
Applications Open for Winter 2013 YC Funding - pg
http://ycombinator.com/apply.html
======
bravura
Are you looking for a co-founder?

I've created this Google survey so that you can put in a little information
about yourself, and what you're looking for:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDAtOWh...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDAtOWhUa2N6TjZvYm92NFhjRkJ3eUE6MQ)

When you fill it out, you can see the other responses.

Perhaps you won't find a co-founder, but at least you might meet other people
to talk to.

[edit: This is my first survey on google docs, so if I need to change any of
the sharing permissions let me know.]

[edit 2: Here is the spreadsheet of results. Please respect the contributors,
and don't use the spreadsheet unless you actually filled out the survey
yourself.
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnaOC0UphlFtdDA...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnaOC0UphlFtdDAtOWhUa2N6TjZvYm92NFhjRkJ3eUE)
]

~~~
limedaring
I wanted to jump in here and to caution that finding a cofounder with the
specific intent of applying for this round of YC would be a bad idea. Keep in
mind that a co-founding relationship is very much a relationship, and you have
to "date" a bit before you get married — having a startup is like having a
child, you want to know a potential cofounder is the right person to found a
startup with first.

That said, be inspired to try finding a cofounder now, work with them for a
few months and keep S13 in mind — it might all fall into place by the time the
next round comes around. And if you can't find a cofounder, don't be afraid of
being persistant and just learning the skills necessary to build and launch
startup solo, since a great cofounder is likely to come along if you already
have an intriguing product launched.

~~~
tersiag
Just to add, if you think you can raise your child (startup) alone than don't
be afraid to do that either. You'll never know, the right co-founder may be
just around the corner, if at all

~~~
limedaring
Exactly. I worked on my startup for a little over a year before my current
_awesome_ cofounder joined me (approached me since I had already "proven"
myself, I wasn't explicitly searching). Big fan of just leaping forward and
doing it yourself.

Self-promotion, two articles I wrote on the subject: "I'm a designer who
learned Django and launched her first webapp in 6 weeks"
[http://www.limedaring.com/im-a-designer-who-learned-
django-a...](http://www.limedaring.com/im-a-designer-who-learned-django-and-
launched-her-first-webapp-in-6-weeks/)

"How to thrive as a solo non-technical founder"
[http://weddinglovely.com/blog/how-to-survive-as-a-solo-
desig...](http://weddinglovely.com/blog/how-to-survive-as-a-solo-designer-
founder/)

------
nickbarnwell
For those who prefer working offline, I've created a raw-text version of the
application here: <https://github.com/nickbarnwell/YC/blob/empty_app/form.txt>

It was very useful for me when faux-applying to have the dark glow of vim
instead of the YC page's harsh white, and I thought I might put it out there
for others to use.

~~~
netvarun
The previous time we applied, we pasted the text version on a google doc and
created two versions (main and redacted versions), which we were then shared
with the team and our app-reviewers (for the app-reviewers, disable editing
and allow only for comments). We found this strategy to be really helpful in
gathering feedback and more importantly it helped speed up filling up the app.

~~~
nickbarnwell
I have a whole writing workflow built around using vim and git for testing out
new story ideas or structure, and this format works best for in terms of
rebasing/merging at the very end. It's really about getting all the
distractions out of the way and taking a long, hard look at your business -
whatever gets you to that point is awesome :)

------
kaolinite
PG: What would your advice be to someone with no co-founder? Apply anyway and
see what you think, or don't even bother and wait until you've found someone
to work with?

I appreciate the issues with single founder companies however am finding it
hard to locate someone with the required interest and skill in my area.

~~~
pg
Get a cofounder. If your startup succeeds, you could spend 5 years or more
working on it. It's rounding error to spend 6 months making a concerted effort
to find a cofounder first. And while it can be hard to find a cofounder, it's
not as hard as starting a successful startup.

~~~
mindcrime
pg:

Do you make a distinction between "solo founder who is and intends to remain
solo" and "solo founder who just hasn't happened to meet the right co-
founder(s) yet?"

Just curious, as I see those as being pretty distinct cases. With Fogbeam
Labs, I was a "solo founder" for a year or so, before our second founder came
onboard, and then it was about 8 months after that when our 3 founder joined
up. I imagine other people find themselves in that place where they are open
to (even seeking) a co-founder, but just haven't met the right person yet.

In any case, my thought, FWIW, is that a founder should keep working on
advancing their vision, whether or not they have located (a) co-founder(s)
yet. I wouldn't "stop the world" to do nothing but look for a co-founder.

