
How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle  - sjtgraham
http://swaggadocio.com/post/37188318276/how-i-got-a-yc-interview-as-a-single-founder-and-blew
======
CaveTech
Honestly I don't get it. While the story is cool, it really just seems like
you're comfortable blowing several thousand dollars on what, lets be honest,
is a very, very unlikely chance at securing a domain name.

I know this story speaks of SV culture in some way; huge risk, huge rewards
and the idea that no one can stop you. If the venture pays off, it makes you a
hero. If it doesn't, well you get a cool story. But you're aiming to be head
of your own company, you need to make wise business decisions. This doesn't
look like one, and just shows (me) that you're willing to make large gambles
for a chance at winning the lottery. Where do you draw the line?

~~~
paulsutter
Good domains are valuable, so a few thousand pounds is a small amount to risk.
Zap.com is a really good domain. His approach was smart. A billionaire is too
busy to discuss the sale of a domain, but if you do manage to catch his
interest, he may well give it to you free/cheap because it isn't an asset he
spends time worrying about.

I love the conservative objections here. Stunts like this only work if most
people aren't willing to try (EDIT - thanks).

EDIT: Outlandish stunts are the best way to improve your hustling abilities.
If you have the time and money to try it, you win either way.

~~~
chollida1
> A billionaire is too busy to discuss the sale of a domain, but if you do
> manage to catch his interest, he may well give it to you free/cheap because
> it isn't an asset he spends time worrying about.

From what I read, it was the hedge fund not the billionaire that had the
domain.

if that's the case, then the problem is that the fund is carrying the domain
on their books for some value, say $100,000.

If they give it away for "free/cheap" then they report a loss of $100,000 to
not only their investors but also themselves, presumably they are invested in
their own fund:)

no one is going to let someone else at the fund just give away $100,000 of
gains.

~~~
rdl
No real difference between the baller at his own hedge fund and the fund.

~~~
chollida1
umm, I think you'd feel different if you were an investor in the fund and the
principles just started giving your money away :)

Remember the money isn't just the owners, it belongs to the limited partners,
ie the people who put money into the fund.

~~~
rdl
He's already been investigated (or prosecuted, I forget) for expensing
personal stuff at the fund. But really, it would be easy to consider it an
investment, or buy the asset personally and then invest it personally. Whether
or not a small asset like that is his personally or the fund's doesn't affect
his decision making.

~~~
chollida1
> He's already been investigated (or prosecuted, I forget) for expensing
> personal stuff at the fund.

Are we still talking about the same thing here?

> or buy the asset personally and then invest it personally.

Yes he could obviously do this, but he can't just give part of hte funds
assets away, which is what I was clarifying.

------
_hgt1
> "PG knew exactly what I wanted to do, it was the quickest anyone has grokked
> my idea. I could almost see this divide conquer algorithm working in his
> brain as he traversed the idea space, it was spectacular to behold."

These PG hagiographies are getting good.

~~~
wilfra
hag·i·og·ra·phy/ˌhagēˈägrəfē/ Noun: The writing of the lives of saints.

:)

~~~
jgross206
One of my favorite words

------
Peroni
_...PG hit me with a particular question about acquiring a particular type of
user, one I should have been able to answer, one I’d practiced dozens of times
over the past few days, one I had several strong answers to. I don’t
understand why, but my mind simply went blank. The interview ended a minute or
two after._

Sounds like an incredibly minor detail to base the decision on considering
everything else appeared to go well. I've no doubt PG and the team are all
about small details but that doesn't quite add up for me.

Either way Steve, you did great to get as far as you did and a YC rejection is
only a minor hurdle along the way so best of luck bud.

