

Ask YC: Would you share your (successful) Y Combinator applicaton? - brianlash

Are any former/current YC'ers willing to share their "winning" applications here?  I think it would go a long way toward helping us YC hopefuls find the strengths and weaknesses in our own applications this next cycle.<p>For the record I know the policy:<p><i>We don't make any formal promise about secrecy, but we don't plan to let anyone outside Y Combinator see these applications, including other startups we fund.</i><p>...but I haven't seen anything that precludes entrants from sharing their applications on their own accord.<p>I bet plenty of folks share my interest.  Anyone willing to help (even if it means you censor proprietary pieces of your app)?
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ljlolel
Here's some of my application (I elided some less relevant parts). I was
accepted for summer '08 but decided to pass this time for a variety of
reasons.

I lost my line breaks somehow, so keep in mind that YC read this with better
formatting.

\----------------------------------------

 __* What is your company going to make?

I'm open to anything. Here's one idea: -------------- Have you ever scanned a
document before? How was that experience? It was terrible for me, too.
Everyone I have ever asked has agreed that it is physically painful. But,
there is a solution, one based on understanding actual human needs. What is
wrong with the scanners of today?: * slow (take time to heat up) * slow
(scanning at a high dpi takes a long time) * complicated (please select the
dpi, now select bla, now bal...) * cumbersome (files generated at high dpi are
huge, slow down system) * cumbersome (OCR'ing a document is a whole other
rigamarole) What do people really need? Simply a decent, readable scan of the
document. This should be as easy as holding the paper up to face the monitor.
Imagine that. I propose that I sell a device which is basically just a decent-
resolution CCD chip with a special lens which connects to a computer (wired at
first, but v2 wireless). Scanning a document is as simple as holding the
camera up to a document and clicking. In my tests, scanning a whole text books
takes 5-10 minutes. This is a game-changer. I've worked with an ip lawyer to
file the provisional patent on this and a few other aspects of the designs.
[BY THE WAY, IF ONE OF YOU WANTS TO HELP ME BUILD THIS, I'M ALL EARS. I'M AN
AI HACKER NOT A HARDWARE HACKER. OH, BY THE WAY, I USED A DIFFERENT IDEA IN
THE INTERVIEW ROUND, NOT THIS ONE SINCE I'M SKEPTICAL OF THE MARKET FOR THIS
PRODUCT AT THIS POINT. NEVERTHELESS, IT'S VERY COOL. I WANT TO BUILD THIS FOR
MYSELF!]

 __* For each founder, please list: name, age, YC username, email address,
personal url (if any), and current employer and title or school and major.
List the main contact first. Separate founders with blank lines. Put an
asterisk before the name of anyone not able to move to Boston June through
August.

..... [Be sure to put your blog here. Don't have a blog? Make one. Blog about
whatever is on your mind. Blog about your hacking.]

 __* Please tell us in one or two sentences about something impressive that
each founder has built or achieved.

Looking at some things in ~/projects folder: ........ [Here I mention a few of
my projects, with links to open source code, web pages, anything I can
publicly show. I didn't spend more than one or two sentences describing any
one project, but I listed many of my most interesting projects and why I
worked on them. YC likes to see you working on real problems, so I talked
about problems I solved for myself and for others directly]

 __* Please tell us about the time you, ljlolel, most successfully hacked some
(non-computer) system to your advantage.

...... [I talked about my shotgun email to dozens of startups here in Silicon
Valley which gave me the opportunity to meet a _lot_ of cool entrepreneurs]

 __* Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class
or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible.

(see above) [I applied alone, so group projects inapplicable]

 __* How long have the founders

known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in
person?

n/a [Again, I was a sole founder]

 __* What's new about what you're doing? What are people forced to do now
because what you plan to make doesn't exist yet?

(see above) Basically, nobody ever scans anything because it takes forever,
doesn't really do what you want (you just want a readable, small image and for
the document to be searchable),

 __* What do you understand about your business that other companies in it
just don't get?

Scanner manufacturers try to pack in the highest dpi they possibly can. They
focus on resolution, when they should be focusing on the _user experience_.
Speed is what they should optimize, but I see no scanner manufacturer doing
that.

 __* Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you
fear most?

HP, Xerox, etc, also ScanR, Qipit, Evernote ...... [I go on to be brutally
honest about the difficulty and vulnerability of my position as a hardware
startup in a crowded field. Remember, you are writing for some very smart
people. They want to _see_ your analytical thinking skills here. They want to
see you be realistic, not delusional.]

..... more questions, answer analytically deeply, answer honestly to the best
of your ability ......

 __* If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, feel free to
list them. One may be something we've been waiting for.

.... [I always think of new ideas and discuss them with friends. I chose 4 and
listed them here. I crisply described each in no more than 2 brief sentences.]

------
dshah
It would be really interesting (at least to me) to read the original YC
applications of successful YC companies like reddit and Xobni. Would make a
fascinating read.

With their consent, of course.

