

Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience - tomaitch
http://tomaitch.com/2009/04/16/tales-from-the-trenches-our-y-combinator-interview-experience.html

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eterno
Is it just me, or do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC
interview thingy.

If you care so much for third party approval from PG and folks (not that they
are not nice/smart ppl) but then just go to a B-school dude and get that nice
degree which will surrogate for your competencies in the real world.

BillG didnt need no YC, neither did Google guys and neither did the ipod god -
infact even PG didnt need no YC, so please stop this gushing/blogging over
your yc interviews as if they are like the biggest thing to happen to your
entrepreneurial careers. Its beginning to sound almost like a b-school
interview and I wudnt be surprised if YC starts attracting the entrepreneur
wannabes for the 'stamp' that they missed from going to a b-school.

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pg
Actually we did have a prototype of YC: we had an angel investor, Julian
Weber, who gave us our first $10k, got all our paperwork done, taught us the
rudiments of business, introduced us to one of our two next investors, and let
us demo to them in his NYC loft.

We were very lucky to have Julian, and we would have been even better off with
YC, which is a superset. In addition to all the above, you get other startups
as colleagues, and startup-specific advice.

~~~
eterno
Exactly, and for those guys who do not get into YC, they still have the option
of getting a 'prototype of YC' - which in your own words is almost the same as
YC.

I am not saying YC is bad - far from it - I am myself a big fan.

The only thing I was pointing out was that the YC interview
rejection/acceptance should ideally have only as much importance as being
rejected/accepted from probably another angel investor - which happens more
often than not in the startup world and consequently should not be given a lot
of importance.

The entrepreneurs who are in the trenches shouldnt really care as much about a
rejection or two - its no big deal and even an acceptance might not be a big
deal - but if you build something that people want and have something to show
for it then feel free to jump over the moon.

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pg
_which in your own words is almost the same as YC_

Where did I say that? My point was that we were lucky to get a subset of YC.

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ananthrk
_Make sure you think and talk about your idea so much that you understand it
so intimately and can visualise it so vividly that you get really excited at
the thought of it succeeding. Talk to as many people as you can, and learn
what you have to say and how you have to say it to get people excited at the
thought of how much better the world will be once your product exists._

Brilliant! Congratulations on your successful first step!

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whatusername
Interesting? Do YC refund/pay for flights? I'm thinking return tickets to SF,
plus say 2 nights in a hotel for 2 is probably coming close to $5K(AU$).
That's a pretty significant chunk of the seed funding that YC gives you.

On that note though - congrats guys - always great to see some Melbournians
doing great stuff on here.

~~~
tomaitch
We actually stayed for 11 days - we weren't going to fly all that way with the
possibility of being unsuccessful, only to return immediately without having
any fun.

But we did it on the cheap, and you're in the ballpark with the cost. YC
reimbursed us USD $700 like everyone else.

Yep it was a big punt, but totally worth it.

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abstractwater
An amazing story, congrats to both of you. I do think your long time
friendship (and 6 years in business together) gave you and will continue to
give you an advantage. That's even apparent from your writing and I'm sure it
emerged through the interview (such as when your friend "rescued" you and
viceversa). Good cofounders are rare. Good luck!

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bentoner
Congrats! Did you guys move back to Melbourne after Y Combinator?

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tomaitch
We're back in Melbourne now, planning to return to the Valley in a couple of
months and bracing ourselves for the immigration minefield.

~~~
siong1987
May I know what do you have to do to get working visa in the states? I am
having the same problem right now. I am currently now in US on student visa.

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randallsquared
"I was already so convinced of how much better our product was than our
competitors I’d forgotten the specifics of exactly how it was better in a way
that could easily be explained to someone else."

I have this experience all the time (not just in this sort of situation).
Thanks for telling us about it!

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henryl
What happens if you're building an extremely complicated product (not web
app)? Is a demo still required?

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zhyder
Nothing is _required_ but lack of a demo will make it much harder to convince
an investor that your team gets the market and can build the right product,
especially in 10 minutes. You'll have to compensate for that somehow.

If it's a hardware gadget, can you produce renders of the device and mockups
of the UI? How have you been able to convince others so far?

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henryl
We had an old demo but we have since revamped the entire architecture. Would a
video suffice?

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JabavuAdams
"Required", "suffice". It seems you're looking for guarantees where none are
possible. Think in terms of increasing your odds.

IMHO, a good demo can help you sell. You're selling your team. What can you do
to help yourself convince investors that you are smart and can execute?

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nl
You guys are adiso or something, right? My wife just used you to find a flight

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vamsee
Thanks so much. This helps us immensely.

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axod
Link goes to a 404 Not Found :/

