

We went ahead with it anyway. - blored

We got rejected the first time around with Ycombinator and have now been offered funding.  Thanks for your support everyone, this forum rocks.
======
vlad
Congrats! You made it to the interview last time, though--did Paul offer any
ideas that you used to re-apply and make it this time around? Did you have to
go through another interview, or just e-mail them a better demo of what you've
done so far, and they remembered you from last time?

~~~
blored
Nobody ever writes of their YC interview experience. I promise to write about
my experience.

If YC had an impact in our 'going for it' it was probably the encouragement
Paul gave us in the phone call telling us we weren't accepted. pg was
absolutely classy, and we really realized that YC was cheering for us even
though we didn't get funding.

~~~
portLAN
> pg was absolutely classy,

Definitely.

> and we really realized that YC was cheering for us even though we didn't get
> funding.

...Except I look more at actions than words. In these days of a pool of
billions of dollars being sunk into start-ups, if an investor won't put in
$15k, that's pretty telling of their opinion.

(Yeah, I know, the value is in the advice, and their limited time is the
deciding factor. Still, investors who are _really_ rooting for you will put
their money where their mouth is.) Acting nice is insurance in case you do
turn out to be a big deal -- always keep your options open, don't burn your
bridges, it's a small world, etc.

~~~
staunch
> In these days of a pool of billions of dollars being sunk into start-ups, if
> an investor won't put in $15k, that's pretty telling of their opinion.

Non-sequitur. YC doesn't have those billions.

------
mikesabat
Cheers man!

I don't think there is any business (or success story) in the world that had
all the doors open at the right time. You always have to keep pushing forward.

------
cperciva
Can you say you ended up getting funding from? I'm sure there are other YC
rejectees who would like to know where to turn next...

~~~
blored
Tandem Entrepreneurs. What impressed me most is that they treated me with
respect. It doesn't matter if you serve hamburgers or deliver mail, if you're
treated with respect it just changes everything.

~~~
vegashacker
I'd never heard of them, but their site looks interesting. I'm curious what
the news.yc company thinks about them. I've submitted

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40615>

to facilitate the discussion.

blored, did you guys "cold submit" or did you have a personal intro?

------
prakash
Mind Hack: If you are rejected by YC, assume you went to them for advice and
not for money.

~~~
pg
Actually, we consciously try to make this so. We try to make the questions on
the application questions that would be useful for a startup to answer, even
if they didn't submit it, and we try to make in-person interviews de facto
consulting sessions that would be worth the time even for startups that didn't
get funding.

Obviously it's harder to guarantee the latter, but it's what we aim for.

~~~
rfrey
You succeed fabulously with the first goal. Our application wasn't considered
by ycombinator last spring, but the exercise of working though the questions
has proven invaluable several times over the last few months. In another job
I've seen $300/hour consultants do no better for a group than that application
form did for us - and we considered that consultant good value.

Sorry to be blowing sunshine. But I'm sure you thought through that
application form carefully and you should know that it's effective.

------
jsjenkins168
There are many on this forum who are in the same boat as you. Please continue
to share your experiences and good luck.

------
Ultrapreneur
Has anyone ever tried to pitch their idea/website on a reality T.V. show such
as American Inventor? I was a pitcher/presentor on CBC's Dragons' Den (here in
Canada) and one of the presenters pitched a job website called JobLoft...

    
    
     any thoughts or storys?

~~~
scrollinondubs
not a reality TV show but i've put several of the ideas I don't have time to
pursue up on Cambrian House->

<http://www.cambrianhouse.com/member/scrollinondubs/>

I've taken 2nd in a couple of their Ideawarz tournaments but have not won yet.
They had the Dragons' Den guy (Sean Wise) join their board not long ago.

sean

~~~
xirium
The RenderJuice virtual render farm ( [http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-
promoter/ideas-id/VlD...](http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/idea-
promoter/ideas-id/VlD2zl1/)) is a very good idea. I was discussing this
scenario a few days ago and the current barrier is the rendering software.
Open source rendering software is improving and could make a virtual render
farm viable within 15 months.

------
rokhayakebe
Never Ever Give Up.

------
nanijoe
Were you offered funding for ClutterMe.com ? Was that based on the content you
presently have on your site?

