
Applications open for summer 2013 YC funding - pg
http://ycombinator.com/apply.html?s2013
======
coffeemug
For those undecided, apply! If you already have a great technology business,
YC can teach you how to take it to the world-class level. If you don't yet
have a great business, YC can be a perfect place to start.

Remember, the worst that can happen is a polite rejection e-mail. You can
always reapply next time. Spending time time to fill out the application is
alone an incredibly valuable experience.

------
Skywing
I would like to offer up some advice. Do not apply if you're simply applying
because it's good practice, or you're gambling against the odds. You won't get
selected. If you've applied 4 times before and did not even get an email
response or invitation to interview, then you should probably evaluate why it
is that you apply each go-around. The folks at YC have obviously tuned their
process finely enough so that it avoids candidates like this. I have a good
friend who made it into YC years ago, and for several years after I tried
getting into it myself. I found friends to apply with so I'd have a group, and
we came up with company ideas that we could apply with. I tried this probably
3 or 4 times. All times, I coded my ass off in hopes that it'd end up with a
trip to YC for an interview - so, it wasn't all just empty applications. But,
was I really applying because I had a startup in need of that extra push? Was
I in a position to make use of YC's advice, had I even gotten in? Maybe, maybe
not. All I know is that I felt like I was applying just for the sake of it.
Sort of like it was some free contest that I could enter, and if I won it
meant instant fame and fortune. Well, let me break it to you softly ... do not
do this because it only ends in the same place that it begins.

~~~
jacquesm
If there is _one_ single factor that distinguishes successful from
unsuccessful entrepreneurs then it is not luck, charm, tech chops, timing or a
host of other factors. It's persistence.

You're definitely showing persistence, the fact that it hasn't paid off yet is
not a reason to give up now or to tell others to give up. What you probably
could do is to evaluate your own application against the companies that got
picked in previous cycles and ask yourself what if any differences there are,
if you are maybe lacking some other crucial ingredient.

But kudos on the persistence, if you just start to execute on one of your
ideas and you maintain that level of persistence there is a good chance that
at some point you will see some return for your work.

~~~
levlandau
Successful entrepreneurs are persistent in pursuing something they a) believe
in and b) have reason to believe is real-- even if this reason is some tiny
kind of insight.

I believe the point he is making is not to start startups with pseudo-random
ideas generated largely for the purpose of getting into YC.

------
rdl
As a YC alum, I strongly recommend YC to anyone considering it -- even if you
don't get in, it's a great way to think about your startup.

(Wow, it doesn't even seem like the Winter 2013 were 6 months ago yet. I
wonder how much the reduction in class size (previously discussed on HN) will
affect YC S13.)

~~~
pg
Winter 2013 applications weren't 6 months ago. One of the things we realized
after starting YC is that January and June are 5 months apart, not 6. So we
have 2 more months between batches in the fall. That's why Startup School is
in the fall.

~~~
bravura
Random question:

Demo day for summer YC is towards the end of August.

I've heard anecdotally that many investors travel during August, and that it
is a poor time to fundraise.

But I've also heard that many investors come to Demo Day.

Is the anecdotal information that I heard incorrect?

~~~
pg
Both are true. A lot of investors travel in August, but I've heard a
significant number now arrange their trips so as to be in town for Demo Day.

Whatever the cause, there's no observable difference between the amount that
gets raised by summer and winter batches.

------
wcchandler
I'll risk some karma for this, as it's not the most appropriate place, nor is
it the best way to introduce my idea.

I want to produce something similar to Google Fiber. I cannot give up my life
and source of income to fly out to San Francisco and pursue the "cultural"
side of incubation and all things startup related. I need a non-technical guy
who understands the business side. I work at a community college as a NOC. If
we landed a spot in YC, while you are in San Francisco doing that, I will be
taking courses which specialize in this field.

My contact info is in my profile.

~~~
rdl
There are ~no college courses I've seen anywhere which are critical to
starting a network carrier (assuming you have a high school+ level of
understanding of basic math, English, etc.). I've done datacenter stuff and
ISP (satellite, not fiber, except as a customer), and international.
Everything else is either something you can learn yourself (Cisco
certification is moderately helpful, but the rest is all either craft skills
or dealmaking), or stuff you have to learn yourself (local politics).

If you really want to start a network like Google Fiber, JFDI. Neither college
nor YC should delay you.

There is ~no chance you'll be building a national or global network out of the
gate, though -- unless you have a lot of experience or some exogenous source
of capital, you'd be doing a local network in some city or region, and then
expanding from there.

