

Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:) - DeanTheHacker

Well... It was really disappointing to get the rejection, especially when we&#x27;ve put so much work into that YC application. First idea when I saw the email: Damn! How could they do not invite us? We have such a great mobile email app! Disrupting! Fantastically awesome! Totally new approach that blows Google&#x27;s Inbox and Mailbox out of the water hands down. Cool traction with early adopters and even a 200M users company as a partner that opens their audience to us. But then the second thought came. Thank you! Tanks for not inviting us to the interview for this W15 batch. We&#x27;ll work our asses off to get into Summer batch. It is obvious that we didn&#x27;t work hard enough to get invited into this one. Thanks for the motivational ass kick! Let&#x27;s talk in April.
======
mindcrime
_We 'll work our asses off to get into Summer batch._

How about just "work your ass off to make a great product that satisfies your
users, and grow your company", where getting into YC (or not) is just a side
effect? Pointedly working to get into YC sounds, to me, like a micro-
optimization, that may or may not make much difference in terms of your end
goal(s).

~~~
michaelchisari
Or, work so hard to get into the summer batch that you don't end up caring
about getting into the summer batch.

~~~
mindcrime
_Or, work so hard to get into the summer batch that you don 't end up caring
about getting into the summer batch._

To the extent that you'd do the same things either way, I think that makes
perfect sense. But I'd worry if someone optimized for getting into YC, at the
expense of doing something to improve their product / develop better
engagement with their customers / etc.

Of course this is a continuum, not a binary thing. Even just filling out a YC
application is an investment of time, that, theoretically, could have been
used for writing code or something. And I'm certainly not saying "no one
should ever apply to YC". I would just get nervous if it seemed that someone
was treating "getting into YC" as _the_ goal, in and of itself - rather than
just treating it as a stepping-stone.

------
DeanTheHacker
Thanks for the comments. We are fully committed to the project and trying to
get into YC was sort of a clearing the vision and putting everything into one
single document. It helped a lot. Though we'd do our best to get into summer
batch we'll keep on doing on what we're doing regardless if we succeed or not.
It is just another motivational element:) Trying to get into YC and making
progress with customers and users are the same to me. The more we are
attractive for YC the better are the chances.

------
tapatio
Are you creating a breakthrough technology instead of incremental
improvements?

Are you starting with a big share of a small market?

Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?

Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don't see?

I'm guess you've answered no to several of the questions above. That's why
they didn't pick you.

~~~
coralreef
I like Thiel's book and ideas as much as the next person, but it disturbs me
to see them parroted, because some of these questions aren't even good.
Especially these two:

 _Are you creating a breakthrough technology instead of incremental
improvements?_

 _Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?_

Did any of Uber, Facebook, Twitter, AirBNB, Dropbox, etc. have breakthrough
technology? Meaning something no one else could copy? No, the first iterations
of those products could have been built by nearly anyone, but wasn't.
Technology is clearly not an important reason why they succeeded.

~~~
tapatio
He states in his book that one's company does not have to exhibit all of the
characteristics he mentions. I think Uber, FB, Twitter, AirBnB, and Dropbox do
have a majority of them though. I think there are much better problems to
solve in spaces other than email.

------
lazyjones
With all due respect to YC, but perhaps product <=> market fit is actually
more important than product+company <=> YC fit? I'd work on the product rather
than the YC presentation...

------
general_failure
Yup, work harder.