------
tzm
Fwiw, I had a very similar YC experience as a solo founder in front of PG,
Trevor, Robert and Jessica (S12). After the rejection email I had an
acquisition offer from a market leader (term sheet). Decided to turn it down
and raise a round. Going after the market. Currently closing with top-tier
investors and launching product.

~~~
tomasien
We need to collect these stories

------
richardofyork
First, thank you very much for detailing your Y Combinator experience with the
rest of us; you will no doubt help out many other startups planning to apply
to Y Combinator.

During the entire interview, I imagine PG and his partners were likely
analyzing and processing your idea, your capacity to execute your idea, and
your potential to succeed compared with the potential for other top-tiered
candidates to succeed. Also, they were likely looking for signs, any sign
(based on prior failures), that were predictor of failure.

In my opinion, you were likely turned down because either they weren't
convinced that you (along with your idea) have the potential to succeed more
than the candidates they were considering, or your case showed signs of
potential failure. Note that the signs of potential failure is not necessarily
reflective of you or your idea, it is simply based on actual factors that Y
Combinators have seen in startups that had eventually failed. I have read
about this from PG himself right here on HN.

If Y Combinator turned down a potentially primed-to-succeed applicant because
the applicant did not convincingly answer one question (while being very
convincing on all the other questions), then I am definitely mistaken about
all I have read about PG and Y Combinator. These chaps are well-reasoned and
thoroughly experienced investors, I don't think they will turn down a
potential DropBox for missing one question—well, I hope not.

------
leoh
Do these "how I blew it" articles make anyone else uncomfortable? They always
seem so self-deprecating, presumptuous, and often very seriously glorify YC
and/or PG. Reflecting on an experience, especially one that you were hopeful
about, but didn't go the way you wanted is good. But being so attached......

------
sjtgraham
Further to the money fixation. Has no one considered that I might have
actually tried to raise money from Falcone? When I get him in a room, you can
bet that I'll be trying to get the domain and some capital from him before
I'll try to buy it off of him with my own cash. What do you think is more
likely to be successful, a billionaire throwing down a relatively small amount
of coin to invest or him hearing out an offer to acquire the domain for 5-6
figures without laughing me out of the room. We might have different values
but to me 2-3 grand for a holiday and a roll of that dice is chump change.

~~~
jackgavigan
Wait. Isn't Falcone one of the bad guys in 'Batman Begins'?

~~~
MrMan
Falcone is a punch line in Real Life. This whole story is ridiculous on many
levels. If Robert Altman were alive he would remake "The Player" set in
HackerNews, err, Silicon Valley.

------
ChaseB
"but when I finished I filled the BCC with as many permutations of what his
email address could be and then hit send."

I've figured out a great way around this. Install rapportive in gmail, compose
a new message and start guessing emails. If the email is correct, rapportive
will pull up all the information for that person. Bingo! There's the correct
address!

~~~
sjtgraham
Tried that!

------
nicholassmith
After the story of you flying over to doorstep a hedge fund manager,
navigating the many layers to get there and ultimately solving the problem, I
don't see YC saying no to be a problem.

Learning experiences and such, grind it out and keep going.

~~~
hack_edu
Yes, though the problem they likely saw was he virtually has no product,
business plan, nor seems interested in selling it as much as himself. Its a
trope you see here in the post mortem after every YC season selection.

"I hacked the process and all I got was this stinking blog post."

Edit: This front-paging HN will more than likely land him a job somewhere, for
better of for worse, and was likely his real goal in writing it.

~~~
nicholassmith
He did say that he had a product ready to demo but they didn't want to see it.

Selling yourself is almost as important as the idea, if you have the best idea
in the world but you seem a bit wishy washy then no one is going to be
interested, but if you can sell yourself and get them to believe almost
anything is possible in your hands then you're in with a better chance.

~~~
sharkweek
I have seen PG and others on numerous occasions say they're interested in the
smartest of people, some of whom may just have a bad idea and need mentoring
in that regard.

It's a lot easier to point a smart/hard working person in the right direction

------
vc2012
You shouldn't have left Silicon Valley so soon. There are several VCs who
would have had a meeting with you.

~~~
salimmadjd
I sent him an email with a similar thought. The fact that he left and didn't
try other venues could make some people question his true grit. I liked his
story and wanted to meet him just to hear the story in person.