~~~
pg
The unfortunate fact is that there is not much difference between the two
cases. Most people who are looking for a cofounder when they start YC are
still looking for one 6 months later. Alarmingly often that's because they
recruited one in the interim who's already gone.

~~~
vadimoss
hehe, has gone in 6 months after going through YC? those solo founders must be
really priceless then:)

~~~
DanielRibeiro
Co-founder dynamics are extremely important and extremely fragile.

You are choosing someone to go on long term journey, where you will no longer
only be building something cool, but you'll be building a company, be
responsible for hiring and, God forbid, firing people. You will be responsible
for your employee's lives, and their families, you will be responsible for
your investors time and effort to make all your promises come true.

All of this becomes extremely harder after you've been traveling alone for a
long time (which can often be a few months, as startups are that intense).
Sharing all this responsibilities with someone who has not been there from day
one is challenging for both parties: can you trust them to be with you in the
long run, do you agree in fundamental things, how do you deal with different
company stakes and vesting periods? And, if you ever pivot (as many successful
startups have[1]), how will all of these pressures come to live?

And it gets worse after you get investment (in the form of YC money, angel
money, and progressively more) as your choice of co-founder will likely
reflect on you, from your investor's idea. And it always add risk to the
table, no matter how you put it.

All of this while still working and growing your startup.

Don't take this lightly. It may be harder to find a proper co-founder under
these circumstances than founding a successful startup. But being able to have
people you trust beside you building a company can be an invaluable thing.

[1] [http://www.fastcompany.com/1836238/how-eric-ries-coined-
pivo...](http://www.fastcompany.com/1836238/how-eric-ries-coined-pivot-and-
what-your-business-can-learn-it)

------
callmevlad
PG, if my co-founder and I are currently bootstrapping a company and starting
to work with a law firm to go through all the formalities of incorporation,
would you recommend holding off on that for a few months in case we are
accepted into YC? It's not cheap (by far) to pay for that stuff out of pocket,
and I imagine YC has a lot more experience guiding young companies through the
formation process, so curious about your opinion. Thanks.

~~~
thaumaturgy
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2246544>: > _Don't incorporate, though,
if you can avoid it. It's easier to start with our paperwork than to transfer
an existing LLC or S-Corp to a C-Corp._

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1778985>: > _It's not a deal-breaker
unless it's botched. The right way to do it would be to use a convertible note
written so that YC funding wouldn't trigger conversion. If you have a lawyer
who can arrange that. But you'd have to incorporate, and you (and we) would
then be stuck with however you did, so we'd hope you did it right._

According to those and other previous comments from him, they prefer it if you
leave the incorporation process up to YC, since they specialize in setting up
startups, but if you've already incorporated (or even taken funding), it's not
a deal-breaker -- unless it's been done in a way that's incompatible with YC
investment.

~~~
bazookaBen
you can also incorporate before applying (if you're serious about the idea).
Use services like LegalZoom, they cost around $300-$600.

In the event that you do get into YC, or raise 5-6 figures of seed money, you
can always go to a lawyer and reissue stock certs, articles of incorporation,
etc.

------
hiddenstage
PG, in the question asking if founders are available to move to the Bay Area,
you still have June through August rather than January through March.

~~~
pg
Fixed, thanks.

~~~
bcjordan
Did the "no idea" application option pan out last year? Is that being treated
differently this cycle?

------
vbv
PG - My cofounder and I have a product already (about to launch). But we have
doubts that we may not be able to get in with that idea based on the previous
ideas that got selected for YC. Should we apply with our current idea, come up
with a completely new idea, or apply as a no idea?

~~~
SwaroopH
Of course, apply with your current idea. None of the accelerators have
anything against existing product. The later the stage, the easier it gets to
make a decision. And from your side, your product hold more truth than the
application itself.

On the other hand, if you are about to launch but you are ready to give up
something at this stage just to work on something else for YC, you have a
different problem, think again :)

------
epicureanideal
I've been interested in applying to YC for quite a while, but recently I
graduated and moved to the south bay (near Mountain View) for work. It really
stood out to me this time that $11,000 + $3,000n is not a lot of money. With 3
founders that's $20,000. 3 founders working in the tech industry can make
$20,000 PER MONTH on typical salaries. It seems like it would be more
appealing to people without good paying work, or who are interested more for
the connections (which maybe applies to me, I'm thinking about it). Assuming
all 3 founders cohabit (which I think is standard), this is a reasonable
amount of money to live on, but it would be fairly bare bones if my quick
mental math is right.

~~~
startupfounder
It's not about the money, it's enough to survive. The founders of Reddit after
selling their company for tens of millions went through YC again for Hipmunk.
It's not about the money, its about the people.

~~~
Matsta
Exactly. That's the main reason I want to get accepted into YC. The contacts
and people you meet are going to be way more valuable to you and your startup
than the money itself. If you had a good paying job, you could probably save
up and fund the $11k yourself. YC is just a good way to fast track your
startup and get it moving right from the beginning.

------
akshxy
Will YC consider funding a nanotechnology company?

