
YC W21 Remote Batch - aacook
https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-w21-remote-batch/
======
aacook
YC W21 will be remote. Applications are due in 10 days on the 23rd. I put
together this Google Doc to make it easy to draft and share with proofreaders.
To make your own copy go to File > Make a Copy.

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P0IzDEwKQ7C8kXKdSm1WQmQ_...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P0IzDEwKQ7C8kXKdSm1WQmQ_BOyV7ejAEn0T1ogrznw/edit)

I'm applying with NanaGram ([https://nanagram.co](https://nanagram.co)).
NanaGram is a service that helps you send regular printed photos to your
grandparents in the mail. All you have to do is text your photos. What makes
it different is you can add siblings and cousins to curate photos as a group.
It's bootstrapped, solo, and profitable. I've been on-and-off full time.
There's so much room to grow. I'm doing the Startup School build sprint
([https://blog.ycombinator.com/announcing-yc-build-sprint-
and-...](https://blog.ycombinator.com/announcing-yc-build-sprint-
and-20-equity-free-grants)). It's been so helpful to have somewhere to report
to each week. I'm planning to focus on NanaGram exclusively the next 6 months
with continued weekly reporting cadence.

~~~
numakerg
I really have to applaud your courage to start in a space that's already
occupied. I know I couldn't do something that wasn't absolutely novel because
the marketing chops aren't there.

EDIT: Absolutely brilliant. Your service is the top result on Google for "send
photos to grandparent" and you snuck an ad into the featured result listicle.
Not to mention this very "informative post" that doubles as an ad.

How did you develop your marketing skills?

~~~
aacook
There are some giants in the space for sure: Walmart, Amazon, CVS, Walgreens,
Shutterfly, Snapfish, and many more. None of them did what I needed: Nag all
my siblings on a regular basis to send photos to my elderly grandparents.
Print quality in the industry is surprisingly varied:
[https://nanagram.co/photoprintingnearme](https://nanagram.co/photoprintingnearme)

~~~
numakerg
Here's a concern I'd have investing in this space. What percent of the
population* prefers receiving physical photos from loved ones instead of
digital ones, and how do you expect that group to change within the next few
decades?

* Within the geographic area that you plan to serve, e.g. USA and potentially Canada, West Europe

~~~
aacook
We ship worldwide. This is a good question. To be honest, I'm not thinking
decades out.

My siblings and I tried to set my grandparents up with devices which never
worked. People often tell me the same when signing up for NanaGram. Products
like digital photo frames are great but require set up and internet. An
envelope of 10 prints can be mailed in a couple minutes and provide joy in
several places throughout the home; after delivering the first set of photos
to my grandparents, I came back the next week and my grandmother taped photos
across her entire kitchen. :)

There's also something about printed photos that a glowing pixel can't beat.
The closest analogy is vinyl records.

~~~
JoshTriplett
All businesses need to adapt to their customer's changing needs as time goes
on; some know that in advance and some don't. I think you've built something
incredible here: you've taken the lowest-friction way your customers want to
share photos (texting them), and made that your primary interface.

You took a real-world impedance mismatch, and you serve as the interface
between people so that all of them can interact in the way they most want to
interact. There are a lot of potential businesses there, and I'm sure you'd be
well positioned to grow into future such adaptation layers; I can imagine a
brand built around a family of such inter-generational adaptations, in both
directions.

------
beck5
For those with young children going to SF for several months made YC near
impossible, I hope they keep a remote option in the future.

~~~
tmcneal
Me too. My co-founder and I both have young children and we were in the last
YC batch. We live on the east coast and wouldn't have been able to do it if it
wasn't remote.

If anyone is applying and is looking for someone to review their application
or has questions about the remote batch, feel free to email me (email is in my
profile). I was helped by many people over the past few months and would love
to pay it forward.

Edit: And for anyone wondering about it being remote vs. in person - YC was an
overwhelmingly positive experience for me and I would encourage you to apply.

~~~
gigantecmedia
Hi Todd, I'm Loc from Gigantec Media. Congrats on your great YC journey! I
will shoot you an email and hope I can learn a thing or two from your
experience.

Great idea btw!

------
imedadel
I was a bit hesitant about applying since it's remote (thus less opportunity
to build connections when you're outside the US), but it seems that the last
remote batch was more than successful. Are there any S20 participants who'd
like to share their experience? :)

~~~
zain
I was in S20 and also W10, so I did a remote batch and a non-remote batch ten
years apart. Overall, it was indeed more work to get to know your batchmates,
and the serendipity was gone a little. However, on the flip side, all the
structured pieces were very on-point -- e.g. weekly talks, written materials,
office hours, and advice.

With few exceptions, I would recommend YC to anyone on the fence.

------
threeseed
Unlike most other years startups should be very wary of going down the YC/VC
path.

There is so much money around courtesy of rolling funds, micro-VCs etc that
it's almost certain that you will raise a decent sized seed round. But that
money seems to be concentrated in the early stages so the competition for a
Series A is significantly higher. Which means unless you hit product market
fit, have incredible unit economics and lots of traction within the first 18
months you are going to die. Or you will just keep raising Seed+, Seed++ etc
until you have no equity left.

And unfortunately there just isn't enough accurate data on what the conversion
rate is going from Seed to Series A so it's hard for startups to make educated
risk decisions.

More and more I think the smart path is to try to bootstrap your way for the
first few years and then go for the Series A at which point you will have all
of the leverage since you can simply say no since you are profitable.

~~~
e1g
To support the statement that Series A is much harder: only ~30% of YC
companies get to Series A (Michael Seibel gave that figure in one interview).
So even with YC backing, 2/3rds of funded seed-level startups either quit,
die, merge, or get hired rather than take-off.

~~~
bignoggins
That is astonishingly high to me. Most YC companies raise a seed so a 1/3
chance to raise an A is insanely good

------
rayshan
My team at LTSE (S17) just added W21 support to
[https://Captable.io](https://Captable.io). If you're deciding whether the YC
Deal [0] is worth it to you, you can use Captable.io to model the impact of
the YC post-money safe to your cap table when you raise your future priced
round. All free.

[0] [https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/](https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/)

------
bignoggins
I did W20 and S20 back to back (had to pivot due to COVID). I much preferred
the remote S20 batch it’s not even close. There are so many advantages and
almost no drawbacks in my opinion.

------
random_username
We, Cybersenshi for cybersecurity testing automation & simplification
[https://cybersenshi.com](https://cybersenshi.com), have applied to W21. I
wish all the best for all the applicants. Can't wait for the results.

------
petra
Does anybody know:out of those 28,000 introductions in S20, how do the funding
stats look like ?

~~~
threeseed
I think this year they are investing in more companies at a smaller amount.

So I believe it's roughly 28,000 -> 280 (1%).

