
I pitched YC, was rejected, just closed a multi-million dollar round. - ycreject
I realize it's not YC application season (edit: actually it looks like applications are open), but I figured I would post now since I would undoubtedly forget later.<p>A friend and I applied for YC Summer '09 for a search related company (actually what Greplin is doing now).  We made it to interviews but didn't make the final cut.<p>I went on to do other things and about a year later ended up back in start-up land with a different co-founder and a different idea.  We just closed a multi-million dollar deal on fantastic terms yesterday from one of the best VCs in the valley.<p>So the moral of the story is this: rejection doesn't matter.  To quote Randy Pausch: "The brick walls are not there to keep us out, they are there to give us a chance to show us how badly we want something."  Raising funding is only the beginning of this journey but if you didn't make it into YC or face a similar situation somewhere else, exceptions to the rule do exist (like us) and there's really no reason YOU could not be another.<p>Cheers!<p>(if you know who I am, please keep my identity a secret, thanks!)
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joshu
a decent chunk of the energy for writing delicious was in response to getting
rejected by google years ago...

~~~
DanielRibeiro
It is also nice that Techstars rejection notice says: _We hope that you are
not deterred and we wish you the best of luck with your company_

And on the link of general explanation "Why Not Us?"
(<http://www.techstars.org/whynotus/> ), they go even further: _If you’ve
applied and received notification of non-selection, we sincerely hope that you
will go on to do great things. It will not surprise us one bit. Good luck!_

It is really nice how people can reframe _rejection_ into _non-selection_ ,
and _non-rejection_ into _making great things_.

Thanks all for the inspiring examples.

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zhyder
A friend of mine got rejected from the current YC batch, but raised $1M from
prominent investors less than a month after the YC interview.

~~~
dshah
I'd argue that raising money from YC (specifically) might be harder than
raising money generally from angels/VCs.

There are still only a finite number of YC applications selected into every
cohort (and my guess is, as the brand grows, the number of teams competing
grows). But, the number of potential angels and VCs for a deal is not as
constrained.

Summary: Getting into YC is not the same as raising money from angels/VCs. I
wouldn't equate the two.

Besides, it's not just about the money.

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edge17
I know one company that was rejected by yc that is happily investor free,
profitable, and doing quite well for themselves.

I know another guy that was rejected from YC and just sold his company to
another company all of you have heard of.

YC is great, but it's one of many paths. Every time I read, "YC rejected me
but....." it sounds like "Harvard rejected me, but somehow my life didn't
end."

Sometimes you wonder how a company managed to exit with their idea but people
count for so much. I have friends that, if they had the dumbest idea in the
world, I would put my money down because betting against them is a losing
game. If it sounds ludicrous, is because you've never had friends like that.

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smoody
totally agree with the 'if at first you don't succeed' aspect of this post,
but you have a different co-founder and a different concept now, so your prior
rejection, while interesting, is not really related to your current situation.

~~~
zizee
I agree. I certainly read the title as meaning "I just closed funding on a
pitch that PG rejected".

Also, congratulations. Glad you didn't give up!

~~~
_pius
_I certainly read the title as meaning "I just closed funding on a pitch that
PG rejected"._

YC explicitly says they're looking for the best founders, not necessarily the
best idea.

In other words they're rejecting you, not your idea.

~~~
patio11
If you think of it like this, you'll poison yourself. Maybe reframe it as
"Declined the opportunity to invest in this team at this time."

(See also: college, job offers, consulting engagements, and -- took me decades
to learn this -- dating.)

~~~
_pius
I agree with you 100%.

That said, I do think it's worth noting that the pleasant fiction of "it was
the idea, not us" is patently false for YC.

A healthier (and more accurate) way to think of it would be to say that
they're rejecting their perception of the team, rather than the team itself.

------
Mz
_To quote Randy Pausch: "The brick walls are not there to keep us out, they
are there to give us a chance to show us how badly we want something."_

They are all in your head anyway. I've been thinking about the Harry Potter
thing of how they get to the train station for wizarding school by running
straight at the brick wall with confidence, which carries them through it and
to a different world, where a train awaits to whisk them off to a magical
place, a place to learn yet more magic. I think it's a great metaphor. The
brick walls aren't really there. Just go at them head on, believing they
aren't really there.

Oh, and there's no spoon either.

Best of luck.

~~~
jeromec
I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, but it never occurred to me to relate that scene
to startups in that way. It makes me smile. :) However, I would tweak the
"solid wall" metaphor a bit in the context of startups. For example, running
full ahead with a bad idea will never magically become a good idea simply by
upping confidence level. I would say the metaphor is more like Book 2 where
they hit the wall and bounce back painfully (because Dobby sealed it) but find
another way to get to school anyway. I think that's more what startup success
looks like. Simply having the confidence to run forward is more about how to
look at life in general I'd say, when we talk ourselves out of attempting to
do things for reasons which are really nothing but false fears.

~~~
Mz
I've had a lot of dreams in my life to the effect of coming to a brick wall
and reaching forward and turning the door handle that didn't exist until I
reached for it and opening a door and going through the brick wall, shutting
it and watching it turn back into a brick wall for my pursuers. Sorry I can't
explain better what needs to go on in one's head to walk through brick walls.
But it can be done.

Peace.

------
pedalpete
Congrats on closing a round of financing, but have you had your YC rejection
in the back of your mind all along?

