Tell HN: YC W16 rejection emails are out - AaronO
======
kika
I've applied 20 minutes before deadline, if I remember correctly. I guess the
quality of the application reflects this fact :-) I'm 46, single founder,
scratching my own itch, so the expectations were low, in fact I even forgot
about 28th until the day before yesterday. More importantly, this rejection is
a dead end. You've got rejected now what? What rational outcome you can
extract from this simple fact? I think none, there's no feedback. It just says
that somehow you do not fit YC profile.

Rejection from the potential customer is infinitely more valuable, because
even if they don't give you any feedback (though they usually do) it means
that your mental picture of your market is slightly wrong. Every piece of
feedback moves the needle. Rejection from YC doesn't move anything anywhere.
Or does it? (may be I'm just over rationalizing, I have such bad habit).

For example a strangely large portion of my early kicking-tires-users are
either from government or some security/military/intelligence related fields.
Like some company that says "if you're not from the law enforcement - move on,
nothing for you here" on the front page of their website (they're doing some
telecom stuff). Why? I'm doing some stupid boring datacenter inventory
management! No idea whatsoever. But for me it's a question of the universe and
everything.

So, folks, move on and get some customers. (yeah, go ahead, I'm just finishing
one more feature, will follow shortly.... :-)
[https://www.rackmaze.com](https://www.rackmaze.com)

~~~
GFischer
I think it's a pretty interesting product, it also looks pretty polished, and
I guess it could find some traction among large companies, government, etc. :)
, I guess they're looking at it because they're the ones that need inventory
and documentation the most - I work for an insurance company, and I'm going to
send the link to the people that manage the datacenter - they strongly dislike
anything SaaS through, they might eventually consider it as a standalone or
self-hosted product, but forget about it, SaaS is a much better business model
:) .

But I don't think it's what Y Combinator looks for - it's not something that
will scale to Unicorn-size, it looks more like a good candidate for a
bootstrapped startup.

Edit: some nitpicks, "There is no obligations!" on the pricing page doesn't
sound right. I do like the "Take no hostages" pledge :) but if it looks like
customers might be bigger businesses, you could re-write it to be more
serious-sounding.

Edit2: from the guy that manages our datacenter: "It looks nice, we'll take a
look".

~~~
kika
Thanks! Actually we have "Takeaway" app, which is actually "SaaS in a box". We
just don't want to distribute it yet, because it is much more difficult task
to support shrinkwrapped software.

------
bobsgame
Rejected again. Not much of a surprise since I'm not a good fit- I don't even
really consider myself a startup but it never hurts to try...

Speaking of which, anyone want to throw some cash at a 10 year game
development project by one obsessed starving artist?

~~~
Impossible
Whoa, I had no idea Bobs game was still around. I figured you had shipped it
or abandoned it a long time ago. Y-Combinator is a bad fit for most indie
games with a few exceptions, simply because unless you're Minecraft, even if
you are very successful you won't have a billion+ dollar exit. Because there
are tens or hundreds of thousands of indie games and only one Minecraft the
odds aren't very good for investors.

If you're looking for investors Indie Fund (indie-fund.com) is a good option.
They'll invest small amounts of money in projects they find interesting for a
~2x return on investment (no equity, etc.) Your game has been in development
for a really long time, so you might also want to look into releasing it as an
early access game. That might bring in enough money to finish it.

~~~
bobsgame
Yeah, I was applying for a separate but closely related idea, trying to do a
unique dedicated Android handheld.

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BinaryIdiot
If my experience has taught me anything (including this go around), rejections
and invitations will all go out by midnight PST tonight though the vast
majority will probably be out the door by 6pm PST.

I was rejected but I wasn't entirely expecting to get in. I don't have a co-
founder, my prototype isn't finished yet and I am working on my project on the
side since I would like to keep paying the bills. Oh well I'll keep working on
it, if it can turn into a business when I get some people to actually play
with it then that would be awesome otherwise I can pivot easily enough with
doing it part time (www.simulated.io if anyone is interested in looking at
it).

