

Rejection Emails Starting to Come Out - DanielBMarkham

I know some of you didn't want HN to make a big deal of it but I thought it at least deserved a post.<p>Please place your pithy comments here. (And yes, my app was rejected. Or rather, since HN funds teams and not ideas, I personally was rejected for a second time compared to the other teams that submitted)
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xenoterracide
I still wish they'd give reasons why. even if it was a checkbox thing.
'primary reason of rejection: no-cofounder' or 'bad idea', 'need more demo',
'not our area of interest', 'try again with this team and idea in 6 months'
etc.

~~~
kareemm
why does it matter? they're not the experts on your business - you are. unless
they're buying your product, keep calm and carry on - the best validation
comes from customers.

~~~
_pius
_why does it matter?_

Isn't it obvious? Presumably if you cared enough to apply, you care enough to
hear why you didn't get in.

~~~
TeHCrAzY
So you applied for the validation?

~~~
nlabs
I applied soley for the validation. I really dont want to work in Mountain
View

~~~
araneae
You're going to have to get a new account and a fake name if you want to apply
again.

~~~
nlabs
Funny. Not going to apply again.

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faramarz
Well.. to be honest, I don't understand why you would apply as an individual
(for a second time)!

Getting a team together is no easy task, it requires discipline amongst other
things. YC has been pretty vocal about favoring teams than individuals. Put a
solid team together and people will notice, not just YC.

Sorry if my comment came out as harsh. there's no sugar coating it.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Not harsh at all -- I upvoted you -- but your comment was easily made and not
very insightful.

I already know I don't have a team. I already know the YC deadline. I already
know that time stands still for nobody.

Is it better not to apply at all? Did YC say they wouldn't fund any single-
founder teams at all?

Do you make do with what you have and move forward, or keep trying to find a
founder instead of trying to find a business model? At some point you have to
make a decision and run with it, and I'm happy with applying solo.

~~~
faramarz
Fair enough.

Personally I would want to have the highest probability of being accepted
when/if I ever apply to YC. Frankly speaking, I don't have the time to wait
around for another term if I got rejected. I would dramatically shift my
product/process or pitch.

YC is not a late stage venture fund who brings cash to the table. These guys
are making a big bet by validating your idea/business. A rejection from YC
should make you rethink your business/people/idea.

~~~
freshfunk
I'm with Daniel.

If you only try things you think have a high probability of success, then
you're probably not going to embark on being an entrepreneur period. The
percentages of success are very low.

Applying to YC was fairly easy and didn't take much time. There's really only
upside to it. The only downside is your ego when you're rejected and the
remote chance that your idea/startup would be undervalued.

I also disagree with your final notion that YC is THE yardstick for success.
If you read their "whynot" post, it's obvious they go through very many
applications and really your idea could be skimmed and rejected quite easily.
Also, the companies that have come out of YC haven't ALL been successful (no
discredit to those that have been).

Lastly, at such an early stage I think entrepreneurs are always thinking
through changes in business/people/idea. That's just the nature of the beast
whether YC accepted you or not.

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boobs1
hey guys: I have news for you: Zuckerberg would not have done ycombinator. I
think ycombinator is great and all. But to make it in this cruel world as a
startup founder, you need to be arrogant enough to be able to say $25,000 is
not worth 5% of my company. To be honest, if you are not disciplined enough to
moonlight and work on your startup and give away zero equity and actually earn
the $6,000 it takes to live on for a few months to then quit your job and
build your idea full time, you probably shouldn't start a startup in the first
place. no, I have not made it yet; but I'm damn sure I'm right about the
above. Thanks for reading. Don't give up.

~~~
banjiewen
If your argument for why YC isn't worth it is the whole cash/equity/valuation
bit, then you definitely haven't talked to enough YC alumni to get a feel for
the real value of the program.

OTOH, if you're saying that those who think they _need_ YC for their startups
to be successful should strap on some plums, then 100% agreed. ;)

~~~
boobs2
ycombinator makes sense for 2 kinds of people: 1) people who did not go to
stanford/mit/etc. (if you went to those schools and you can't get a meeting
with Sequoia, or anyone you want, you don't know what you are doing and should
not be an entrepreneur.) 2) first time entrepreneurs who are age 24 and under
and thus, do not know what they are doing as entrepreneurs. And thus need
guidance.

for both of those subgroups of people, it makes a lot of sense.

ironically, you can only get into ycombinator if you went to stanford or other
top university. hahaha... this will get refuted big time by the one or two
cases where it is not true; but I'm sure it is largely true.

~~~
araneae
What are your chances if you went to an Ivy but were a biologist there? ^-^

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fhub
Survey for those rejected... might give some insight into how close to the cut
teams got.

1\. How many questions did YC ask your team?

2\. How many views did you get on your video?

3\. How many unique visits to your prototype from YC?

4\. How many hours before the rejection email did they last visit your site?

Ours:

1\. 2 questions

2\. 3 or 4 video views

3\. 3 prototype visits I think

4\. 2.5 hours