------
staunch
I think I'm at 2 interview rejections and 1 app rejection.

The masochism will stop when the motivation subsides!

~~~
orangethirty
May you provide more insight into why the persistence in doing so?

I'm curious as to why you would put so much value in joining an incubator when
you could spend the same amount of time in growing your business. Funding is
not the goal, but gasoline for the vehicle that will take you to your goal.
Seems like a waste of time for such little money. I know the "status" from
joining the YC program is quite high there, but it does not guarantee success.

~~~
rdl
Just based on probabilities, getting two interviews is pretty good on its own
-- that's passing a ~low thousands to ~150 filter. He didn't pass a ~150 to
~50 filter.

~~~
orangethirty
Thank you for that data point. Though it raises some points. What failed in
such instances? Was the business or the founder? Is this data ever published,
or are you just given an empty notice of decline? (Excuse my ignorance in that
part, because I have not gone through the process).

 _edit_

Thank you for the thorough explanation rdl.

~~~
rdl
There's a lot of information on the web about this; you could try the search
box at the bottom of this site as well. It has evolved over the years, but is
still fairly similar. (I have slightly privileged information about YC, and I
don't want to go through the effort of figuring out what is public by quoting
these sources).

It's also the wrong way to look at it. A better way is "what does it cost to
apply" -- it's maybe 30 minutes to 10 hours of your time to fill in the
application (it's more if you needed to do more thought about the business
anyway). There is zero downside if you don't get in -- it doesn't prejudice YC
against you at all in the future, and is confidential within YC -- and
potentially high upside.

The ultimate test of "is it worth it" is to ask how many YC alums would
recommend YC to someone else. As far as I can tell, that number is >80% (I
can't think of anyone who wouldn't). I would recommend YC with only two
reservations:

1) If you're doing a non-US startup (say, something local in China), and have
exploding growth, no plans to expand to the world market, and unlimited
capital, YC might be a distraction (although I doubt any company like that
reads HN)

2) I think the biggest benefit to YC is to be able to launch during YC, or to
have already launched. If you can't launch during YC, it might be worth doing
YC later (when you're about to launch), or more likely, change your launch to
something smaller that you can do sooner. There is probably 10x more value in
YC if you launch before or during YC than after demo day. We made that
particular mistake ourselves. OTOH, spending an extra year or two pre-YC
building something no one wants is ALSO bad.

~~~
ced
_There is probably 10x more value in YC if you launch before or during YC than
after demo day._

Why?

~~~
compee
I would imagine because if you don't have a product completed before Demo Day
(even a completed prototype that works, of sorts) there is no value to show
potential investors.

------
dylangs1030
I'd like to add as a general side to this that it's very cathartic to go
through the motions of this application.

For those who are like me, and have only just begun building their startup,
if's enormously useful to sit down and do a few takes of an impromptu video,
and answer each question on the application.

It is almost like an outside opinion asking the right questions to critique
your idea and your determination. It allows you to think about your ideas and
the challenges you'll face in ways you may not have before. Basically, it
forces you to bring your idea down to earth from the clouds and think
critically - and realistically - about it.

I second any opinion claiming it's worthwhile to fill it out even if you're
not funded for this exact reason.

------
6thSigma
PG, would it be possible to see a screenshot or a basic tour of what the
application reviewers see? I'm curious to see the logistics on that side of
the equation.

~~~
pg
We see almost exactly the same thing people filling out the form see, except
with a comment box at the top and a bunch of submit buttons representing
different grades.

~~~
jayzalowitz
So -1 -- 5 with the comment box right? how do you account for nicer/meaner do
you smooth based on average review for that person's reviews?

~~~
pg
After doing this 16 times we have similar standards, so in practice we don't
have to account for easy vs tough graders statistically. We do try to convince
other partners to change their votes in borderline cases though. In the last
phase we look at all the applications straddling the cutoff for the number of
groups we can invite, and try to come closer to a consensus about what side of
the cutoff each group should end up on.

~~~
jayzalowitz
One of your founders relayed to me that they were doing some of the
application reading/judging, my concern was there. guess he was pulling my
leg.

~~~
pg
No, he was probably telling the truth. The alumni do the first pass. But (a)
they just vote no or maybe, (b) each application is seen by at least 3 alumni,
and isn't filtered out till it has at least 2 more nos than maybes, and (c) we
look at their overall stats to make sure no one is giving all nos.

