just the
idea to instill a certain confidence in others.

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medianama
Prove to them that you can (and will) pull it off on your own - without co-
founders and/or YC.... and they'll come to you.

~~~
cthan323
Good point. I'm going to build this thing regardless if I get selected or not.
It costs little to nothing to build web software these days. Absolutely no
reason that I can't pull it off on my own.

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rms
Going back to school in the fall is another flag against you. It won't hurt to
apply this summer, but you're very unlikely to get in. Consider this the
practice for the Winter '10 practice round.

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cthan323
If selected, I'm willing to dedicate myself full-time to this.

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rms
The YC partners do not like the idea of being responsible for you leaving
college. They are ok with it in the situation where you are so incredibly
dedicated that you are leaving college with or without them. Or if you have
some plan to finish while working full time on the company -- some of the
Weeblies finished their degrees at PSU with online courses.

~~~
cthan323
+1 Thanks for the insight. I've decided that I'm going to build this with or
without YC. I'll able to take a leave of absence if I need to at school.

