
Founder’s Guide to the Y Combinator Interview - shagopian
https://www.atrium.co/blog/yc-interview-guide/
======
zaguios
I applied for the last YC batch and got rejected. The interview was itself was
completely outside of all the expectations that I had. I had done a bunch of
preparation work doing practice interviews with YC alums as well as friends.
Some of them asked the standard YC interview questions while others went off
on tangents, but I felt I had really strong and clear answers to most of the
questions they were likely to ask.

Unfortunately when I got into the interview, by the time they had asked the
third question it was clear they had completely misinterpreted what I was
doing. I knew in less than a minute into the interview that there was no
chance I would be accepted. What I should have done was try to stop the
interview and completely reframe what I was doing in a different context so
they could more clearly understand. However, the 10 minutes goes by so
quickly. The interview started and ended before I came to that realization (I
did however try to interject at the last 30 seconds with some key points, but
by that point it was too little too late).

I believe my situation was an exception to what normally happens given the
nature of my company, but it was really disappointing to feel like I never got
the chance to explain the unique insights I had into the space, how the
company was managing such insane growth, and the vision for the future.

~~~
plehoux
Same with us at last year at missiveapp.com, the interview was relaxed, still
could not articulate what we were doing based on the questions. They even
talked about some of our metrics at the end, those were wrong, like from the
previous time we applied.

We were rejected, the reason: No market.

To YC's defense... they interview so many incredible founders.

We grew between 10% and 30% every months since. So in the end all good.

Our team was also rejected in 2013 with conferencebadge.com... that time we
bombed the interview and were really bad. The business has now grown to 7
figures a year.

Both businesses are still managed by our small team of 3 co-founders and one
employee and are quite successful. We own 100%.

What if we would have made the cut... who knows...

~~~
stenlix
Just wondering, in what ways are you different from Front (I’m not too
familiar with the space)?

~~~
plehoux
Missive is a central hub for all your team communications, both internal
(chat) and external (emails, Twitter, Fb, SMS). We offer an email client like
interface (thread based).

The key difference is we offer internal chat (no tied to external
conversations) and the UI is more akin to your email client. You consume
everything from an Inbox.

Missive really feels like a snappy email client, a lot of our paying users
even use it alone (not in a team context) just because they like the UI.
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95F4sr5Qdw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95F4sr5Qdw))

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aerosmile
I would add one more tip which applies to all interviews: \- identify all
talking points you want to bring across \- come up with the type of questions
that would allow you to use those talking points \- think of what kind of
hints could you plant in your answers that would lead to the next question
being exactly what you wanted to be asked

For example: \- I want to mention my A/B testing framework I built from
scratch \- that could be used when answering questions around conversion rate
optimization \- I could be asked to elaborate on that if I said: "...in my
life I've seen some truly crazy and unintuitive ideas that unexpectedly drove
a lot of growth"

It may seem too complicated to pull off during an interview, but all you need
is just a few good bridges to fill a long conversation with nothing but
talking points that are 100% aligned with your strengths.

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simonebrunozzi
I wish.

We applied to YC for the second time; unlike the first time, we haven't been
accepted to the interview.

Justin's guide is great. I wish there were another guide on "how to interpret
an outcome that you didn't expect". :)

~~~
heshamg
What did they mention the reason for rejection was in the email?

~~~
simonebrunozzi
When you are rejected before the interview, they don't mention the reasons.

The last time, after the interview, they rejected us and provided specific
feedback.

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retrac98
This is a great guide for any leadership team of any business, not just Y
Combinator applicants.

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seizethecheese
I’m skeptical of the advice to memorize answers. How important is this? It
seems to me that memorizing them will make you seem robotic and un-engaging.

~~~
nsmog767
>It seems to me that memorizing them will make you seem robotic and un-
engaging.

It's all in the delivery though, right? You can make a passionate case for
your current traction by stating metrics with conviction. You can also recite
them in a very rehearsed-sounding way.

I think the point here is to show that you know your stuff. instead of saying
"we're growing rapidly" or "approx doubling users every two weeks", have
numbers to demonstrate your command of the situation.

~~~
rococode
Right, I think the main issue that memorization solves is that it can look bad
if you stumble or pause for too long while you're trying to explain something.
While it's not necessary to memorize stuff you write down word-for-word, it's
important to at least know all the key points that you need to bring up and
smooth ways to convey those points.

Basically, "I need to answer X, and phrase Y is a good way of saying it",
rather than "Better memorize this 5 sentence script answering that question".

~~~
nsmog767
Totally agree with you about scripts. Can't speak to exactly what Justin
meant, but memorization projects confidence AND makes sure that nerves don't
get the best of you!

In situations outside of interviews like this, I've stumbled over things I
should have known simply because I had the butterflies. I wonder if I had
rehearsed, maybe it would have solved that slight hesitation you alluded to?