~~~
vbv
pg don't you think the alumni would be biased towards startups/people they
know. Or say no to those that could potentially become their competitors in
the future.

~~~
emmett
There's a recuse button if you're conflicted.

------
aagha
I have a couple of questions:

\- How open is Ycom to applications if all you're coming with is an idea, and
no proof of concept?

\- Is it true that there's an age bias?

~~~
pg
We're fine with just an idea.

There's an age bias in that our standards get higher as the founders get
older. You can't reasonably expect a 19 year old to have achieved as much as a
35 year old. But there's no sudden cutoff.

~~~
bambax
> _There's an age bias in that our standards get higher as the founders get
> older._

Since Bill Gates is unlikely to apply to YC, what are YC's expectations
regarding older founders?

------
MWil
I have an odd question that has stopped me from applying from most incubators
to date (although it may also be too early as well)...

If my idea is very specific to an industry because that's what I'm interested
in pursuing but would require developing applications that would benefit
almost all general industries conceivably, is that considered good or bad?

For example, my company is only looking to be a player in the legal
information industry but the base application I've designed would work just as
well for any industry where text analysis is useful.

~~~
pg
That's actually a good sign in a startup. Ideally you want to start by solving
a small number of people's problems very thoroughly, and then expand the
number of people whose problems you solve.

~~~
revorad
That's a piece of advice I keep hearing all the time, but I think it can be
dangerous.

Of course, you have to start small - there usually isn't a choice not to. But,
I think it's best to have a product which can serve a huge market in its most
basic form _without adding more features_.

There are very few examples of startups which start with a product with
features highly specific to one group of users and then expand out
successfully to a huge market. Most startups die or get stuck in a vertical.

~~~
blacksmythe

      >> There are very few examples of startups which start 
         with a product with features highly specific to one 
         group of users and then expand out successfully to 
         a huge market. 
    

There are very few examples of startups when successfully address a huge
market with any strategy.

Succeeding in a vertical is a positive step, which most startups fail at. For
one thing, it give you enough money to keep trying for a larger success.

------
dylangs1030
PG, is there any chance you can clarify something for me?

All I have left to do is make a video demo. I don't know if this question is
"cheating":

What would you rather hear about in a demo, the founders and their past
ability to succeed, or the idea, and why it is original and viable? Or both?
Or neither?

~~~
pg
Talk about why you picked this specific idea. And don't read from a script.
It's weird how many people ignore us when we tell them not to read from a
script. It's like they think we can't tell.

~~~
dylangs1030
Thanks, that's all I needed :)

------
kevingadd
In the past I've been told by various people that YC explicitly avoids
applications that have anything to do with games, regardless of the other
aspects of the app, just because the games industry tends to be a money pit.
Is this true (or still true, if it once was)?

~~~
6thSigma
They funded OMGPOP. Not sure if they applied to YC with though.

------
keiferski
The questions, for anyone too lazy to view the actual application (such as
myself) or who doesn't have a HN account:

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

\- What is your company going to make?

\- If this application is a response to a YC RFS, which one?

\- Please tell us in one or two sentences about the most impressive thing
other than this startup that each founder has built or achieved.

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

\- 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.

\- How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any
of the founders not met in person?

\- Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this
area? How do you know people need what you're making?

\- What's new about what you're making? What substitutes do people resort to
because it doesn't exist yet (or they don't know about it)?

\- Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear
most?

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

\- How do or will you make money? How much could you make? (We realize you
can't know precisely, but give your best estimate.)

\- If you've already started working on it, how long have you been working and
how many lines of code (if applicable) have you written?

\- How far along are you? Do you have a beta yet? If not, when will you? Are
you launched? If so, how many users do you have? Do you have revenue? If so,
how much? If you're launched, what is your monthly growth rate (in users or
revenue or both)?

\- If you have an online demo, what's the url? (Please don't password protect
it; just use an obscure url.)

\- How will you get users? If your idea is the type that faces a chicken-and-
egg problem in the sense that it won't be attractive to users till it has a
lot of users (e.g. a marketplace, a dating site, an ad network), how will you
overcome that?

\- If you're already incorporated, when were you? Who are the shareholders and
what percent does each own? If you've had funding, how much, at what
valuation(s)?

\- If you're not incorporated yet, please list the percent of the company you
plan to give each founder, and anyone else you plan to give stock to. (This
question is as much for you as us.)

\- If we fund you, which of the founders will commit to working exclusively
(no school, no other jobs) on this project for the next year?

\- For founders who can't, why not? What level of commitment are they willing
to make?

\- Do any founders have other commitments between June and August 2013
inclusive?

\- Do any founders have commitments in the future (e.g. finishing college,
going to grad school), and if so what?

\- Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

\- Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property
agreements that overlap with your project? Will any be working as employees or
consultants for anyone else?

\- Was any of your code written by someone who is not one of your founders? If
so, how can you safely use it? (Open source is ok of course.)

\- Are any of the following true? (a) You are the only founder. (b) You are a
student who may return to school when the next term starts. (c) Half or more
of your group can't move to the Bay Area. (d) One or more founders will keep
their current jobs. (e) None of the founders are programmers. (Answering yes
doesn't disqualify you. It's just to remind us to check.)

\- If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, please list them.
One may be something we've been waiting for. Often when we fund people it's to
do something they list here and not in the main application.

\- Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has
discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.)