------
tchock23
I also went through the single founder interview experience and blew it, but
for different reasons.

I had the domain knowledge and experience, but PG said my demo was too simple
(which it admittedly was - it was a MVP to test some assumptions I had about
the market).

It was an intense, yet very fun 10 minutes of my life...

------
julien_c
Great post, but your choice of colors make reading it incredibly hard on my
eyes (it's the end of the day here).

~~~
sjtgraham
What's the easiest to read Tumblr theme? I'll happily change it. Sorry it
makes it difficult to read.

~~~
julien_c
The fact that I read it through is proof to how compelling your post is. Your
story on trying to get the domain name by all (reasonable) means really
resonated with me. Are you based in London?

~~~
sjtgraham
Yessir! Email address in HN profile. Hit me up.

------
hornbaker
From Reuters: Zap.Com Corporation, incorporated in 1999, is a shell company.
The Company was established for the purpose of creating and operating a global
network of independently owned Web sites. Harbinger Group Inc., the Company's
principal stockholder owns approximately 98% of its outstanding common stock.
As of December 31, 2011, the Company has no business operations. During the
year ended December 31, 2011, the Company had no revenue.

"So you're telling me there's a chance." - Lloyd

Zap _is_ a great name. But there's no harm in starting with PayWithZap.com,
like you're currently doing, then acquiring zap.com down the road when you
have real capital or revenue. Owning zap.com now is a premature optimization,
a nice-to-have.

------
gadders
To be honest I thought this was going to be the usual YC navel-gazing, but
actually found it to be an amusing, interesting read.

------
SagelyGuru
I would not give money to a guy who writes on black background either.

~~~
sixQuarks
I stopped reading after the first paragraph. Dark background/white text is
absolutely horrible.

------
seunosewa
If your business is good, answering a single question incorrectly should not
cause a good investor not to invest in it. If your business is bad, answering
a single question correctly should not lead to an investment.

A single answer should not be the difference between getting an investment and
not getting one. Can you imagine Warren Buffett passing over a stock he was
prepared to buy just because the CEO couldn't answer a particular question
instantly?

------
joshbert
Most people would rather have an excuse to fail than have a reason to be
successful.

------
sammachin
Firstly great story and very entertaining :-) Certainly i would have used it
on the application as it makes you stand out and gives the interviewers
something interesting to ask about, thats what application forms are for after
all.

When it comes to jumping on a plane to try and blag the domain name I think
its actually a pretty smart move, on the open market that name would have gone
for 6 or 7 figures certainly far more than you could have afforded on seed
funding, in which case its worth dropping a grand or so as a gamble that you
might get it for much less, I'm guessing you were hoping they'd say they
weren't using it and just sign it over to you?

Hey you took a chance and gambled 1000 bucks in the hope of it paying off many
times over, it didn't but thats life.

Best of luck man :-)

------
eduardordm
I own a credit card company and maybe I could help you. I'll send an email
later today :D

------
mlinsey
I don't know if recs are weighted based on that particular recommender's
history, but they are definitely weighted based on how well the recommender
knows the applicant, and how strong the recommendation is.

I still recommend that applicants seek out YC alumni when applying, but this
is because they will give you good feedback on your application and advice on
the interview process, not because their recommendation of someone they met
once over coffee will move the needle.

------
jdevonport
Remember seeing you introduce Twillio at Tomorrow's Web a while back and was
hugely impressed.

