
After reviewing about 30 YC applications, here's some general advice - SandersAK
http://sandersak.posthaven.com/after-reviewing-about-30-yc-apps-heres-some-general-advice
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pg
While growth is the most important thing in a startup, it's unreasonable to
expect it at the point when companies are applying to YC, so it is not the
main thing the partners look for. Neither Dropbox nor Airbnb nor Stripe nor
Optimizely had any growth when they applied to YC. When I was reading
applications (odd yet delightful to use the past tense) the main thing I
looked for was energetic founders working on an idea that grew organically out
of their own experience. E.g. Optimizely consisted of the guy in charge of a/b
testing for Obama's first presidential campaign, starting a company to turn
the insights he'd gained into a product.

That said, startups should certainly seek growth, because that's how you
evaluate and refine an idea. When you try to get people to use something
you've built, and especially to pay for it, you learn quickly what's wrong
with it.

The only misleading thing about Adrian's advice is the implication that you
need growth to get funded by YC. That is definitely not true. A quick random
sample of the current batch (the first 10 in alphabetical order) shows only
half had any growth when they were accepted.

~~~
SandersAK
Yeah, I didn't mean to assert that growth will guarantee YC funding, but that
growth is the one of the best ways to keep you on track as you explore your
idea and prototype.

At least for us, it saved us a lot of discussion when we could say "is this
particular feature helping us grow?" and if the answer as no, we would move
on.

But I do think, even at the earliest stages, it isn't hard to gauge interest
by showing demand. Sign up pages are simple enough to do.

~~~
mck-
Great article; maintaining focus on growth is good general startup advice.
However, I think it breaks down for startups in the Enterprise realm (not
talking about the B2B startups that provide commodity services).

Firstly, getting traction by number of users is much harder. But every
customer you sign on implies huge growth for your company in terms of revenue.
Take Palantir for example; afaik, their initial massive growth came from a
single, but huge, government contract.

Secondly, growth will never be a smooth 10%/week type of curve -- more like an
irregular staircase; but taken over the long-term (years), it might get you
higher. So taking a granular snapshot of the early beginnings might show no
growth at all.

Thirdly, there won't be many early signups. Simply because the volume is much
lower.

Having said that, zooming out on the macro scale (years), your advice still
holds (growth > everything) -- but it doesn't apply to the YC application
process :)

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devinmontgomery
_Starting a startup is like going to war with hundreds of millions of people
except instead of attacking you, they just do not give a shit about what you
're doing and ignore you all the time._

This is really important. When I first started a business, criticism stung.
Now I love it. It means someone knows you exist, and it's worth their time to
tell you what you're doing wrong.

~~~
danvoell
I liked that line too. The worst place to be is in the nobody gives a shit
category. I would rather people attack what I am doing than just not give a
shit because at least than I have something to work with.

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xiaoma
>The goal of your startup is not to get into YC

One of my friends who did YC said something that stuck in my mind: "Getting
into YC is like getting into Stanford. For 70% of people it's their zenith.
Sure the other 30% go on to do amazing things, but for most people just
getting in is the most impressive thing they ever do."

I found the perspective extremely motivating and it doesn't surprise me at all
that he and his company have continued to do well.

~~~
jtfrench
So true. It's fairly common for people to spend most of their lives expecting
others to give them value. "If I get into Stanford/YC, then I'll be
successful"

It's weird people don't think about the other way around:

• Strive for success — period — and then Stanford/YC will want YOU.

At the end of the day it's about creating value. It's not made out of thin
air. It's not made from a diploma. It's not made from an acceptance letter.

It's made by You.

