
How to get into Y Combinator according to the founders that did get in - foti-panagio
https://www.growthmentor.com/blog/how-to-get-into-y-combinator/
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foti-panagio
After applying myself and not getting in for the S19 batch, I decided to do
some research.

What if I just reached out to the founders that actually did get in, and just
straight up ask them the nitty gritty questions of how they did it?

So I proceeded to do exactly that.

3 months later, countless hours of interviews, transcribing, and editing, I'm
finally done.

[https://www.growthmentor.com/blog/post_series/y-combinator/](https://www.growthmentor.com/blog/post_series/y-combinator/)

There are 12 interviews live now but will be adding a few more over the next
couple of weeks.

For anyone applying to this next batch, I wish you the best of luck.

Really hope this helps!

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SkyMarshal
Did you account for survivorship bias? Eg, did you also ask a bunch of folks
who failed to get in what they did, and examine whether they did all the same
things as the successful applicants but just got unlucky?

[https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias)

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threwawasy1228
You know what would be 10x as useful as this AND account for survivorship
bias? If you did this same format but instead only talking to founders who
failed one or even multiple times before eventually getting in. Then they
could compare and contrast what they did wrong originally and how they
corrected it. That would be much more useful to me, and wouldn't stink of
survivorship issues.

~~~
new_realist
I would like to see a list of per-company YC outcomes vs. outcomes with
traditional VCs. Is it worth “getting in?”, or is it just a low paying job
with long hours, with nobody winning, on average, except YC itself?

~~~
jjeaff
I don't know about being in YC vs raising capital directly. But getting into a
program like YC makes it significantly easier to raise money.

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grumpy8
> How much time and effort did you put into the application?

Spent a whole week on it because the questions were really good and had to do
a lot of thinking and research.

> Do you need traction to get into Y Combinator?

At its core, to get in YC you need an insight to build something that has the
potential to be a $1B+ company. Having traction is great because it shows that
this insight is grounded -- but this isn't required.

If you have no insight and no traction, then you need something else
exceptional to convince them to invest in you rather than the idea.

> What are some tips for writing the written application?

Don't bullshit and get a founder from YC to review the application. Unlike
most people, you don't need to "bullshit YC" to get in.. they actually _want_
to fund you as long as you can prove that your insight is grounded and made
significant progress relative to where you were a few weeks earlier. Also, be
concise because they're reading thousands of applications.. if as the CEO you
can't be concise, it's kind of a red flag against you that you won't
communicate properly to customers, employees and investors.

> Bonus tips on how to get into Y Combinator

Don't read too much into "How to get into YC" things. Be ruthlessly focussed
on working on your product and talking to users. Better to fail fast and move
on to a different product if users don't love it or you're not solving a major
pain point.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
I've applied before but, looking back, my idea likely wasn't a $1B idea. For
those of us with ideas in the $10m-$100m's range: What is our best avenue? I
think those of us that have business ideas in that range, you know, we still
have something valuable to offer society, even if it doesn't get an investor a
very big return.

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dmitrygr
The article doesn't mention how they account for survivorship bias. Does
anyone know?

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foti-panagio
Who is "they"?

~~~
dmitrygr
Authors of the article

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slowhand09
On a related note:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20919455](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20919455)

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homeproject_123
Are the YC applications ever made public?

I am not really paranoid about 5-10 partners reviewing my application. But i
would not want to be permanently google-able

~~~
foti-panagio
No, they are never made public.

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killion
Thanks for including Suiteness Foti, we are always happy to help other
founders.

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ex3ndr
Many of the founders prepared in the ur chat where YC alumni payback by
helping new one to shape theirs startups:
[https://openland.com/invite/wT6XDbT](https://openland.com/invite/wT6XDbT)