------
elainelu
Got rejected. Very much hope to find out why as we have got seed round, two
co-founders from top tier tech/startup companies, an efficient and well-
collaborate team, and have a Beta product running. So, I guess it's the
business idea issue? It's probably a competitive market but we are confident
to make difference and our initial campaign showed encouraging result. With
all above, we still didn't get a chance for interview. I don't want to be
overoptimistic. We will continue working toward our roadmap but meanwhile I
sincerely hope to hear from YC about why, as that will be really helpful to
us. Please.

~~~
GFischer
Can you share a link? Is it [http://www.visbit.co/](http://www.visbit.co/) ?
If it is, it looks very nice.

Even if you have a good product, maybe it's not outstanding - I'm not sure how
many people applied, but it's probably even more than the 10.000 they received
last year, so you have to REALLY stand out.

Who knows, maybe you were in 200th place out of 10.000 and you barely missed
the cut.

The good thing is, the market doesn't care :) it doesn't have a 100 startup
limit :)

If you want some unsolicited feedback from a fellow YC-reject: IMO, Visbit is
not a novel idea, and you're competing with Google and Facebook and Microsoft
and Apple, so yes, maybe the business idea is not what they're looking for.

Your page doesn't immediately tell me what your product is about (the value
proposition) or why I should use it. The only meaningful copy I found is
"urgent need of a mobile app for easy and powerful photo management", so is
it a photo management software app? (that might be useful :) , but I don't
think it's "urgent")

I also spotted a few errors in your copy, and also in your post (I don't think
"well-collaborate team" is good English, and in the web page, "Creation from
Today" is also not idiomatic English), that might have subtly hindered you.

~~~
elainelu
Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedbacks and encouragement! Yes, I am
definitely not discouraged. I just feel I was warned about the issues we have
and mistakes we probably are making. We know our competition landscape and
know the overall idea might not be fancy and fresh to people. But we still
believe people need it and will need it more along the time. That's why we
work on this now.

Yes, it is about photo management, photo content discovery, and instant
sharing. Kind of all-in-one solution (not sure if that's bad?). I personally
have 5000+ photos in my phone and completely lose track. I might have shared
5%-10% of them, but I can't delete the rest as I don't have time to select,
and also don't use them anymore. We want to make these buried treasures useful
to people.

Sorry, I am international. Will be more careful on the copy.

------
taytus
YC is just one of many ways to possibly succeed. Not a big deal. Rejected and
motivated :)

~~~
scottbcovert
Great attitude! I was rejected as well and plan to learn from the experience
and move on. Ironically I think a company that focuses too much on getting
into YC would probably not be viewed as a good candidate by the partners.

~~~
michaelZejoop
I commend the spirit and attitude of your post as well, especially having also
gotten a rejection. I am curious though, what exactly did you learn from this
experience? I'd love to be able to claim the same, but given absolutely zero
feedback from the process, I'm at a loss to do so.

I do commend yours and the above's attitude!

~~~
scottbcovert
Specifically I felt that going through the YC application forced me to think
through questions that any other investor/incubator/accelerator (and even some
customers) would also have.

Additionally, since the answers I had to those questions didn't pass muster
with the partners I can either shrug it off (YC is extremely competitive and
even they admit they make mistakes all the time) and take the rejection as
additional motivation or I can take their decision as truth and take a closer
look at my current business model to see what can/should be tweaked. Either
way it can be helpful :)

Of course it would be nice if the rejection emails were more personalized, but
I just don't think that's possible with the number of applications they
receive.

------
montbonnot
When I see some people getting rejected I wonder if YC is still worth it.
Giving away %7 of your stake to YC when you already have a solid team, a
usable product (already live), some active users and money invested in your
business ($1 million seed??). I think it's almost odd now...

Here's %7 of our company. Take it. Networking? Anyone can send an email to
VC's with a link to a product and some stats highlighting its potential.

~~~
taytus
YC is arguably the best accelerator in the world. Maybe you don't need an
accelerator at all, for those who are interested, applying to YC is
definitively worth it.

~~~
montbonnot
Do you need to be "accelerated" when you already have all of the above? It
could be a lazy way to move forward. Which costs you %7 of the company. I
believe you can do it yourself if you made it that far already.

~~~
taytus
Yes. "Some active users" needs to be millions (unless you are b2b) We have
access to 400k candidates, a real product, and real clients (Pizza Hut,
7-Eleven, just to name some) and we got rejected.

Edit: and I'm OK with it, we just need to work harder. We do not depend of YC
to be successful, but I see all the advantages of being part of the YC club.

------
dilipmalave
Rejected and dejected. Our first application. The process was helpful though,
so no regrets. Will apply for the next batch, of-course.

But back to work now. Focus is getting the goddamn MVP done and get some real
users.

Does this mean, people who haven't received rejection letters, they in all
likelihood get invited for the interview? Anyone invited yet?

