
Advice for YC Applicants: Better Last-Minute than Late - pg
http://ycombinator.posterous.com/advice-for-yc-applicants-better-last-minute-t
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sahillavingia
Can you give any examples of late applications that eventually become YC-
funded companies? Just curious.

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brianchesky
We applied 1 hour before the deadline. The Justin.tv guys convinced us to
apply that night at dinner but we were worried we might have missed the
deadline. I asked Justin Kan to ask PG if it was too late. Below is the
original email thread. Once he gave the go-ahead, we applied, and the rest is
history.

\---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Paul Graham <##########> Date:
Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 5:57 PM Subject: Re: yc applicant To: Justin <########>,
Jessica Livingston <##########>

Tell them to go to <http://news.ycombinator.com/apply2> and apply. They
literally have to do it tonight though because we are deciding tomorrow.

Tell them to be concise and to explain how they'll make money; the former is
always rare and the latter we're looking more closely at these days.

\--pg

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 8:30 PM, Justin <########> wrote: Hey PG,

Are the YC applications for the next round completely, 100% closed? There's a
company that Mike, Emmett and I have been advising for months that I think
would add a lot of value: Airbed and Breakfast
(<http://airbedandbreakfast.com/>). They are basically a CouchSurfing.com for
money, where users can list rooms in their houses/apartments for rent to
travelers. All of us at JTV are big believers in their business and they've
proven that they can knock stuff out and are well on their way to product-
market fit (and are making money). Any chance you want to take a look?

Justin

~~~
pg
Actually it looks like you guys applied not just before the application
deadline, but just before we actually made decisions. You can only do that if
you know Justin Kan.

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Timothee
Based on the number of comments below of people who applied late and did get
in, don't be surprised if you see a lot of hits to
<http://news.ycombinator.com/apply2>, <http://news.ycombinator.com/apply3>,
<http://news.ycombinator.com/apply4..>. in your logs in the coming days/weeks!

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zbruhnke
pg, I'm just curious if re-submitting hurts anyone? I feel like I have re-
submitted quite a few times (no major changes) mainly just cutting out
wordiness or marketing speak, but is there any number of times that it turns
out to be a red flag for you guys? Also my video is VERY raw, I left it
unedited as suggested, but never realized how much head movement I had in the
beginning of the video until after watching it again, is there such a thing as
too raw on the videos?

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pg
Re-applying per se is definitely not a red flag. We often accept people on the
nth try. But if you're reapplying with substantially the same thing each time,
you're effectively just testing our consistency. It would be a better bet to
change more than wording.

Video quality can be at least this raw:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=855057>

~~~
zbruhnke
Thanks for the response! I actually did some research and used this video as a
model for my application! As far as the re-applying I actually meant re-
submitting* (I.e. I have never applied to YC before with any company, however
I have re-submitted my app for this session probably 5 or 6 times) I'm
guessing the comment below addresses that particular question?

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pg
Resubmitting is fine. Do that as much as you want.

~~~
brianmwang
Does this also apply for an application that was submitted before the
deadline? More specifically, is it fine to make an edit to the application
after the deadline period?

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benologist
How important is the video? I have a crappy laptop webcam, no video skills,
and a lousy connection.

~~~
pg
It's important (we rarely accept applications without them) but the things
you're worried about aren't what matter.

This level of quality is enough:
<http://scotchi.posterous.com/private/wIYDQvTIRI>

