

Ask HN:  The YC Application "Check, Double Check, Silence" Pattern - mcu

Something that I've noticed is that there's a pretty reliable series of events that take place before you're rejected.<p>Rejection seems to go something like this:<p>First, you'll notice that someone is reading your application. It'll trigger one of your alerts and you'll switch to watching your logs in real-time. You see what they're clicking on and groan in horror: "Oh no! They didn't look at the wireframes!!?!"<p>And then it's over. Silence.<p>BUT! About 2-4 hours later you get another alert! Someone else is reading the app!<p>You think: "Neat! We must have impressed someone enough to make it to the next round of review! This will change our lives! I need to get ready to move to San Francisco!  I just bought two dozen eggs at Costco today, how am I going to get all of those chickens out to California?"<p>And then it's over. Silence.<p>An hour passes, two, three, four.<p>You spend the rest of the night sifting though your logs with the enthusiasm of an FAA crash investigator.  The next day you wake up and immediately check your logs and analytics again.<p>Silence.  It's over.  Back to work.<p>It leaves me wondering, what kind of activity do you see before an application is accepted? Is there a calm before the storm as they make their way through all of the applications or is it a steady stream of activity?<p>What have others experienced this round?
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pg
You're reading too much into it. We don't coordinate our efforts; applications
are read independently in parallel.

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mcu
Thanks for the response. That's nice to hear.

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omnisci
I'm happy to hear it isn't just me:) I saw the views on my youtube video and
have been f5ing the shit out it since then:) I have stopped looking though,
knowing that I'm not going to hear anything until the 13th and that is still
super quick. I'm used to working with federal grants which take months before
you see anything, so I'm happy that we only have a 13 day turn around time
(and I have to give them credit for getting through that much so quickly).

So to answer your question, "what have others experienced this round", I'm
gonna go with: 1\. "oMGBBQ!!!, I got 2 views!" 2\. followed by
"f5,f5,f5,f5,f5,f5,f5" then.. 3\. "ok, so if I get in, I"m gonna do (enter
stupidly long list of things that I'll forget to do here) which then leads
to.. 4\. I should have talked about xyz in the application, DAMniT! which then
goes back to number 3, then 4, then 3 and ends with 5\. "shut up and go to
sleep brain!" (and then I start all over again)

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bsims
If I were YC, I'd probably turn down most applicants the first time anyway and
then wait and see who re-applies and see how much they've done since the first
application. It's like interviewing someone and waiting to see if they follow-
up.

This would weed out a lot of the wantrepreneurs who expect some external
source to make them successful vs. building something.

It would probably be better at this point to think about what you're going to
do over the next 6 months to build your product, which in turn will only help
your odds for YC.

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eduardordm
In my case, no one signed up. I actually doubt they even visited the website
at all. My video got less than 30 views and I'm pretty sure my wife watched
25+ times just to laugh: I actually look abnormal in my application video, I
tried several times but I always came up looking like a psychopath.

I thought that applying to YC wouldn't change anything, we would just keep
working, talking to users, et al. But that was not what happened. It changed
my state of mind, it made me start to 'plan' what would my steps be once
accepted, it made me less productive, I'm anxious.

Can't wait for 13th.

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hiddenstage
YouTube has analytics for each vid that tells you where it was viewed (by
State), when, how long, whether it was a unique viewer, etc.

Probably more useful in determining whether or not YC specifically viewed your
vid if it's unlisted and you don't live in California.

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eduardordm
Thanks! I didn't know about the youtube analytics. I got 2 views from
California.

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hansy
When you refer to activity, are you talking about activity on a website/demo
you provided with the application?

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mcu
Yeah, "activity" being any indication that someone is reading the app. (e.g.
Clicking on links, downloading attached files, watching the video, etc.)

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MikeMacD
Is it a bad sign if our application video has only one view, from Nov. 3?

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allbombs
can I have your eggs if you get in?

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mcu
You mean my 24 chickens? Yes, you may have them.