~~~
6thSigma
Interesting that the questions haven't changed in quite awhile.

~~~
dylangs1030
I think this also correlates with YC consistently having statistically
significant high success rates. There doesn't seem to be much else to add to
what is a fairly rigorous application.

------
mdkess
I am Canadian. Can I do this?

~~~
dylangs1030
Yes. If you can relocate to the Bay area for 3 months, get a visa for the time
you'll be there, and also move your startup.

It's easier if you 1. try to get your visa as soon as possible (now), 2.
haven't incorporated yet, 3. can move most, if not all cofounders to
California.

EDIT: I'd like to add I'm not formally associated with Y-Combinator. Just
trying to help.

~~~
srlake
You don't need a visa as a Canadian to visit the US for 3 months for business
purposes, such as meeting with "prominent investors and advisors" ;)

~~~
dylangs1030
Thanks for that info, I didn't know :)

------
martinshen
What's the "latest stage" startup to go through YC. I've seen a few companies
that have been around for quite a while like Vayable go through YC. What's the
most money raised before going through YC?

~~~
pg
Maybe 18 months in time and a million or two in money. I don't know for sure
because we don't keep records of either.

In practice, people tend to feel they're too late before they are. E.g. while
a post series A company would probably feel they were too late, the number of
post series A cos that would be net ahead from doing YC is probably nonzero.

~~~
martinshen
It never hurts to try to get an interview anyway. Was just wondering... I
guess we'll for sure apply then.

------
devgutt
I'm a Brazillian living in Dublin, Ireland. I will launch my startup in the
end of February. Is it a good idea to apply? Any numbers about how many
applicants is from abroad?

~~~
pg
We fund a lot of startups from outside the US. In fact the Stripe founders are
from Ireland.

------
adelevie
I know YC doesn't like to accept applicants who are still in school (and who
aren't dropping out). Makes enough sense, considering students at all levels
can expect to spend ~40-60 hours/week on their studies. But what about part-
time/evening students? The commitment for them might be much lower, say ~10-20
hours/week.

Should students in this latter category even consider applying if they have
zero intention of dropping out of school?

~~~
dmor
Apply for practice and to think through the questions, but realize that you
are up against thousands of smart people who can give every waking moment of
their life to their company and you can't right now.

~~~
adelevie
I'd rather not waste the YC partners' time :)

Maybe in my case, school is a bit less of a zero sum game. I'm working on a
legal research tool (prototype: <http://dokket.aws.af.cm/about>) that serves
an under-addressed market (communications law). Think MarketBrief
(<http://marketbrief.com/>), but instead of the SEC, the focus is on the FCC.

Not-so-incidentally, I'm about half-way done with law school in a part-
time/evening program in DC.

~~~
dmor
Interesting idea, I happen to have an interest in communications law, but I
never would have thought to pay for a service similar to MarketBrief for that
space in order to keep tabs on the industry when I was at Twilio. In fact,
there are a lot of analysts in the space so I am a bit surprised you consider
it underserved.

Would this be a content site, or would you have a paid subscription model or
deeper analyst pieces, or something else? What is to stop the FCC-focus from
just being a niche channel on marketbrief itself?

~~~
adelevie
I emailed you a more complete answer, but while you're here:

I'm focusing on building the dataset and alerts system, so it's more of a
subscription service--for now at least. Looking ahead, there's a wealth of
information buried inside these documents that I'd like to leverage.

------
Cardeck
PG, can Eastern Europe startups apply?And what are the chances?I know everyone
is allowed to apply but I have the impression that E.Europe is a last resort
for YC.Also, why is the video mandatory for the first step.Wouldn't be easier
to go through ideas and ask for everything else afterwards?Maybe some people
are just shy or not so good on camera.There are so many options.Thanks.

~~~
pg
Of course. There's a startup from Hungary in the current batch.

