
Y Combinator Fellowship 2015 Application Videos - webhat
http://www.topchart.io/lists/ycombinator-fellowship-2015-founder-videos?newlink
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richardbrevig
Great resource, though I've noticed 2 issues:

* New entries start with a vote of 0, the poster has to actually up-vote their own submission to get it to 1 (as opposed to automatically making it 1 like on reddit).

* The ranking appears to be a sum of up votes, only. Links that are added later (like now), show up at the very bottom and it's unlikely will reach the top. In a situation like this, to get attention, you're creating a race to post first. Consider some type of rank deterioration similar to reddit/HN.

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avinoth
Or is this just a way to keep topchart at the top?

The second part really is irritating, given that new products are at the
bottom of the pit and hidden under multiple 'Load More' with the slightest
chance of anyone resurrecting it.

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kurtybot
It's definitely not a way to keep TopChart at the top. Since people in our
network are already familiar with us, we were getting more upvotes. Any errors
in upvotes will be corrected today. We even considered removing ourselves from
the list, but that wouldn't be very fun :P

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danr4
It baffles me that some people put so much into the video but don't actually
put effort to read or adhere to the guidelines [1] for it. They clearly ask -
no script, no background music, no postproduction.

Good luck to everybody though!

[1] [http://www.ycombinator.com/video](http://www.ycombinator.com/video)

~~~
tprophet
We found out about this at the last minute, already had the video, and didn't
have enough time to make new demos and videos. So, YC got the same video we
submitted for TC Disrupt.

Note that startups apply for a _lot_ of stuff, and we have seen a pattern that
teams that look more professional are more likely to be selected (regardless
of stated criteria). We're also based in Hollywood, so the kind of video stuff
we just make ourselves in a weekend project tends to end up looking reasonably
professional.

At the end of the day, startups are rarely successful based on careful
adherence to all guidelines, and we think our business is a lot more exciting
than our demo and founder videos. Hopefully the YC reviewers think the same.

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rdl
Not true of YC, in my experience. A 1 minute video, done with ~5 minutes of
preparation, is much better than a video from something else with high
production values.

Spending hours on the video is probably worse, too. The peak is maybe around
15-30 minutes, from the videos I've seen of YC teams. Talking points, decent
lighting, decent audio (phone headset is fine), not a memorized script, maybe
a couple takes if you really fuck up.

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throwaysa
Throwaway account here. I saw this on twitter and almost got a heart attack
thinking for a second that YC made all the founder videos public.

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julien_c
What would be so bad about it? Founders already committed to other projects?
Leakage of "Ideas"?

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tprophet
One potential issue is one we're very cognizant of here in Hollywood: being
typecast. We considered this carefully before deciding to make our video
public.

Keep in mind, we're a very early stage company. Our video reflects that, and
our product video reflects the early product we have shipped (although we do
hope you download and try Cuddli instead of just watching the video!). With
the wide distribution and high profile that anything linked to YC is likely to
attract, we may well be creating an impression with potential future partners,
investors, and employees. This is likely the reason why most of the startups
in this competition haven't chosen to make their video public.

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geekuillaume
I've just understood that you submitted TopChart for the Fellowship. Great
idea to post it here on HN ;)

~~~
I-M-S
Yeah, a nice hack :) Best of luck to you from your fellow applicants, team
Q4U!

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geekuillaume
I think some of the votes are fake. Look at the names on some submissions. You
should implement a way to verify each vote, right now the scores can be easily
manipulated.

~~~
kurtybot
It's in the works. We are in a super early beta and haven't seen this much
traffic and been through all of the use cases yet. This is a pretty good
learning experience for us.

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FormFollowsFunc
It's interesting to see what kind of groups applied for this. I'm working on a
product at the moment and was thinking of applying but without co-founders I
didn't think it was a good idea. Also from the application form I get the
feeling you would be "encouraged" to move to the Bay area if not during the 2
months at least after it, which I can't do.

