

How to Hack the YC Application - rjpinnell
http://foreca.st/hackycapp

======
tomblomfield
I'm a little skeptical about this.

Recommendations from YC alums that you barely know should be pretty worthless.
I've been asked repeatedly by people I've met for < 30 mins to recommend them,
and I've always had to politely decline. The recommendation mechanism is meant
for people with whom YC founders have actually worked or studied.

My advice would be:

\- explain in simple language what your product actually does. Please avoid
buzzwords.

\- explain why your team is awesome & what you've accomplished (together &
individually)

\- build stuff, release it early & talk to your users. Then explain in your
application what you learned

~~~
sumukh1
-Instead of leveraging your network for recommendations, ask for advice and tips on your product (then go out and execute on them).

I think they are trying to optimize the wrong things. I'd much rather they
spend a few days testing your business model and hacking on the business than
the YC app itself. You'll probably learn more that way. Plus if your business
model is successful and you have traction, it's really helps your app.

Chances are you won't find a spot into YC, but you'll probably still have your
company in a few months. Which one do you really want to optimize? I'd go for
optimizing the business with less of a focus on the YC app.

------
stevear
I imagine the best strategy is to be yourself, answer the questions truthfully
and have a good idea and not dedicate a bunch of effort to hacking the
application.

It's like reading a bunch of books on how to get a first date. The actual
getting the date is not the important part...it's the overall being a person
that is worth dating that is important. If you are worth dating then getting a
date isn't hard.

I am curious what PG has to say about this.

~~~
gruseom
_I am curious what PG has to say about this._

You're in luck. From the link tomblomfield supplied:

"Actually it would be better to expend that effort on your company or the
application. Don't spend a lot of time spamming YC alumni trying to collect
recommendations. They don't carry any weight with us unless they are very
strong. We can tell the difference between a recommendation that's being made
for our sake (because the alum thinks it would damaging for us to overlook the
application), and one that's being made for the sake of the applicant (e.g.
because the alum is benevolent and they begged him to recommend them)."

------
siong1987
For those who are thinking about getting recommendations from YC alum should
really read this: [http://www.quora.com/Y-Combinator/Should-you-try-to-get-
endo...](http://www.quora.com/Y-Combinator/Should-you-try-to-get-endorsements-
from-YC-alums-or-does-it-not-make-a-difference)

~~~
tomblomfield
Or this <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3667657>

------
pedalpete
"It goes without saying that until we actually make it into YC, these hacks,
ideas, and suggestions are totally worthless."

So they are only sharing what they did, not what was successful. I'd rather
work on my business than spend obscene amounts of time hacking the YC
application process. If I don't get in, I'll still have the product, those who
try to hack the system will only have the knowledge of what doesn't work.

~~~
colbyh
Did you read the same article as I did? Nothing they are doing seems that
extreme and looks to have actually helped their product - other than possibly
reading the PG articles which I think most people should do anyways. I'm
pretty sure using the CrunchBase API (such an underrated tool) didn't take
long to figure out either, as Eric isn't much of a slouch.

Disclaimer: Current Austinite and fan/friend of Forecast.

------
tnash
My team applied, and we did not get any recommendations. I tried to be as
simple as I could but the scope of the project is quite enormous. Hopefully I
provided the right amount of information while not overwhelming or being
confusing.

We have no product, just a good idea. I hope YC gets the amount of passion and
enthusiasm we have for providing the product, not just to make money, but
because of its potential to change the shape of technology.

We'll all find out soon, and I wish good luck to everyone that applied. If we
get to the interview stage I'll be sure to post our application so people can
look at it, and I encourage everybody else to do so. It was nice during the
process to read all the apps that can be found around the web.

------
namank
I would be very very surprised if the man who has written Hackers and Painters
gave as much weight to recommendation letters as this post would lead us to
believe. Then again, I don`t know what YC is like.

Seems to me that talent, hardwork, and all the cliche stuff would take you a
lot farther.

------
kristianc
This reminds me a lot of those "How to get into Oxbridge" type books. Not
everything can be reduced to a process.

------
mirsadm
I'd also like to add that "tricking" the YC partners into an interview is not
a wise choice of words :)

------
nc
Spend 2 weeks on your product/biz and a day on your application. It will be a
lot stronger.

------
eli_gottlieb
Goodhart's Law in action.

~~~
gruseom
Thank you for this. I hadn't heard of Goodhart's Law. It expresses an
intuition in a beautiful way. Really a kind of incompleteness/uncertainty
principle, and such things can have profound implications.