If Eastern European founders have a weakness, it's that their English is
sometimes bad. That's a real problem in a startup, because you often have to
talk about subtle distinctions.

We like the video because it's a so much more efficient way of seeing what
someone's like than just reading a written application. Not as efficient as
meeting them in person; we'd meet everyone in person if we could; but there
are just too many applications to do that.

~~~
Cardeck
I always thought the visa is the major weakness.Many US incubators encourage
european startups to apply, yet they try to avoid the hassle.Hungarians don't
need a visa to visit US.Big advantage.I had this problem 5 years ago and I had
to move my company in UK to be successful and it worked.

Out of curiousity, when you or the others review applications, do you have a
negative feeling when you see the location?The reason I am asking is because
investors tend to favor some countries and no one wants to be the underdog
right from the start just by having the "luck" of being born in a small
country.Thanks.

~~~
pg
When people are from another country we usually notice this first in the
video, which is among the first things we look at. And yes, my heart sinks
somewhat when the people in the video have such strong accents that I can't
understand them. On the other hand, if they didn't, I would barely notice what
country they were from.

IIRC the CEO of the startup from Hungary had lived in the US for a while and
didn't have too much of an accent, so that application felt to me almost like
one from the US.

------
therealarmen
No more no-idea applications?

~~~
pg
We haven't decided yet. For now that's commented out.

~~~
dorkrawk
Can you tell us how many "no idea" people/groups were accepted last round?

~~~
pg
1, out of 68 that applied.

------
harrisongantz
PG, our startup is in phase 1 but on my application I am going to be pitching
phase 3. My question is when you see the demo site it will only have part of
the functionality that I am pitching. Is that going to look bad? Should I just
do a video or ppt about phase 3?

------
bgauchan
PG - what are the chances of a single founder but with technical background
getting in YCombinator? I'm a good but not great/"rockstar" developer but I am
good enough to create an MVP. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

P.S - I can have a demo ready by interview process.

~~~
pg
Last time I calculated, the odds were about 1/5 what they'd be with 2 or more
founders.

But talking about the odds is misleading, because this pool is a mix of a
large number of people for whom the chance is zero and a small number for whom
it's quite high. So if you're another Drew Houston (who was a single founder
when he applied), the odds are very good.

~~~
TheMakeA
YC passed up on Drew the first time but now Dropbox is a huge success story.
What gave him a better chance the second time around?

~~~
pg
The first time he applied, it was not for Dropbox but for an SAT prep service.

~~~
TheMakeA
Was this at a time before YC began favoring founders over ideas? Serious
morbid curiosity here and not a troll attempt and I thank you for indulging
me.

~~~
loumf
Was there such a time? Reddit co-founders were accepted and told to come up
with a new idea

[http://www.inc.com/magazine/201206/christine-
lagorio/alexis-...](http://www.inc.com/magazine/201206/christine-
lagorio/alexis-ohanian-reddit-how-i-did-it.html)

 _The next morning, on the train back to Virginia, hung over, somewhere in the
middle of Connecticut, I get a call from Paul. He says, "I'm sorry, we made a
mistake. We don't like your idea, but we like you guys." We got off the train,
and I was able to sweet-talk the Amtrak lady into not charging us to turn
around. In our conversation, Paul said, "You guys need to build the front page
of the Internet." That was all Paul, and that became Reddit._

~~~
TheMakeA
I don't know :-)

------
dragos2
Not sure if really on topic, but here goes.

YC alumni, what stage was your startup in when you applied for YC (idea,
sketches, working prototype, launched product(s), etc) and did you make any
radical changes to your product(s)?

------
KaeseEs
I see that the equity stake that YC gets is variable from 2-10%, presumably
based on valuation. I had thought it was a fixed 7% stake; is this new or had
I not noticed it before?

~~~
pg
It's almost fixed. I think out of 46 startups in the current batch, we asked
for less than 7% from maybe 2 of them.

------
SurfScore
If we're applying with an app already in the App Store, should we include a
link to iTunes or make a demo video?

~~~
pg
Give us a demo video, but also include a link to iTunes because if the app
looks promising some of us may want to try it.

------
fananta
So excited for this!

~~~
kumarharsh
yes, very!

------
hydralist
Question for non technical single founders.... is it possible to get matched
up if you Apply?

~~~
pg
It has happened a few times naturally, but we wouldn't try to push it to
happen in the sense that "match up" implies.

~~~
hydralist
makes sense, has there been non technical single founders in the alumni?

~~~
pg
One, Olga Vidisheva.

~~~
hydralist
cool thanks, look out for #2!