------
hamhamed
Got my 8th rejection after 4 years of constantly applying. I'll admit, for
this application I got tired of remaking a video with my cofounder so I used
the same as the last application.

This is what I'm currently working on:
[https://www.stay22.com/](https://www.stay22.com/)

~~~
rabidonrails
This is pretty cool! It would be much easier to use if you color coded the
"pins" between AirBnB's and hotels.

------
rachellaw
We were rejected, despite being in the YC RFS' category (A.I.)

Kip is a deep learning search for fashion in IRL stores around you:
[https://kipsearch.com](https://kipsearch.com)

I don't think there was a particular reason why they rejected us, most likely
that in a bell curve we just weren't as good compared to other applicants.

It was great fun doing the application, and we learned a lot! More
importantly, we closed a lead investor/partnership the day before, so even
though we were rejected it wasn't a big disappointment.

------
big_fish
Would love to see some links to the projects you guys are working on right
now.

------
Tirthal19
Applied for the first time and we were a no-go. Great to have found this
thread, lot's of positive feedback and agree on lot of inputs on paving
forward! We'll be continuing on our path forward as well to make a dent in how
professionals network with elloBEE ([http://elloBEE.com](http://elloBEE.com)).

------
joshmn
Comrades: Don't let rejection discourage you, as there are a million fish in
the sea. Just remember: AirBnB didn't have the greatest feedback in the world,
and they're doing all right.

Execute your idea like you did your application, and I'm sure you'll do just
fine, because an idea is only 10% of the battle; the rest is execution.

------
jampa-uchoa
Got rejected too, but it was expected as a solo founder, with a prototype only
on Brazil when I applied. What I'm working on
[http://www.octorb.com/](http://www.octorb.com/) Well I'm done with VCs and
all that stuff for now... Time to focus 100% on the users.

------
algierz
It's the 29th and we haven't received an email back yet. How many others have
not received a response yet?

------
eman2611
I was rejected after getting and responding to a follow up question during the
application review period. I did some research and discovered that such follow
up questions demonstrate that YC is strongly considering your application.
That's as good as an in for me! :).

I honestly didn't think I was ready for YC cause I'm a solo founder and
unnaturally focused on upcoming pilot deployments to the detriment of almost
everything else. If curious, we're building
[http://www.smartersocket.com](http://www.smartersocket.com) (rebranding as
[https://www.BeaconGrid.com](https://www.BeaconGrid.com) in like 2 days.)

------
RafiZ
If you happen to be one of those who received an interview invitation, you
could actually practice for your upcoming YC interview here: Pramp.com/YC/faq

------
MCneill27
Haven't received anything yet. Does this mean anything?

~~~
jjzolper2
Yeah me either. I have no idea, I thought we would get something.

~~~
MCneill27
I've applied twice before (once to YC Fellowship this summer). Made it to the
top 300 most recently. Always received an email either way.

~~~
weingartner
Do they tell you the position you were ranked?

~~~
MCneill27
Only if you are near the top, I think. First time I got no indication of where
my application was ranked.

Still no response.

~~~
weingartner
Got it. I also have not received any response yet. Do they send either a
rejection or approval letter to everybody ?

~~~
tlb
Yes, but late applications are still being reviewed.

~~~
weingartner
Thanks, we are a late application ;)

------
sajclarke2
We were also rejected (www.medirevu.com) but our chat with Paul Buchheit
during YC Open OfficeHours has already set us on a much better path.

Rejected and motivated

------
vigneshrams
Where to find the complete list of YC W16 rejected companies ? I am excited to
see what problem each of them solve.

~~~
GFischer
There are probably close to ten thousand companies / projects !!!

A very few posted here. Mine is not even ready for sharing to HN (for one
thing, it's not in English, the app is not published, etc.), but it's a
"Telepresence" app (basically videostreaming + interaction, like Periscope
only better :) ), which I hope to market to businesses - I think e-commerce is
stuck on the "images" phase, why not realtime video?.

------
Donmario
I didn't get a message at all. Should I be worried or happy? Who should I
contact about this?

~~~
matteob
Same here :(

~~~
Donmario
I filled out the contact form and wait for a reply.
[http://www.ycombinator.com/contact/](http://www.ycombinator.com/contact/)

~~~
MCneill27
Has the contact form produced any results? I did the same.

~~~
Donmario
Not yet :/

------
weingartner
Will everybody get a rejection letter? We have not received our rejection
letter yet.

