

Ask YC: Single founder company with prototype, how do I improve my odds of being accepted. - mcotton

I am getting ready to submit my application to YC and I am interested in the advice of others.  I already have a working prototype but the people who were going to develop the company with me aren't ready to commit 100%.  In your opinion, what can I do to improve my odds?<p>thanks
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webwright
Single founders get accepted all the time.

IMO, it's a pretty simple formula.

1) Build something people want-- ideally, prove it. Have users. Show that they
log in every day and would sooner gnaw off their own arm than lose your app.
There are other ways to prove market demand other than loyal users. Find them.
Leave no question that people desperately want what you're building.

2) Prove that you can build stuff. Have an impressive and interesting resume
for getting stuff launched/shipped-- ideally, you can show that you've
build/shipped stuff under great adversity. Show determination.

3) Show that it's a big opportunity. I remember there was a team talking about
building a tool to manage D&D campaigns online. That's not a big opportunity.
YC only makes "keep the lights on" money with the 10-20m exits. You should
hopefully be playing in a space where there is a ghosts chance of a 9-figure
exit. They're pretty lenient on this one, I think-- ya never know what can get
big.

(IMO) The biggest risk YC is taking on is that no one will want what you're
building. The second biggest risk is that you aren't capable enough or
determined enough to get it built. Your adding the risk that you can't find a
decent co-founder-- which doesn't help.

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trapper
Out of all the ycombinator apps so far, which would you say satisfy number 1?
The only one that falls into that category for me, amusingly, is this site.

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furiouslol
Even youtube doesn't satisfy No. 1 in the early years when there weren't much
interesting videos in their database.

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trapper
Yes, but hotmail, gmail, gdocs, skype, firefox, delicious, flickr et al did
from word go. Once you started, you never stopped. By all accounts youtube was
lucky, got momentum at the right time and struck it rich. It could have been
many of the other similar sites in the same position.

I'm not saying its easy to develop something a user would jump off a cliff
for, more the contrary. People say it like it's easy, iv'e been doing my own
startups for 5+ years now and still don't have one, but i'm working on it just
like everyone else here I suppose!

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pg
It's not the end of the world if your cofounders aren't ready to work full-
time. It depends why. If they're in grad school, for example, and only willing
to work on the startup on the side, that could be ok, so long as one of you
will work full-time. (That's how it was with Viaweb.)

It would not be so good if they merely had jobs they weren't willing to quit
to work for the new co. Then it's kind of a vote of no confidence in the new
co. And since they'd _be_ the new co, that means a vote of no confidence in
themselves. If that's the situation, I'd try to find at least one new
cofounder who was more enthusiastic.

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dhouston
make a (short -- 3-4 min) screencast. pg et al are probably not going to have
time to play with your app to the extent that you'd like (or perhaps at all),
plus you get to show your idea/prototype in the best possible light.

if you're feeling lucky, submitting it to news.yc can get some additional
attention.

i was a single founder, did this and it helped me 1) bring on a great
cofounder and 2) get accepted into yc.

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furiouslol
i recommend using jing video for the screencast.

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mixmax
I applied as a single founder last time, and nobody checked the working
prototype I linked to. So it appears that you shouldn't spend your time
working on that.

Edit: Or maybe I just didn't make the first cut as webwright suggests below.

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mcotton
If you don't mind, what did you do? Did you go after other sources of funding?
What are you doing with your prototype now?

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maxklein
What's the deal with this 'funding' talk? Why can't you let your customers
'fund' your product?

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amrithk
Interesting to see the comments. We are in the same boat as well. We are a
team of three people but two are on H1-B visas and cannot quit their jobs
(otherwise they'll have to leave within 2 weeks). Anyone in a similar boat?

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johnrob
Find a co-founder. If you think you can successfully run the company alone,
then don't worry about it. Otherwise, you will need to find more people at
some point, so you may as well address that now.

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wheels
If you think you can do it alone you vastly underestimate how much work is
involved in running a company. We've got two people and even working 16 hour
days we're still swamped. Coding is like maybe 20-40% of the total work,
depending on what sort of product you've got.

Start frequenting the OpenCoffee or similar in your area and start talking to
people about what you're doing. There's a reasonable chance that in a couple
of months you could fish up a nice co-founder.

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johnrob
I think you can be a one man band if you make iPhone apps (or something
equivalent).

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wheels
Well, I mostly meant for YC-like startups where you're shooting for large-ish
returns, having to deal with fundraising and all that jazz.

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volida
get a co-founder, really.

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furiouslol
i'm curious to know too

