
YC without being in YC - djyaz1200
http://42floors.com/blog/yc-without-being-in-yc
======
aashaykumar92
Great post. It was surprising to see this type of post from a YC alum but I
guess it has to for legitimacy purposes.

I agree with almost all the points, but as someone looking from the outside
in, I see YC as the most prestigious fraternity in the tech space. What do I
mean by this? I go to the University of Michigan; coming in as an out of
stater, I didn't know what to expect but I kept hearing this one piece of
advice from current students, faculty, and friends that had also gone to big
schools: "Find a way to make the school seem smaller to you." I never really
understood it but when I arrived at campus for my freshman year, I quickly
understood what everyone meant. There are SO many people and it's easy to get
lost and have no sense of direction. So finding a community that aligns with
your interests is ideal at a place like Michigan--I knew I wanted to get in
with a group of bright, driven, and fun kids. One such place was described to
be like this by almost everyone I spoke to in the beginning, it was a
'professional' fraternity where about 250 rushed and only 15 got in. I figured
I'd give it a shot and went through the process and was selected. When asked
why it's so great, I simply respond with, "The people in it make me a better
person". It sounds vague, and it is to some extent, but it's true. Constantly
surrounding myself with a small group of bright, driven, and fun individuals
has truly made me smarter, more fun, and more open. It's been two years now
(I'm a junior) and it is the single best decision I've made.

My long anecdote can be paralleled to YC. The tech space, especially in the
bay area, is HUGE. Someone starting from scratch can be easily overwhelmed. YC
seems to be the best place to get in a group with bright, driven, and fun
individuals pursuing quite groundbreaking ideas, assuming you are one of them
as well. That is why it is a desired place to someone like me.

All that being said, the aspect of mimicking a YC lifestyle is a great idea, I
think all startups should do this and CAN do this given that it is not to
expensive to get going.

~~~
jaf12duke
You bring up some good points. A very powerful part of the YC network is
simply being surrounded by awesome people.

I've found that type of community throughout the startup ecosystem. When I
lived in Boston, before ever getting into YC, I found it at Betahouse in
Central Square. While in NY, I found it at General Assembly. Now I see it at
RocketSpace in SF.

~~~
thaumasiotes
this comment serves the purpose of a bookmark

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tarof
"Sell before you build"

This is what I learned from YC. It was from Paul Buchheit.

~~~
aashaykumar92
I'm the jackass who downvoted you...it was by accident, I meant to upvote. I
just don't have the option to go back on it, sorry.

~~~
lanstein
fixed :)

~~~
aashaykumar92
Thanks! Not sure how you fixed it (or how you know its fixed) but if you're an
admin, I'd love to know why anything I submit is automatically 'dead'. Email
is aashayk@umich.edu, thanks again :)

~~~
k-mcgrady
He probably 'fixed' it by up voting the comment you accidentally down voted.

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jmtame
_The network of YC alumni is quite awesome. Everyone’s willing to help each
other out. It’s the second most helpful community I’ve ever been a part of.
The first? Hacker News. Ask for feedback and you’ll get it. Ask for help and
you’ll get it. Give back to the Hacker News community whenever you can._

I have to second that Hacker News has been one of the most helpful communities
for me. They (you) single-handedly are responsible for helping me seed
communities for 5+ different applications, and most still exist today
(graffitiGeo, OfficeHours.TV, Hacker News Directory, Bloc, CupidWithFriends)
and pushing the sales of a book I wrote into bestselling categories on Amazon.
I know friends who have similar experiences when they launched their own
products. I hope to some day write a proper thank you letter to HN.

I see other products launch and I'm sometimes envious that the owners run
another large community where they promote their other apps (e.g. Let's Date
promoted by Suicide Girls), but realized that the same opportunity exists for
anyone on HN. Makes me wonder how most people grow their products early on,
because I'm probably taking HN for granted at this point.

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gkoberger
I think one of the biggest things you get from YC is acknowledgement. Most
people who apply have jobs or at least more than one idea or project: getting
into YC is kind of a confirmation that _someone_ thinks you're on the right
track.

Even though the promise of Silicon Valley is anyone can make it, a lot of
people still need "permission" to go full time on a start up.

~~~
rowborg
I think this is absolutely correct. In particular, it gives you a socially
acceptable (and externally validated) excuse to ignore many of other
commitments in your life for three months so you can get your idea off the
ground. It's a lot easier to tell your family that you're going to quit your
job and hole up in a cave working on a crazy idea for 3 months if you can hand
them a New York Times article on YC and explain that you are going to be a
part of that thing they keep reading about.

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gojomo
OK, does this mean the time is right for a YCaaS site? ("For just $X/month we
will poke and prod you along a simulated YC path. Start anytime!")