I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of very cool stuff from Zap in the
future ;-)

------
srameshc
I love the story. The title of this story sounded like it was a note venting
out frustration and telling everyone that though dejected, I will make it
without YC. But unlike the title, you are so full of positive energy and I
hope others at YC could have seen that. I am sure you will make you dream come
true. Keep hustling and wishing you the very best of luck.

~~~
sjtgraham
Thank you!

------
dorkrawk
Sort of off-topic but I thought that the use of "take a punt" was interesting.
Before I realized he was European, I thought it a strange phrase. Obviously in
(soccer) football, taking a punt (a kick to try to score) would be a good
thing, but it first registered to me as an (American) football reference of
punting (rather than going for a touchdown).

------
bconway
If there's one thing that administering, taking part in, or hearing about
interviews over the past few decades has taught me, it's that you never did as
_adjective_ as you think you did. In fact, you're usually pretty far off the
mark.

------
usagishouse
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc>

Great story. Shows just a glimpse of the many different angles you need to
take as an entrepreneur to try and make things work. (or not work)

------
tvladeck
I don't know if this story is illustrative, helpful, or whatever. But to me
it's a damn fine read.

------
Kiro
How much is zap.com worth? I would imagine at least 6 figures.

------
brador
Anyone got a TLDR on this? It looks interesting, but I don't have the minutes
to read it to get the juice.

~~~
Irregardless
Spent lots of time and money stalking a big time hedge fund manager in an
attempt to acquire Zap.com domain. Failed to acquire domain, but still
considers this a "life hack" because the manager downloaded his business plan.

Later, messed up one question in YC interview and got rejected.

Baffling...

~~~
ragmondo
How do we know the guy downloaded his plan? It could have been anybody - a
deputy, underling, hell, even the secretary that absolutely refused him
access. It doesn't matter that the CEO was running a hedge fund, I guarantee
you he knows how to type in "how much is my domain worth" into google to get a
rough figure for it.

In my earlier and somewhat more flush years, I used to have a saying "just
throw money at the problem until it goes away". And you know what.. it worked.
Well .. until I ran out of cash that is. This is what this sounds like to me.
Flying London to New York on the off chance to meet this guy? One would have
been better off finding out what gym he's a member of, which bars he drinks
at, where he shops etc one was that desperate. mini-rant over.

------
wilfra
zap.com is a public company <http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ZPCM>

That probably explains why there is little interest in selling you the domain.
It would probably be a huge PITA for them, even if they wanted to do it.

~~~
mrkmcknz
From what I can see ZPCM isn't a public company it trades on what is referred
to as the pink sheets.

It has no revenue or business activity meaning it was probably once a public
company or had the intention of becoming one.

------
Murkin
tl;dr;

1\. Spent lots of time and money(thousands of pounds) trying to meet with CEO
of hedge fund just to get one of the domains in their portfolio. 2\. Failed.
3\. Explained that he is co-founder of twillio europe. 4\. Used above story as
some kind of self proof of ability 5\. Decided that he failed YC interview
because of a silly mistake 6\. Drew lots of lessons and conclusions.

 _yawn_

~~~
stephengillie
I'm kind-of amazed at how much this person was willing to spend at the drop of
a hat. I see someone carelessly jumping on planes, spending thousands of
dollars without blinking, and I start to wonder if the person may be bipolar
and experiencing a manic episode.

~~~
objclxt
> _"I start to wonder if the person may be bipolar and experiencing a manic
> episode._ "

...I would think that depends on how many thousands of dollars you have in the
bank. It would be nuts to do this if you had no money to your name and were
struggling to make ends meet, sure. But if you're got a high disposable
income, or you know you can make it up with work, why not?

I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Stevie, and I know nothing about his
financial situation. I suspect neither do you. Regardless, you could easily
cover the cost of a last-minute LHR-NYC flight with three, four days of
contracting (I should know, I used to freelance iOS in London). Doesn't seem
_quite_ so crazy when you frame it like that.

What I probably _wouldn't_ do is throw around the idea that simply because
somebody buys a ticket on a whim that makes them a manic depressive.

~~~
wpietri
To me it wasn't just the cost, it was jumping on a plane instantly when there
was no particular advantage to it.

Salespeople who are too aggressive frighten prospects, and his target is a
billionaire who hears from all sorts of people who want something from him. If
he were sincerely after the Zap name, I think he would have been much better
off pursuing it consistently over 6 months, rather than in a dramatic,
unprepared rush. Especially since this particular name is a nice-to-have.

