
How secret do startup proposals to Y Combinator need to be?  Should applicants avoid making any of their prototypes public? - amichail

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pg
You don't have to keep anything secret for our sake. This batch we funded
three companies that were already launched, Buxfer, Weebly, and Virtualmin.

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Harj
boso was also launched and had an active community at the time of funding,
though it subsequently evolved into auctomatic which we've only just launched.

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pg
Oops, true, make it four.

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jamiequint
I think except in very rare cases Derek from CD Baby says it best...

_Awful idea = -1_ Weak idea = 1 _So-so idea = 5_ Good idea = 10 _Great idea =
15_ Brilliant idea = 20

_No execution = $1_ Weak execution = $1000 _So-so execution = $10,000_ Good
execution = $100,000 _Great execution = $1,000,000_ Brilliant execution =
$10,000,000

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motoko
So an awful idea with a brilliant execution will cost you $10,000,000? That's
quite a bit of bail money, yes?

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ecuzzillo
It'll probably just cost some dumb VC 10 mil, not you personally.

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amichail
To complicate matters, what if your proposal is rejected in this coming round
but you are thinking of applying again in the following round?

Clearly, not making a prototype public becomes more of an issue in that case.

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danielha
It's your company. Why would it be an issue whether or not it was secret?

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amichail
Because they may not fund it if it is not.

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brett
But haven't they funded people with existing products?

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amichail
Even if that were to be the case, it might still discourage them from funding
your proposal.

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domp
This post says the wrong number of comments. Weird.