~~~
sctb
If you haven't gotten an email, please contact apps@ycombinator.com.

~~~
weingartner
Thanks, I have just sent an email. Let's see what happens

------
DrNuke
Rejected and quitting here, will carry on as I can but life is too short to
daydream. Thanks YC & community for the five-months excitement here. Good
luck.

~~~
pavornyoh
>Rejected and quitting here, will carry on as I can but life is too short to
daydream.

Sorry you got rejected. But why quit hacker news? The people here are very
intelligent and have meaningful interactions when it comes topics. They can
also help by answering critical questions about what you are doing. So don't
quit..

~~~
mathgeek
I think the OP meant that he/she is here, was rejected, and is quitting.

~~~
pavornyoh
>Thanks YC & community for the five-months excitement here.

You could be right.

~~~
DrNuke
Hey thanks, just closing windows (HN user + Fellowship & Batch applications):
lots of useful lessons, broad excitement, now time to move on and refocus. :)

------
oucil
No word yet for us at this point, I thought the emails all got sent at the
same time. Pragmatically hopeful that we're in the call queue. :)

~~~
algierz
fingers crossed for both of us... we haven't received word yet either, and
it's the next day? (hoping for good karma!)

~~~
oucil
Heart skips a beat every time I see an email come in until I see it's not them
;)

~~~
algierz
lol. ;-D Yes... likewise. been checking email every few minutes since
yesterday too....

------
andriesm
Really? I thought those only get send out at 1 November usually

Haven't gotten a rejection email yet, so you making me needlessly excited
here! :-)

~~~
andriesm
Ok I just got my rejection letter.

We've got 150 users, some paying. And we claim to radically change how
processes will be turned into running software, with working proof-of-concept
running in browsers.

So don't feel bad if your startup didn't make it.

Our plan has anyways been to keep adding more customers, regardless if we get
into Y-combinator or not.

If your business plan depends on Y-combinator acceptance or funding, then that
probably is already a weakness.

Congrats to all those that got in.

------
weingartner
Out of curiosity, if a startup is invited, are all of the founders required to
attend the interview?

------
dimasf
got rejected as well... not surprised though - the only founder. Well, I'll
still keep working on my product no matter what.

------
weingartner
Is there anyone else still without an answer?

~~~
oucil
I'm still without an answer, put a request in via the contact form, and also
sent to apps@ycombinator.com with an alternative contact email and still
nothing at either :( Kind of a piss off at this point.

~~~
oucil
And..... denied. Doh. See you in the S16 applicant thread ;)

~~~
weingartner
That is nice that you received your letter. I have not heard anything yet. Did
they tell you your position?

------
feedbackw16
The Feedback Offer

(I'm not affiliated with YC.)

I would like to try an experiment if I may.

For $40 I will give feedback to any startup that got a YC response email
tonight. This applies for startups that got rejected and startups that got
invited.

This could be feedback on the main idea, the YC application, beta testing your
demo or website, help with writing, or anything else that would help. I expect
to spend 30 minutes for every application received.

If at any time you feel my feedback isn't helping, I will refund the full
amount. If I don't find time to review your startup, I will also refund the
full amount.

I'm doing this partly as an experiment: this could be a startup idea. I want
to see if it's possible to earn money giving feedback. I'm also doing it as
personal training. I'm not an expert on startups. The more sites and ideas I'm
exposed to, the better I can get at finding holes in my work. Charging will
likely make you and me more committed to the review.

I want to stay anonymous. I want to see how feasible it is to interpret
feedback without knowing who the person giving the feedback is. I believe the
way to tell if the feedback you are getting is useful is to pay attention to
the explanation you get with it.

Although I can't promise to respond to everyone I will do the best I can to
respond to as many people as possible before the November 9th invitation day
for YC.

I promise not to share information about your startup.

The email to reach me is in my profile. I'd welcome feedback too on improving
the process of giving feedback. Thanks.

~~~
pavornyoh
>If at any time you feel my feedback isn't helping, I will refund the full
amount. If I don't find time to review your startup, I will also refund the
full amount. I'm not an expert on startups. The more sites and ideas I'm
exposed to, the better I can get at finding holes in my work. Charging will
likely make you and me more committed to the review.

A bit self serving.. Isn't it? How about you do it for them for free in the
beginning and if they think the advice is very good, then they pay you $40
instead of what you are proposing?

If you are looking to do an experiment, rejected people that are down and
vulnerable are not the people for your little experiment.

~~~
big_fish
agreed +1