~~~
frankdenbow
Thats what nReduce was (<http://www.nreduce.com/>). Not sure if its still
running.

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aidscholar
Can someone explain the mantra "Do stuff that doesn't scale"? Is this another
way to say focus on the hard stuff? Then scale later?

~~~
jaf12duke
It's an acknowledgement that the early days of a startup don't need to look
like the later days. At 42Floors, we met with every landlord in person and
then manually typed in every listing. Obviously, we can't do that at scale,
but it was an important step to getting our startup off the ground when no one
had yet heard about us. Later on, when we had built up credibility, we built
web scrapers and integrated data feeds

~~~
jsonne
I completely hear what you're saying and I'm glad you said it. There's a
certain level of understanding your customer that can only come from meeting
in person. I'm glad to hear that I'm following the same footsteps that you
guys did. We're working to solve the issue of API integration, and there's
only so much you can understand about a customers pain point through email or
over the phone.

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mindcrime
On a sort-of semi-related note... has anyone here participated in nReduce? The
"Open Source YCombinator" that launched to much fanfare a while back? They
seemed to get quite a bit of buzz out of the gate, but I haven't heard much
about them lately. Anybody gone through the program and care to write up your
experiences and submit here? I, for one, would love to read something like
that.

~~~
jrmattox1
I hadn't heard of nReduce. Very interesting. My take is that if you are
accepted to YC and are willing and able to move to SV, then there are clear
benefits in doing so: network, external validation, brand, access to capital,
etc.

If you are not accepted and/or are unable to relocate to SV, then a MOOC
version of YC makes sense for the reasons that MOOCs make sense in higher ed:
location & time independent, high quality learning, structured peer review,
clear milestones and deadlines, tuition free, and most importantly ... it is
far superior to the alternative, which is often doing nothing.

~~~
mindcrime
_If you are not accepted and/or are unable to relocate to SV, then a MOOC
version of YC makes sense for the reasons that MOOCs make sense in higher ed:
location & time independent, high quality learning, structured peer review,
clear milestones and deadlines, tuition free, and most importantly ... it is
far superior to the alternative, which is often doing nothing._

I tend to agree, but would love to hear any first-hand experiences from anyone
who has participated. I'm sure there are a few, maybe I'll throw up a "Ask HN"
sometime and solicit some input from some of them.

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greghinch
This is a great idea for GTD on your project, but it leaves out something
pretty significant that YC also gives you, when you go to do your next round
of investment: validation and DD. You see investors offering deals on the spot
at demo day, not just because you show them 5 weeks of traction, but because
of their trust in PG and crew. They probably discussed your co. with PG during
the past 10 weeks without you knowing about it.

If you run the process on your own, at the end you'll have something built,
but still have 1-3 months of work ahead of you securing another round of
money.

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austenallred
Would anyone be interested in having a YC for those out of YC? You could
organize meetups for those in the Bay Area and show off your tech that you
built in the week, do a bit of a book club instead of having PG at your
side... it obviously wouldn't be the same, but yo could mimic a lot of the
features, especially the feedback and accountability measures. I'd be happy to
work on putting something together if there's interest.

~~~
JVIDEL
Isn't that like YC Reject? no idea what happened to that though.

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nwenzel
Great post. I think one key to the whole program are the weekly deadlines. And
of course the big deadlines. It's the same as not having a boatload of startup
cash. It forces you to figure out what is really important.

The trick is, deadline only work if there are consequences. There can only be
consequences if you feel accountable to someone or something. So, tell someone
you're going to accomplish something by a certain date.

I'm going to contact 25 potential customers next week.

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killermonkeys
We did something pretty similar to this when we didn't get into YC in W13:
[https://plus.google.com/u/0/115851397461982481700/posts/AUX1...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/115851397461982481700/posts/AUX1kQaMfR2)

On review, the meetings and advisory help were effective, trying to track a
peer group of startups was not. I would highly recommend it for any kind of
serious project you're taking on.

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dpolaske
Awesome post, just did a pretend Hackathon with a friend of mine and it turned
out great! Deadlines and structure really force you to work efficiently and to
prioritize.

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snambi
excellent post. sounds like the story of "Ekalavya"
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekalavya>

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raheemm
Excellent mindframe hack.

