
How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $6.5m for My Startup (2011) - yesplorer
http://joncrawford.com/post/20378314843/how-i-got-kicked-out-of-y-combinator-and-then-raised
======
skurry
"I sent out a few celebratory tweets but mainly kept the news to myself."

How does that work? Are there private tweets? Like the ones that Anthony
Weiner sent out?

~~~
steveklabnik
If you don't have a lot of followers, twitter is private-ish. There's a
difference between a founder tweeting something and a posting on the official
company blog, for example.

~~~
SiVal
My twitter feed is so private I only have three followers: me, myself, and I.
My wife doesn't even follow me. I don't think she even knows I have a twitter
account. It's all very hush-hush.

I should send out more private celebratory tweets....

------
mef
If StoreEnvy already had "product, customers, revenue, and whatnot", and "just
needed cash to hire a bunch of people", it seems odd that the author was so
desperate to get funded by YC since that wouldn't give them the cash to hire
anyone.

Joining YC obviously gives you tons of other very valuable benefits, just
seems to be some dissonance there in the narrative.

~~~
resu_nimda
Pretty selective quoting there...

The full text of that sentence explains that he "hadn't really considered" YC
because he "thought" he just needed cash. Not sure how you figure that he was
desperate for YC; he was accepted through a chance encounter without even
submitting an application.

edit: After a re-read I understand more where you're getting the desperation
from, but that came after he had been accepted, and was trying to hold on to
the gift he had been given. I think it's fair to say that the situation had
changed sufficiently by that point.

~~~
gridspy
He just moved and lost his team. Both of these are traumatic.

Then he lost YC - the whole rationale of both.

Of course he's a bit shellshocked. I would be. Great tale!

------
state
Is anyone keeping count of how many times this story has appeared here? It's
somewhat interesting (this isn't a jab at the content), I'm just surprised to
see it appear again. Is this more compelling because of the series A?

~~~
yesplorer
submitter here..

Mostly when I find a very interesting article on a Startup, I almost always
think it might have been submitted on HN already so instead of using the HN
search to find the article so I can read through the comments related to it, I
would simply submit it using News.yc bookmarklet.

More often than not, hitting submit will take me directly to the comments and
that's what I was hoping for with this submission but I wasn't lucky I guess.

------
jusben1369
Congratulations on the success and great story. After reading it I would have
enjoyed something along the lines of: "Rejecting Y Combinator; making sure you
and your co-founders share the same vision on how you'll build your company"

I throw the "Rejecting Y Combinator" in there so you'll get on the homepage. I
found the story about developers building a successful business and then
rejecting the Bay Area/Y Combinator lifestyle really interesting and probably
a refreshing read. And how different your personalities clearly were. They
didn't even want to _go_ there while you clearly took to it like a duck to
water and networked like a crazy man. Maybe the other founders though are the
right guys to write my desired post.

------
jferge
Being "kicked out" seems kind of misnomer. I was expecting some kind of story
about how he defied PG or did something unusual, not how the company was
accepted on a whim and were disassociated with the program before it even
started. Great story none the less.

------
auggierose
I gotta say, obviously it is not clear how this went actually down. But if
this is actually true, then what YC did there was pretty much the opposite of
classy. I guess YC sees itself as a startup, too, and this was just one of
many pivots...

------
websitescenes
What does YC have against lone founders? I don't really get it.

~~~
scott_s
Paul Graham explained his reasons in an essay:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html)

~~~
websitescenes
All good points. Now how do I find co-founders in El Paso? I am highly
motivated and will never give up but I can't find anyone here to match that
passion. I don't really want to settle on someone just so I can have a co-
founder. I want to work with people that are as motivated about my product as
I am.

~~~
cenhyperion
> I can't find anyone here to match that passion.

Move somewhere where you can find people that match your goals.

EDIT: Paul Graham has written about specifically this.

[http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html)

------
free2rhyme214
Lol you people are funny. VC's will certainly miss on startups, YC included.
The goal isn't to get funded. It's to build a sustainable growing business.
Everything else is just a benefit.

------
NewMonarch
Oh hai. Jon Crawford here (Storenvy founder). Glad to see this post getting
some love again. Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

------
davidsmith8900
\- Im happy for you. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

------
kirillzubovsky
"Since we didn’t have a car, and I didn’t have enough time to figure out
something better, Janette and I took a $100 cab ride down to Mountain View."

