

My YC Interview Experience S09 by James (Listia.com) - siong1987
http://blog.listia.com/my-yc-interview-experience-s09-by-james

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MicahWedemeyer
Overall, I like the message, and I'm a big fan of people recounting their
experiences to give everyone else a glimpse into the process. However, I do
take issue with the following points of advice:

# Read as many essays as you can that PG has written. Watch any videos you can
find as well. Get a sense of his style.

# Research previous YC companies. Take a look at the types of companies YC has
funded and see where you could fit in.

I think it comes down to answering this question: _Do I want to do my startup,
or do I want to be a YC company?_ If it's the former, then don't spend time
trying to study and cram on your YC/PG knowledge, unless that info will be
useful to your company. It's not a trivia game, after all.

If the answer is the latter, then by all means read up and prepare for the
application/interview process, as you'll need every shred of advantage you can
get. Everything is riding on the application and interview. It's a risky bet,
but at most you'll lose a couple weeks effort if you don't get accepted, and
you can re-apply in a couple months time.

I suppose it doesn't hurt to do your research, but I think YC applicants who
see YC as an avenue to do their startup, rather than the reverse, are better
off just working on their idea and trying to get closer to a release.

Anyways, good luck with everything and thanks again for sharing your
experiences.

(Note: I'm not singling listia out here, as I have no idea what their answer
to the question would be. I'm just suggesting that all YC applicants ask
themselves that question, be honest about the answer, and use that knowledge
to help decide how much effort will be spent on the YC application.)

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pg
And yet this is the sort of advice I'd give to anyone talking to any investor:
learn what that investor cares about, judging from what they've said and the
companies they've funded. In fact giving founders this sort of information
about later stage investors is a not insignificant part of what YC does.

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
It's another example of how distracting fundraising can be. Instead of working
on new features or releases, you're trying to learn the likes and dislikes of
a particular investor. If you're seeking funding, it's definitely something
you need to do, but it really seems like a big gamble to me. You can spend a
lot of time learning about a particular investor and still come up with
nothing to show for it. I went down this route when I went to Techstars for a
Day. Conversely, if you're working on new features or interacting with your
customers, there's pretty much some sort of guaranteed return.

Still, if you've managed to line up a chance to pitch, it's probably not a bad
idea to spend a little time doing your homework about who you're pitching to.
Just don't go overboard and let it become a distraction (like I did...)

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pg
The really distracting part of traditional fundraising is the amount of time
it takes investors to make up their minds. Spending a couple hours learning
about the people you're going to talk to is rounding error by comparison. It's
no more than you'd do for a job interview.

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
Good point. I suppose I conflated interview and application. An interview does
demand a higher level of effort than an application.

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apgwoz
Good read. However, I was curious about Listia (it was familiar but I couldn't
remember exactly). Anyway, the point is, I didn't find a link back to
listia.com to click on, on either the posterous blog, or their twitter
account. Seems like Listia might want to do that.

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lesterbuck
One common report of these interviews is that it becomes a super intense
brainstorming session for ten minutes. Are the applicants allowed to record
the session? Certainly they are not trying to write it all down in real time,
and it seems that some good ideas might get lost in the flow.

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Andys
Is there some unwritten universal law that says, all demo must fail when you
are feeling nervous?

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dschobel
I'll always remember as a first-year CS undergrad our professor came into
class one day and told us about how he just came out of an interview with this
recently minted Phd for an associate professor position.

The candidate's demo just totally crashed and burned and he was a wreck for
the rest of the interview.

Since then I've developed a fundamental fear of live demos. Rarely is the
cost/benefit worth it over a pre-recorded demo.

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billclerico
being able to say this is my real, live production site and demoing it is
pretty valuable.

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rooshdi
Moral of the Story: Don't rely on Skype for major presentations.

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jfong
Touche.

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araneae
Post was boring, but listia looks like a really awesome idea.