(hopefully)

~~~
ufmace
This lines up so well with what I've been thinking. If your goal is to get
into YC or some other VC thingy or get some high-level contacts or something
of that nature, then you are probably thinking all wrong. Start by building
something and getting some customers, then find out what else they want. If
you can't get any customers at the un-funded scale, then funding isn't likely
to help you much.

I bet every investor out there would much rather fund the guy who says "I
built this website with this basic feature set, got a few dozen customers and
X revenue. My customers want these totally doable features. If you give me $Y,
then I can hire more engineers or whatever to build them." than the guy who
says "I have a really cool idea that I haven't done anything at all with yet.
Give me $Millions and I'll do something awesome".

If your goal is to get funded, you're much more likely to get ignored. If your
goal is to build something awesome with whatever is at hand, then the
investors just might come to you.

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bvanvugt
This is awesome Adrian - I wish this existed six months ago. I've been asked
this many times lately, and I think it's important enough to add it here as
well:

The best way to prepare for the YC application process is to actually work on
your company.

You learn so much about your customers and product space by actually building
something and talking to customers about it. By doing that, thinking
critically about the results, and iterating, you'll find the YC application
and interview questions get easier to answer - because you'll know more about
what you're doing and why than anyone else.

~~~
malanj
I found that to be true applying to YC for the first time now. We spent an
hour or two doing a first version of the application.

After that we spent 95% of our time talking to potential customers and
building things. We just refined our application every few days.

The questions get a lot easier to answer, and you're not wasting time trying
to hack answers.

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btrautsc
I've talked to a few potential applicants this week and something that
perturbs me in particular is that YC will somehow "make everything work". In
startups things rarely work (at least initially).

YC should be regarded as fuel to the mythical fire... whether that fire is
your passion, an initial sloping growth curve, or a crazy new technology you
just created in your attic.

Partners, the schedule, constant accountability will all provide structure and
tremendous value to accelerate your progress - but the mythical fire must
already be a spark.

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rachellaw
Some things just require a lot of time to grow, either because it's a new
problem or a new technology. We were lucky because both of us (founders) had a
headstart in academia, which funded our research for 2 years. We could chart
prototype pools of 20,000+ people and test out things like scalable mesh wifi
networks and user-persona switching because of that academia safety net.

Maybe it's more truthful to say - "having a growth vertical and being able to
articulate it concisely is the most important." Things will change. Your
strategy will change, your product will adjust itself based on testing,
listening, more testing, listening. Getting that market fit, and _knowing_
your market ensures that you're growing in the direction that you actually
want to grow in.

I'm a current applicant though, so maybe I'm wrong. Regardless, we did our
best in the application and that's all we can do. Now -- back to working on
the company! (it takes them a while to get back to you anyway, no point
waiting anxiously)

PS. good luck to everyone else who applied

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joewee
I applied, with growth. Funny enough this is truly the first time I've gone
asking for money when I didn't need it.

YC has a lot of benefits, but I feel like it would be a amplifier to our
existing success and a community of mentors and entrepreneurs to help us stay
focused on what it takes to sustain growth...

Growth is very gratifying. It still surprises me when people like the things I
build.

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anupshinde
Can somebody help me - how do you show/project "growth" before actually
creating the product? (a SaaS app)

~~~
Permit
Adrian reviewed our application at a time when we had absolutely zero evidence
of traction or growth. Our product was (and still is) unfinished and certainly
not at the stage where we could run beta tests.

To combat this, we presented a concept video on our website[1] and accepted
emails for signups. By carefully explaining the idea and finding people who
might be interested in it, we've managed to collect over 600 emails in the
past few weeks. I'd recommend a similar approach, reach out to people and
communities who might be interested in your product. If they're unwilling to
give you their email, it might indicate they're even less willing to give you
their money.

Once we flushed the idea out a little bit more, we updated the video[2] with
actual footage.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbezr3yDJtQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbezr3yDJtQ)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuQ8NJOypqs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuQ8NJOypqs)

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wellboy
It would be interesting if YC ever rejected someone with 10% growth over 8
weeks or what the rejection rate at that growth is, because I think it's quite
a strong criterion? (given that it's not a totally unscalable business)

~~~
opendais
Well, let us say you start out with a pool of 10 people.