Right, because CalTrain is so hard to figure out...

~~~
gruseom
It is hard to figure out! I've taken it from the airport to Mountain View many
times. First you need the airport train to the BART station. That's easy
enough, once you see the signs telling you how to get there. They don't tell
you which train is which, but if you get on the wrong one all that happens is
you go the wrong way through all the airport terminals. Once you're at BART,
you have to figure out how to buy a BART ticket (not that hard, only half a
dozen steps or so) and how to use it to get admitted into the station. Various
people will be doing the latter (you insert your ticket one place and then it
opens a turnstile and pops the ticket out and you grab the ticket again. Don't
forget to grab your damn ticket!) so hopefully you can just copy them.

Now things advance a level. Your BART train may be sitting there, but the
doors will be closed. People are sitting inside--how did they get there?--but
you can't get in. Expect this bizarre situation to last for about ten minutes,
and just act cool like the locals. Eventually the doors will probably open;
that was just to throw you off a bit. You're on BART! Ok. You must get off at
Millbrae because that's where Caltrain is.

Surprise! BART doesn't necessarily stop at Millbrae. Sometimes you must go
past it to San Bruno, then cross the aisle and catch a different BART back to
Millbrae. The conductor is supposed to tell you so, but often is too
indifferent to bother; that doesn't matter, though, because BART's PA system
is so old and ratty that you wouldn't be able to hear it anyway. What you'd
hear is "shbluwarmillblahcalshulb". If by some twist the intercom started
working, you might not understand, because the conductors are bored and like
to read the script as unintelligibly as they can. So make sure you're an
expert in the right American accent. Anyway, now that you're going the other
way on BART from San Bruno, you get off at Millbrae.

Now you have to figure out how to get out of the BART station. That's almost
the same as how you got in--you insert the ticket and then it pops out and you
take it and it lets you through, unless you paid exactly, in which case the
ticket doesn't pop out but does let you through, or unless you didn't pay
enough, in which case it pops out but doesn't let you through. In _that_ case
you have to find and figure out the machine that lets you add enough money to
the ticket to get let out of BART. That's not quite the same process as the
one by which you bought the ticket in the first place, but the learning curve
is similar so you may enjoy it a bit better.

Congratulations, you're out of BART. Your next mission is to figure out where
the Caltrain platform is. It's nearby, haha, but don't think it's easy to get
to! I've wandered around looking for it for ages. You have to go up the
correct escalator and down the correct staircase; there are perhaps a dozen to
choose from. And make sure you end up on the _correct_ platform, because
otherwise your Caltrain is going to take you to San Francisco, which is not
Mountain View at all. It's far from obvious which platform is which,
especially since after working your way through the maze I've described so
far, you will have zero orientation as to which way is north. You want south.
Actually what you want is "San Jose", because that's where the Caltrain you
want is going. _You_ don't want San Jose, but San Jose is the way to Mountain
View. Fortunately you knew that.

Now buy a Caltrain ticket. That involves figuring out which of several "zones"
you want to go to, each of which is a list of names that mostly mean nothing
to you but one of which, you'll eventually discover, includes Mountain View.
Then do another simple half a dozen steps to pay and get your ticket. Edit:
but don't miss the demonic detail kindly supplied by ghshephard below, unless
it pleases you to figure out the hard parts yourself.

The machine will spit out two tickets, though. One is your receipt, which you
probably don't need, and the other is your ticket, which you certainly do.
Don't make the mistake of keeping the wrong one; if you do... that's an
exercise to the reader. Now you're ready for the train. Oh, one passed by
while you were trying to find your damn platform and buy your damn ticket, but
don't worry: another will be along in an hour.

Make sure it stops where you want to get off, though. If it's an _express_
train, it may blaze right through that stop, in which case you'll be
backtracking on a train for the second time today! (I have made this mistake.)
However, you're going to Mountain View and I believe the express trains all do
stop there. Better double-check, though. But there won't be any signs on the
platform telling you which trains stop where. You might try to look it up on
your phone, but there won't be any internet access, so be aware which arm or
leg you may pay for roaming data; also, roaming data is often so painfully
slow as to be unusable, and the Caltrain schedule if you do find it will be a
pdf you have to download. On the bright side, this gives you something to do
during your hour waiting for the next train.

Once it comes, you'll get on, but since you're coming from the airport you
probably have luggage, and that means you probably want The Luggage Car, which
is usually in the middle of the train and has a rack you can put your suitcase
onto. Since you don't know that, be sure to be magically positioned so that
that car happens to stop in front of you and you happen to see a little sign
that says "Luggage Car" to the side of the doors. If you suck at being
magically positioned, lug your luggage through the aisle of one of the other
cars and hope that you find a couple of adjacent seats and that someone
doesn't come along who needs the seat so you have to take your suitcase off
it. Failing that, sit with your suitcase on your lap.

Finally, be aware that the stop you want to pay attention to is not Mountain
View, where you're going, but San Antonio, the one right before it. Because
once the train leaves San Antonio you'll be wanting to begin maneuvering
yourself and your suitcase near an exit. Those doors don't stay open very
long! If you wait to hear "Mountain View" before you start the maneuver
(Caltrain announcements do tend to be audible and intelligible, mostly), you
may find that the thirty seconds or so that you have before the doors close
again are insufficient to get you and your suitcase off the train, in which
case, welcome to Sunnyvale! Don't worry, though; all you were doing was going
to meet PG at Y Combinator to talk about your startup. Sunnyvale's nice too,
and you saved money on a cab.

I've grown fond of Caltrain since then but will forever empathize with
beginners.

Edit: Fine, I added whitespace, but if you're going through this process for
the first time, don't think _you 'll_ get any whitespace.

~~~
auctiontheory
One of my favorite ever posts on HN! Positively Ulyssean.

The BART-BART transfer showed excellent eye for detail. You did leave out how
Caltrain has a very non-zero probability of hitting a suicide, or a car left
on the tracks, often right outside my apartment - drop in to say hi! - or just
breaking down for no reason at all, delaying you for a further hour or two.
But hey, no rush.

And although it may not apply to the OP, since we know how YCombinator feels
about non-native English speakers, but imagine following all the steps above
if English is not your first language.

~~~
pkolaczk
I remember buying two tickets in hope the second one would be a return ticket.
Then I noticed you don't validate the tickets at the train and they've already
been timestamped. :(

~~~
auctiontheory
What you call a "return ticket," Caltrain calls a "day pass." It costs twice
as much as a one-way ticket, so is actually a good deal if you plan to ride
the train back and forth all day.

~~~
pkolaczk
Good to know. I didn't notice that. In Poland and many European countries, a
day-pass ticket usually costs as much as 3 one-way tickets.