~~~
pkrefta
Right now I'm also unable to move to Bay Area, but I think if your
idea/prototype/product is decent and you'll make great progress during
Fellowship program you're chances for being accepted into YC W2015 will be
much higher :)

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giarc
I'm confused - I've watched the top two videos and neither really talk about
the product at all. CauseSignals is more of a video resume for the team and
doesn't even mention the product. I never really read the instructions but was
the video to introduce the team and not the product?

~~~
nfc
I added a new list for the websites of the projects rather than the videos of
the founder [http://www.topchart.io/lists/ycombinator-
fellowship-2015-web...](http://www.topchart.io/lists/ycombinator-
fellowship-2015-websites)

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danugolini
Is it possible to downvote? I uploaded my video (lacerba.io) and it dropped
from 14 votes to -21 votes in 10 seconds...
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8s3tdqqjy7x4bn/topchart.mp4?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8s3tdqqjy7x4bn/topchart.mp4?dl=0)

~~~
mkagenius
They don't have server side validation, it seems. you can give yourself a 1000
boats. I just gave 3 votes to topchart.

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55555
UI bug:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/duue3q8brs7d467/Screenshot%202015-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/duue3q8brs7d467/Screenshot%202015-07-29%2017.58.34.png?dl=0)
chrome 44 on os x

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abetusk
There's currently a post that has '-19' votes (as of this writing) that
appears at the bottom. Since there are only up votes, I assume this is a bug.
That's really too bad because it looks like that chart item would be second
from the top but because it's negative it's sunk to the bottom.

It would probably be a good idea to have an email displayed somewhere, a
'contact us' section and, ideally, a way to leave feedback easily (without
logging in, etc.).

TopChart looks good! It took me a second to realize the chart wasn't a
Y-Combinator site.

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afoot
I really hope that in years to come we have a great, goofy video of a guy
jumping on a bed pitching for funding that eventually went on to create a
billion dollar company.

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huhtenberg
What's up with requiring a Facebook account for upvoting?

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masterkrang
So that people don't easily game the system. Would you prefer Twitter or just
not logging in at all?

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thecupisblue
I'd prefer twitter, and a tweet button. Twitter is less personal and reach is
bigger than on facebook.

~~~
richardbrevig
Agreed - I hesitated to sign up. Twitter is better.

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ericjang
As of 10:30 EST, there's no server-side validation, so it's possible to vote
multiple times.

I guess this is an allegory of the modern financial system, huh?

~~~
mahringer_a
Agree, great hack guys, but you need to work on your votes. Some votes
disappear after refresh, then again I can submit 2-3 votes if clicking
quickly...

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nfc
I created an alternative list where you can link your project website rather
than your videos since I thought that could be more interesting
[http://www.topchart.io/lists/ycombinator-
fellowship-2015-web...](http://www.topchart.io/lists/ycombinator-
fellowship-2015-websites)

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tomjacobs
Alright! This is just what I was looking for when I submitted my video to
YCF2015: What other applications sounded like.

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chasemiller
Looks like cool product! I hope to be part of your cohort! ;)

Just a heads up- your signup/login forms are unencrypted.

It's fine for a demo, but if you're going to put it out there like this, you
should really throw some SSL on there.

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Tinyyy
Nice hack OP, reminds me of [http://thehustle.co/the-linkedin-hack-that-made-
me-120000](http://thehustle.co/the-linkedin-hack-that-made-me-120000)

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omouse
Heh, well that's pretty good validation for my idea; another startup is doing
it; CauseSignal, hope they do well!

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peterkaoud
Thanks everyone for comments bugs have been fixed we really appreciate your
tips and envolvement you guys are awesome

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ducuboy
Cool hack you TopChart guys! Btw do they say how many teams will be accepted
in YCF?

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mkagenius
20 teams.

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confiscate
Nice idea!

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yangterrence
Cool

