

Ask YC Alumni: YC S13 Application  - will_brown

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6jnvIhOPJO7WGlRcGw5Q3B3TDQ/edit?usp=sharing<p>I was nervous about doing this, but I decided I have everything to gain and nothing to lose.<p>I am interested in knowing things like the impression you get of me, the company, the product from the application.  With your insights what do you think PG and company's impressions will be of me and/or what I have built?<p>Would you invest in me and/or the product to succeed?  Did you like the product and not me or like me and not the product?<p>Edit: I am available to live chat if/when you visit the Google Drive link.
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keiferski
I'm not a YC person, but I can help on little edits:

\- you need more describing the idea. I like the simple one-liner, but you
should elaborate more.

\- typo on "Impressive" question. "I was represented a 15 year old...". I'm
not sure if you _represented_ or were represented _by_. Also change the last
line to something like, "deportation was cancelled." No need to use both
"dismissal" and "deport" to describe the same thing.

\- "What do you understand better" question: I'm unsure how your answer
relates to you. I'm just seeing why NatGeo gets it.

\- Philippines is spelled wrong

\- the last question seems more focused on you, and not on external
information. I interpreted that question as something about the world you
discovered, not an internal self-discovery.

Good luck!

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will_brown
Thanks, I did not know what to expect, but I thought people might just shoot
from the hip with impressions and thoughts about me/the product. Yours was
very practical advice I will utilize in the final draft.

~~~
keiferski
No problem. Shooting from the hip: it's a neat idea but feels too much like an
add-on, and not like a full-fledged company.

~~~
will_brown
I actually wish that was a YC application question. More specifically:

How would you respond when people say your idea is an add-on/feature not a
product?

I am not going to actually answer here, because I do not want to become
defensive in response to someone being so insightful. The most important thing
is now I know it is a potential PG and Co. may have the same "feel".

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iamwil
I wrote this in relation to what's being asked and looked for in applications.

I think it might help you.

[https://iamwilchung.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/i-got-into-
yc-a...](https://iamwilchung.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/i-got-into-yc-after-
applying-six-times-heres-my-advice-for-yc-applicants/)

~~~
will_brown
I have no idea how, but I previously had read your post. Likely a Google
search but at this time I could not tell you the search query.

Your story is both inspirational and practical. Inspirational because you
continued to pursue your YC goal after most people would have given up or lost
hope, and it was not just some eventuality, you took control of your
circumstances by working for a YC company, moving to SV, and finding a co-
founder in SV. Similarly, after my first rejection (W12) I applied to work for
a YC start-up in SF, unfortunately I have not even received a form rejection
much less an interview.

>it wasn’t filling out the application all those times that gave me an idea of
what YC is looking for, but rather, it really clicked for me after meeting the
YC founders in the dinners of summer 2008.

Along the same lines, this is why I posted my S13 Application to Ask YC
alumni, thank you for taking the time to link your post, because I gained more
from reading it this second time around - having been rejected since the first
time I read it.