~~~
ww520
1\. 0 2\. 0 (well, no video) 3\. 0 (looking for ip from ycombinator.com) 4\. 0

Somehow I'm kind of relieved that I got rejected, as the real fund raising
process is kind of distracting the building of the product and business. I
sort of used the YC deadline as an external event to set milestone for
finishing up the website, which was mostly done now.

~~~
fhub
I hear you... I burnt out in the weeks leading up to the YC deadline. Then the
2 weeks between my submission and rejection I felt like I was in limbo. I'm
looking forward to getting my head down and focusing on my product.

Don't skimp on the video next time... Its the one external thing PG says he'll
(definately) look at. If they like your vid, they'll probably visit your site.
I put links on the vid page to my site, I'd have to check my logs to see if
they clicked them from there.

~~~
ww520
Well, I looked hideous in video. :) Besides, building the product and business
is priority number one, not the funding process.

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benologist
I got rejected but at this point it doesn't worry me too much, I'm on my way
to the top regardless. :)

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freshfunk
I was denied ("rejected" sounds so harsh :)). But I'm still moving forward
with my idea.

I'd love to meet up with other YC rejects who are looking for a support
group-- I mean people to share ideas with. :)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1191553>

I'm located in SF. I'm sure there are lots of bright people also looking to
partner with others to form a great team.

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kimfuh
I don't understand something. YC rejects groups because they have a limited
number of slots. They say it's not that your idea is bad, but because they
cannot fund everyone. Then they open up the field for late applications. For
me, that means that they find my idea bad and they are still looking for good
ideas to fill up their roster. Does that make sense, or am I just bitter?

~~~
fhub
I think they are just keeping the door open for the 'killer' idea & team.

~~~
kimfuh
It's just so demoralizing for someone to tell you that you aren't that 'killer
idea and team' combo.

~~~
fhub
True, but funding is tough... Most entrepreneurs get used to hearing 'no',
they press on and eventually get a 'yes'.

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tyrelb
I wouldn't refer to it a rejection letter, rather understand that they just
aren't investing in your company/team at this time.

Maybe do a "Ask HN: How can I improve my team, business model, etc." and we
can all crowd-source improve your idea so that another angel group would be
interested in investing.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
This is an excellent idea, and it's exactly what I'm going to do in a few
days.

But rejection is rejection. I wouldn't try to sugar it up too much. Reality is
a good teacher.

I used to be a freelance writer. You pitch people, they reject you. When
asking girls out, you ask them, they reject you. If you're a salesman, you
make friends and offer people help, they reject you.

Nothing wrong with being rejected. In fact, it should be a point of pride.
Life is a numbers game. You have X rejections to get through to get where you
are going. You got rejected. Now you have X-1. The faster you can crank the
decrement loop the faster you'll reach your destination (assuming you are
learning each time through the loop, of course!)

~~~
rjett
Out of curiosity, what was your idea?

~~~
DanielBMarkham
EDIT -- Totally re-done for clarity.

You're in a conference. The keynote speaker says something cool. You go to
tweet it to your friends -- but it's longer than 140 characters. So you key it
into your iPad on my app and choose to share it with your FaceBook and MySpace
Friends. Over on FB and MySpace, the longer quote appears and has a link back
to my web app where the quote is stored.

You're reading a political or science article. About half-way down, the author
makes a really cool point -- all the ideas seem to be coming together and this
text just jumps off the page. You highlight the paragraph and enter it into my
app, choosing also to share it on Twitter and FB.

You're looking for something pithy to tweet or put on your FB status. You
visit my app and read the latest quotes from sources all over the world,
sorted and ranked especially according to your tastes. Choosing the one you
like the most, you upvote it, make a comment, and choose to automatically
email it and post to your status updates.

You're looking for the best of the web today. Visiting my app, quotes from
much longer articles and speeches are listed, customized to your tastes.
Finding one that looks especially interesting, you click the link and go to
the longer article, spending 10 or 20 minutes reading the full text.

Your friend hears something incredible at a news event. He quotes the speaker,
links to the video, and notifies you by using my app. You visit his quote on
my app, make some comments, and vote it up. Soon you and your friend have made
several comments -- other people have also joined in. Your conversation about
this quote is saved for you to return to when you like.

Finally, you're reading a book on your Kindle or other device. You find a
particularly interesting passage. Quickly you copy it out, tag and save it,
perhaps also choosing to share it on your status update. Later on, when you
are not at your e-book reader, you can visit the web site and view your quotes
-- along with the comments from your social network and other folks who share
your same interest.

Does that describe it well enough?