Week 1 - 11 [10%] Week 2 - 13 [>10%] Week 3 - 15 [>10%] Week 4 - 17 [>10%]
Week 5 - 20 [>10%] Week 6 - 23 [>10%] Week 7 - 26 [>10%] Week 8 - 29 [>10%]

Would a growth rate of 2-3 paying accounts at a SaaS price point of $10/month
really affect a decision?

Sure, if your MRR grew by 10% and your starting base was $10,000 I could see a
reasonable extrapolation from that. But if your starting base is 10 accounts @
$10/month [$100 MRR], you might die out once you realize your niche is only
1000 accounts deep.

So I'd say 'growth' is probably the equivalent of a +1, criteria met, rather
than an overpowering criterion that is weighted higher than any other.

That is just my guess tho.

~~~
dfabulich
This is actually a totally legit target for investment on Demo Day.

If your product costs $30+/user/month, dozens of users could mean that you're
ramen profitable at the end of two months, a major milestone. If you can
sustain that 10% growth for two months of YC, you'll have enough money to hire
an employee by bootstrapping alone, which means that you're able to turn down
investors, which makes you more valuable.

You shouldn't ask for (and shouldn't take) millions of dollars in investment
at that point, but you're certainly lined up for hundreds of thousands of
dollars; keep up that 10% growth rate a few more months and you _will_ be
ready for VC.

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latifnanji27
A special note to those energetic founders: don't go after a small market.
That will certainly cut your chances in half or more. I've seen in many times
(and for myself). Yes, I A/B tested the 'energetic founder' YC claim myself.

Show you want to go after something big. And if you switch after (you most
likely will), no problem. You still meet all the big players and accomplish
your goal (which will be impossible to uncover).

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dfabulich
> because growth is nearly the only thing that really matters, if you can't
> get growth, then you should probably hang up your boots and retire from
> founder life.

Lifestyle businesses are not failures. If you're making enough money to live
on from your business, and you're happy, then keep doing it, even if your
business isn't growing.

~~~
jtfrench
• Does YC fund "lifestyle businesses"?

• Even a lifestyle business needs growth — just enough to support the owner's
lifestyle — but growth nonetheless (unless one customer is all you ever need)

~~~
dfabulich
YC doesn't fund lifestyle businesess (on purpose).

Lifestyle businesses don't need growth; they need profits. If your
revenue/profit are consistent, and they're high enough, you don't have to
grow.

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param
I am currently working on a side project that requires contracts with content
producers - think HBO. My goal is to have a technical prototype and apply for
YC in W15. The main thing I need from YC is connections to be able to get
those contracts. I cannot get users until I have contracts. How do I show
growth in my application?

~~~
SandersAK
Sounds cool!

But the reality is that with or without YC, you're going to need to learn how
to close some of those contracts on your own.

Of course having connections is super helpful, but you're much more likely to
get those introductions if you can show that you get things done without them.

So my advice would be to work on closing smaller contracts / deals and show
that you are capable of running those processes first (and you also show
growth!).

Then it's a lot easier to recommend you and pass you along to people in a
network.

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enscr
All good except :

> if you can't get growth, then you should probably hang up your boots and
> retire from founder life

Don't let anybody tell you when to retire.

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the_watcher
Growth > everything is something that just came up in a conversation I had
with a VC-backed startup. My employer is bootstrapped, and I have both EBITDA
and YoY growth goals. The startup told me that they essentially ignore
acquisition cost. It made me incredibly jealous, since I've been driving
growth with positive EBITDA for two years, and I am salivating over what I
could do with a good product and no EBITDA constraints.

~~~
the_watcher
Just want to clarify this - I'm speaking solely as someone who was given
aggressive growth and profitability targets that pretty clearly were so
aggressive that it was highly unlikely we could hit both. The envy I felt was
primarily about early stage startups being able to focus primarily on growth
(and covering as much of their burn as possible), rather than outright
profitability. I don't think companies should ignore profit, especially not as
they grow larger. But having a clear primary goal sounds pretty great.

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mrmch
Startups are difficult; conviction and passion for what you're doing is
imperative.

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codeddesign
So...should I mention growth in my application? ;)

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adam_cl
growth before all else. i'll take that.