If you had pitched with the same co-founder and same idea and still got
funded, you could have given PG a big 'told ya so', but different idea,
different co-founder, is really a different sitation. Plus, I'm sure YC
doesn't invest in many ideas/people that they wish they could, as they have to
make selections on very little details.

Out of curiosity, what stage are you at with the new company? Did you close
your round with a working prototype? moderate user traction? existing
customers?

Again, congrats on the funding. Best of luck with the new biz.

~~~
ycreject
Working prototype w/ alpha users, but there's a lot of significant tech
involved - i.e. it's not a rails app.

And no, YC hasn't been on my mind at all, nor is this a 'told ya so' to PG. I
do hang out on HN under a different name though so I thought I'd post for
anyone who was feeling frustrated in their own journeys since I know that in-
the-moment rejection can sting disproportionally more than during the time
that it actually matters, i.e. the rest of your life.

~~~
peteforde
Well, at least it's not Rails!

Sheesh, did you work that into your pitch? I understand that you're feeling
hot right now, but leave your unfounded technology biases out of it.

~~~
ycreject
You're right. I should have said "a todo app" or something similar - Rails was
what came to mind first because of 37 Signals et al who make a lot of that
kind of stuff.

Aside from that, I'm a huge fan of abstracting commonly made and agreed upon
technical decisions further down the stack, making higher level development
much simpler and less technically challenging - which is from my understanding
what RoR was/is largely about. That's not to say that RoR as a framework isn't
in and of itself a technical achievement though.

------
azharcs
Just because you are rejected by VC's or YC doesn't mean anything. Even best
of the VC's make mistakes, here is a firm which missed companies like Apple,
Intel, Google, Paypal, Ebay etc...

<http://www.bvp.com/Portfolio/AntiPortfolio.aspx>

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thewordpainter
i don't mind rejection. in fact, i kinda thrive off of it.

when YC has told us no in the past --> just sparked the fire that much more.

my personal motto: doubt me...please do ;)

~~~
hydrazine
@apoorvamehta Same here; "doubt me and I'll prove you wrong"

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hoag
This is a fantastic story. Congratulations, let us in on the loop when you're
ready to share!

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bdclimber14
I believe YC applications are open now, so its great timing actually!

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axod
Why do people say they got funded as if that's it. They've made it. Job done.
Success is now a given.

I'm not convinced ability to get funded matches with likelihood of
profitability.

~~~
brk
_Why do people say they got funded as if that's it._

Where did the OP say or imply this? In fact he even says this is only the
beginning of the journey.

FWIW, I took his post as an inspirational thing. The demographic of YC
applicants seems to skew towards younger people, sometimes with a bit too much
pg-love. Getting rejected by your "idol" can be very discouraging, especially
to an applicant who may not have gone through such a rejection before (eg:
they've been mostly accepted to the schools and colleges of their choice)
and/or has not had a lot of other career experience so their "one big dream"
was just seemingly crushed.

IMO, I think it would be really cool for pg to create a roster list someplace
of YC rejects that got alternate sources of funding and/or went to other
ventures deemed successful. It could help some of the rejected applicants
understand that YC is _one_ option, not _the_ option.

~~~
axod
Yeah maybe I'm being harsh as usual. If I got funding I'd start panicking and
thinking to myself "shit now I have to make them a return"... But it often
feels like announcements of funding are more like "yay we have cash! Lets buy
an office, some go-karts, etc"

My personal experience has been that there's only one group you need to
impress - your users/customers. If no one else believes in you so what?

Likewise, if you manage to get funding (convince one person you might have
future success), but have no users/customers, it's a bit "meh".

Being rejected from X but accepted at Y still doesn't demonstrate if the
idea/person behind it/etc will be successful or not.

I'm rambling now so I'll stop.

------
ankitgupta
If everyone is unanimously excited about your company and agrees with your
vision, then there is definitely something wrong there!

------
InclinedPlane
Cheers indeed!

P.S. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b76VWp-voIk>

------
dstein
Getting rejected by YC was the best thing to happen to my startup and to
improve my motivation.

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SemanticFog
It's impressive that YC helps founders succeed by putting them through a short
but intense program.

It's even more impressive that YC helps founders succeed by rejecting their
applications, and motivating them to try harder.

The latter is a truly scalable business model. Maybe YC should get a chunk of
stock simply for letting companies apply to the program...

------
zizee
So, is your start up in stealth? Or are you just trying not to brag? Why the
anonymity?

~~~
jerf
That would muddy the core message of 'buck up and keep at it' and turn it into
a "take that" at YC, which does not seem to be intended. Being anonymous makes
sense here, I think. (I actually clicked through to see if it needed to be
flagged because it could be a "take that" and it's not.)

~~~
ycreject
Bingo. YC is changing how the valley works, for the better, and should be
recognized as doing so.

Additionally, running a (venture backed) company already puts enough scrutiny
on me as a person and I'm in no hurry to increase that :)

~~~
zizee
Good to know.

Again, well done on your recent success. Now the real work (and fun) begins
:-)

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jmtame
i'd be interested in talking to you, can you e-mail me? it's on my profile

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lancepantz
just so we're all clear... the goal is more than raising money... right?

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aditya
Congratulations. :-)

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yuhong
>(if you know who I am, please keep my identity a secret, thanks!)

Personally I wouldn't require this whatever possible, even in that case, but
that is a different topic altogether so...

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_pius
Congratulations!

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afinlayson
I love the tenacity, Best of luck boys!