~~~
bricestacey
You should figure out your elevator pitch. I would've preferred, "personal
blurb aggregator and it's better than Twitter or Tumblr because _____"

I still don't know why anyone would use this when you can do all this using
existing microblog services like Twitter, Posterous, or Tumblr and it's
obviously already exists in social networks like Facebook and Buzz (status
updates with comments).

~~~
prawn
Sorry Daniel, but I'm going to have to agree with Brice. Strikes me a bit as a
solution in need of a problem -- someone might think "I guess it could be
useful to have" but I don't know if many would think "I can see this being a
core thing I really need to use every day" or would pay for.

I think there could be room for single-use publishing ("I want to store and
share something easily, but not make a habit of it like a blog"), but I don't
think saving quotes and inspiration in the way you've described will take you
places.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I don't disagree.

After all, the entire point is to have a solution to start with, which might
just be a personal itch, then pivot the more you interact with customers.

The pivot is key. You and I or a hundred other folks could debate for hours
the merits or drawbacks of a particular solution. The key thing here is that
there is a direction that is very clear, yet also very changeable. Customer
development is much more important than initial vision, but that doesn't mean
you shouldn't have an initial vision.

EDIT: One of the interesting things I found looking for a partner was dealing
with folks and initial visions. Either nobody could agree on one, in which
case nothing could get started, or potential partners were so attached to a
particular vision that it was going to impeded the required later pivot. It's
hard to be motivated about something you know is wrong (to some degree)

~~~
bricestacey
Is there space to compete with personal organizers like Evernote, but with a
stronger focus on user-sharing? Like Google Reader or Delicious focused not on
pages, but snippets of content?

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elleferrer
Don't give up guys... "Success is a lousy teacher because it teaches
successful people they can do no wrong." -Bill Gross #embracefailure

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jacquesm
That's too bad.

Don't let it get you down though.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Ain't nothing but a thing, my friend. It certainly isn't slowing me down or
changing my direction, although I reserve the right to grumble a little bit.
After all, I may be determined, but I'm not a robot.

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speby
In the time you were first rejected to the time of the 2nd rejection, you
could have done some things to save up the same seed money for yourself,
established relationships with angels/VCs through networking, come up with an
alternate idea (perhaps the one that was just rejected), or just started
working on the idea that was originally rejected. You would have been better
off than waiting around and trying to get permission to start something from
YC.

------
sho_tbt
I got rejected, so sad but not depressed. It won't stop us moving forward
simply because we believe our product concept and there are many things we
could do to get traction.

~~~
jacquesm
That's the right attitude.

I'm going to do an ask HN on the biggest success that YC missed out on by
rejecting them, it's interesting to see who made it in spite of being
rejected.

Edit: Ok, it's up: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1191566>

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nitrogen
Some of my thoughts on rejection, hopefully helpful:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1192204>

Of course, I'll happily continue bootstrapping, iterating designs with
potential customers, and building a market. Y Combinator is just an awesome
way to accelerate parts of the process, not a sole gatekeeper of the startup
world.

------
DanielBMarkham
Hope that didn't sound too sore. Life goes on and in the scheme of things YC
is just a little thing.

Having said that, I am reminded of a quote from William Jennings Bryan, who
told the story of a man getting kicked out a bar for the third time. The man
picks himself up off the street, brushes himself off, and says "I'm beginning
to think those fellows don't want me in there" (wink)

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kimfuh
I didn't make it either. I still think I have a great idea though, but what
really intrigues me are those 60 companies that made it through to the
interview round. They must have some insanely great ideas!

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dushan01
Now I only regret that I described some of my ideas in detail. There is no any
guaranty it is not gonna be shared with existing yc companies...:(

~~~
follower
You might want to read the section "Will you sign an NDA? How do I know you
won't steal my idea?" on <http://ycombinator.com/faq.html> which also refers
to the section on the application form which says "Though we don't make any
formal promise about secrecy, we will try to avoid disclosing your plans to
potential competitors."

------
elleferrer
Questions: [pre-rejection] 1) Did you have a plan B? 2) If so, what was your
plan B and your plans moving forward?

~~~
benologist
My plan B was just to keep at it and build my business regardless .... the
networking was the main opportunity I saw in YC, but I've been in SF the last
week and a half busily introducing myself and my platform to the largest names
in the casual games industry. I'm leaving SF without YC, but I've got the
support and business of 5 (and possibly a couple more) of the biggest
companies, and several have made private offers to help fund me through this
year.

I'm going back home tonight so I can get back to work finally and just stop
meeting people. I find something really daunting about talking to a group of
people but fortunately most have been young, technical, and immediately seen
value in my platform.

------
python123
Can someone post the actual text of the rejection letter. I'm curious what it
says.

~~~
fhub
We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't
take it personally. The applications we receive get better every funding
cycle, and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in
person, we had to turn away a lot of genuinely promising groups.

Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots
of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the
threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are
surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss
even interviewing.

<http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html>

We're trying to get better at this, but it's practically certain that groups
we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd
appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn
from our mistakes.

Y Combinator Staff

~~~
follower
Wait, you mean this wasn't the standard one: :D

Are you _crazy_???

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python123
Can someone post the actual text of the rejection letter. I'm curious what it
says.

~~~
fhub
More interesting than the rejection letter -
<http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html>