~~~
pg
Sure!

~~~
akshxy
I just want to ask whether a prototype and customers willing to use the
product will be valuable for YC? The problem is we are an unproven team and
because YC focuses more on the teams rather than ideas, should we wait for the
YC S13 applications? Your take on that?

~~~
sskates
A prototype and customers willing to use the product are forms of traction
that YC looks for. There is no harm in applying now and then applying again
later if you get rejected, other than your time.

~~~
brador
Is there a list somewhere of these metrics/things which look good/signs of
success to have before applying?

If not, care to flesh out a few more?

------
dude_abides
Can a non-citizen currently on H1B visa apply?

~~~
c0mpute
A very valid question.How about those on H4?

As some might know the H1 for this year has been used up (unlike in the past
4-5 years), will YC still be ok accepting ideas/startups that cannot be on h1?

Some clarity on this front will be very helpful for immigrants :)

~~~
anatoli
Unless I'm mistaken, H1B is not the visa that YC founders would use anyway.
Even if you have an H1B visa, you would still have to re-apply for the
appropriate visa.

~~~
c0mpute
Hey, thanks for the response.

I am not very sure there is another visa that might work well, unless the
founders are from Canada/Australia (maybe even Europe not sure). Rest of the
founders might still have to be on H1 if my research is right.

------
kurtvarner
PG, any results from the apply without an idea experiment?

~~~
pg
It's still too early to tell.

~~~
bfe
I took the guidelines to say the important thing about the idea submission is
that it provides evidence the founders are smart. Wouldn't smart founders
still want to take advantage of every opportunity to provide such evidence?

------
gkoberger
Based on previous years, this means:

* Interviews will be around November 25th [EDIT: November 27th-Dec 1]

* First dinner will be around November 30th [EDIT: Early January]

* Demo day will be approximately March 25th

~~~
pg
Interviews are November 27 through December 1. The first dinner will be the
first tuesday in January.

~~~
tersiag
PG the first Tuesday in January 2013 happens to be New Years Day, 1-Jan-2013

~~~
pg
When that happens we usually make it the second tuesday.

------
dreaming2
If you are in an immigration limbo (came to the states as a young kid, have no
SS#) are you able to apply? Basically I'm in the same position as Jose Vargas
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Antonio_Vargas>)

~~~
pbiggar
YC doesn't care about immigration status, and doesn't even look (they're not
hiring you).

~~~
dreaming2
But won't this matter if you get, for example, first round funding from a VC
firm?

~~~
pbiggar
If you build a US based company that you intend to work at, you will need
valid US immigration status. But YC doesn't care, they just assume you'll sort
that out.

------
guero
You may want to try <http://www.founder2be.com> as an additional tool in your
co-founder search.

Note: I co-founded this up after not finding a co-founder for an earlier idea
myself. Somehow this idea of building a match.com for co-founder seems to have
filled a need and now there are 10,000 or so incl. current and ex- Googlers,
Apple, etc.

I love the topic of co-founder finding. Also because some people have
surprisingly strong opinions about whether a service like this can be possible
at all or if you need to go way back with your co-founder.

As was said earlier, the Dropbox co-founders did not know each other long
before... I think anything is possible. It depends on the co-founders ;)

------
rdl
If there are any teams who want to do security or network/server/cloud
infrastructure stuff for S13, I'd be very interested in talking with them -- I
know a lot of YC founders and might be able to give you useful advice.

------
mapcat
Hey I'm looking for a technical co-founder for summer 2013 or later. I won't
be ready until then. I don't know much about the business side of things so if
you could bring that to the table, awesome.

About me: I've been programming since I was 14, I'm 22, just graduated from
college, and working at a big company in the valley (think
Google/Microsoft/Apple). I have a few ideas and would be interested in hearing
yours.

Send me an email at mapcat@outlook.com

------
bulltale
Winter is coming, and your company should be too. Apply.

------
rdl
Very sneaky doing this during the Apple iPhone 5 launch event. I wonder how
many ideas just got doomed and founders now have to do something new.

~~~
pplante
i doubt any startups were planning to launch the iPhone 5.

in your eyes, what exactly have they announced that would cause someone to
pivot?

~~~
rdl
Various iOS 6 features: panoramic photos, photo stream, shared photo stream.
Also the loyalty card market (passbook).

Also, missing stuff: there's no NFC, so NFC payments are pushed out for
another year in favor of scan-screen.

iPod Nano pedometer kind of kills fitbit somewhat (or a new fitbit like
product, including sleep monitors like wakemate).

