
Last Minute Y Combinator Application Guide - Apply in 30 Minutes - gleb
http://www.glebarshinov.com/blog/2013/10/last-minute-yc-application-guide.html
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pg
Incidentally, the most important question (at least to me) has become:

    
    
      Why did you pick this idea to work on?  Do you have 
      domain expertise in this area?  How do you know 
      people need what you're making?
    

and that one shouldn't take long to answer, at least if you're on the right
track.

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davidtyleryork
I smiled when I saw this question. It's a question that heavily favors people
starting a company in a field they work in and whose problems they're already
intimately familiar with. While this might seem unfair to some, it's probably
an extremely good indicator for investment quality.

~~~
pg
You don't have to work in a field to be familiar with its problems. You can
also be a user. But one way or another, you should understand the problems
well.

~~~
swatkat7
I would agree with you on this one. I've never worked with news publishers
before but we wanted to explore how the need for distribution affected news
quality and what all we could do to extrapolate from there. Ended up spending
a lot of time with a fairly large newspaper and iterating on ideas to finally
arrive at personalisation as a solution. We got away with a product we could
evolve, revenue and lots of insider information about how the publishing
industry works. And, everyone knows everyone else, so they referred us to a
ton of others too! :D

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soneca
Another advice: do not apply two weeks before deadline (like me) because all
posts with advices about YC applications are published in the last week.

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pacifi30
You can always edit your application and resubmit until the application
deadline

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TheMakeA
I'm not sure that there is any system in place to ensure that your edits are
seen. So don't submit a bad application assuming that you can just edit it
later. Make sure it's in a state such that you wouldn't be embarrassed if pg
saw it.

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kogir
Edits are seen as long as you resubmit after editing. There's even a warning
on the application page if you have non-submited edits.

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hayksaakian
Thanks @gleb, I know I probably won't hear from YC, but you know the adage:

    
    
        "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

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gleb
The copy is not my best work. But hope it gets the point across -- a quick
application is good enough.

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ndessaigne
What about the video? I'm under the impression that while a good video won't
get you into YC, a bad one can keep you out.

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gleb
Yes, video is very helpful. But an application without video is much better
than no application at all.

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pashakym
Better why? The best value for not accepted application is the time you spent
on formulation ideas in your head and trying to make it
simple/clear/interesting and of course worth money.

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kisitu
... pretty awesome...hihihihih