Arguably the sapphire crystal vs. glass lens for camera makes the market
tougher for iPhone/iPod Touch cases.

New iTunes + iTunes Match/iCloud features should hurt Pandora/Spotify type
companies.

~~~
hbbio
Any serious founder(s) would have either attended WWDC or known from their
network what was discussed there.

~~~
rdl
Many of the things released today were not in the WWDC iOS 6 talks or iOS 6
betas, or were not extended as far.

------
hiddenstage
Would sketches/rough drafts/db designs/etc. count as a demo? Not sure if it
would even be worth posting if you guys don't care about that stuff.

------
possibilistic
I'm not ready to apply for YC yet, but if anyone is based in Atlanta, please
touch base.

My areas of expertise include CS and biochem. I'm starting to hack around with
lasing now, too. I'm very interested in edutech, bioinfo, and cheminfo. I'm
also in the process of exploring two "novel" (read: absurd?) market spaces
right now and I'd love to chat about it.

I'm echelon at gmail.

~~~
mukaiji
I'm in the bay. Background in matsci. Got interesting ideas?

------
saddino
Out of curiosity (since nobody every mentions this), do successful
entrepreneurs every apply (and get in?). Obviously someone with a previous
exit already has a network of investors, co-founder(s), etc., but could the
exposure via YC (and Start Fund funding) warrant applying? Or is YC's mission
geared towards new entrepreneurs?

~~~
kevs
Kul had an informative post about doing YC a second time:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3520856>

------
Mangol
Few months ago, I've seen a post which gave list of Questions every start up
entrepreneur must answer. It was a list of around or more than 30 questions.
I've been searching for it for past one week. If any one know, what I'm
looking for, kindly post it.

------
salimmadjd
We are still waiting to hear back from AngelPad after 2 months. I personally
prefer the smaller size of AngelPad to YC. But I'm hopeful we'll hear back and
get into AngelPad before application date of YC, if not we'll be applying to
YC to hedge our bets.

~~~
neurotech1
They are both excellent programs. I definitely wouldn't be disappointed if I
got accepted in YC or AngelPad. If you get a confirmed yes from AngelPad, ONLY
then re-evaluate your choice. Remember that YC graduates have a convertible
note from StartFund as well.

~~~
salimmadjd
To your point, we'll plan on applying to YC. But just so you know, AngelPad
also gives about $100k of additional fund from other investors on top of the
$6k/n.

However, the size of angelpad 10-12 makes me feel you get a lot more attention
and focus than a class of 70-80.

BTW, are you a YC applicant or graduate yourself?

~~~
neurotech1
I've applied to YC before. I'm not sure If I'll apply this cycle, especially
since I don't have a co-founder for my startup team.

~~~
salimmadjd
Cool...would you mind letting me know if you did get an interview or not-
thanks!

------
cfontes
Does YC fund companies outside US ?

I am from Brazil and I would love to apply, but there is no mention about US
ousiders.

Thanks

------
MatthewB
I'm a rails hacker and user acquisition/web analytics expert looking for a
cofounder in the bay area to apply to the next round of YC. If anyone is
interested in chatting, please email me (email address in my profile). Thanks!

------
abbasmehdi
For all those applying, this blog post was really helpful when we applied. We
were in the W12 batch.

<http://www.giftrocket.com/yc-application-checklist>

------
tomkit
Given that some people think YC is starting to see scaling problems, I wonder
if they will continue the trend of growing each class size or try to keep it
around the same (or maybe even try to scale it down?).

------
ralphacosta
How does YC view larger start ups? For example a start up serving the
enterprise with 6 people including sales and marketing? Too many people to
participate in the program?

------
kposehn
PG: are music related products still something you are avoiding? We have found
a clever way around the liability and would like to apply with it.

~~~
pg
Music startups are ok so long as you don't have to license label music.

~~~
kposehn
Beautiful.

------
brackin
Perfect, thanks. Will be applying with Kindful. Good luck everyone. Was
impressed with the quality of the last couple of cycles.

------
szpilman
in the video, is humor generally seen as a good thing or as distracting from
the pure message? what about a 'fucking [adjective]' sprinkled here and there
to drive the point home?

------
tlogan
Is there a way to access/download our previous applications?

------
rd108
can anyone confirm the Start fund's $150K convertible debt note is still on
the table for every YC startup?

------
jayzalowitz
Good luck everybody

------
jamesjguthrie
Already applied.

------
par
im sure i'll get in this time ;)

------
markmm
If you really believe in you startup then _you_ should be handing out forms to
potential investors, and you should be giving _them_ 10 min interviews. If
your service/product is great then you will have potential investors lining
up.

------
markmm
Did Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Twitter or Dell use YC or
anything similar? In my opinion YC is a business to make money out of
desperate entrepreneurs.

