

Y Combinator co-founder Jessica Livingston shares advice on how to get accepted (audio interview) - scrollinondubs
http://www.grid7.com/archives/189_podcast-28-jessica-livingston-of-y-combinator.html

======
bootload
Thanks adding this interview as emphasis can sometimes get lost in essays.
Don't forget another G7 podcast, #24 on Zenter ~
[http://www.grid7.com/archives/178_podcast-24-founders-of-
zen...](http://www.grid7.com/archives/178_podcast-24-founders-of-zenter.html)

------
far33d
basic points:

1) be determined.

2) know your co-founders well.

3) they like it if you've built stuff before.

~~~
rms
>1) be determined.

I had told myself before the interview that I would open with "OK, we've got
15 minutes to convince you that our product is going to be huge and that we're
capable of building it." Instead, I got nervous and let them dictate the
course of the interview and we didn't talk about the design and big picture of
our product. It also really didn't help that we argued against Paul Graham's
simplified, buildable in 3 months version of our product. I wonder if we would
have got in if we would have said "yes, that's a great idea." Now I know that
one of the things they test for is flexibility, so if they suggest changes to
your product during the interview, don't argue with them.

~~~
dfranke
Is letting them dictate the course of the interview really a bad thing? It's
an admissions interview, not a negotiation. I've pretty much already stated my
case by way of the application. Any remaining reservations they may have seem
better addressed by letting them ask the questions than by letting my
preconceived notions of what they want to hear dominate the conversation.
Plus, that way, even if we get rejected, we've still gotten a 15 minute
consulting session out of it.

~~~
mattmaroon
They're going to dictate the course of an interview to a much larger extent
than you are. That's pretty much the nature of the interview.

You should be flexible, I agree, but not wishy-washy. I don't think they'd
respect anyone who was willing to totally revamp their idea instantly just
because of their suggestion anymore than they would someone who was totally
inflexible. There's a middle ground that you should walk, not just in trying
to be accepted into YC, but in life in general.

------
drm237
Man...they say submitting early gives you a slight advantage and then they
give us little gems like this! I guess that's why they let you submit more
than once.

------
scrollinondubs
sure thing. And actually one more: #21 Inkling Markets->
[http://www.grid7.com/archives/171_podcast-21-adam-siegel-
of-...](http://www.grid7.com/archives/171_podcast-21-adam-siegel-of-inkling-
markets.html)

sean

------
ideas101
I think one has to be flexible enough to understand the pros and cons of the
modified idea/design suggested by YC ... Paul and his team are experienced
enough to have clear big picture about how market (including angels and VCs)
will respond to the your idea and whether little bit of tweaking can help !!
Flexibility is also directly linked to the listening skills !!! Also i
understand that chances of getting selected are high if you have a great team
and they may invite you for completely new idea that they have in their mind
and they think that you can deliver it, to this I think its a testing time
whether you want to give-up on your idea and join the YC team to develop new
idea or do you still want to stay with your original idea because you are
passionate about it (catch-22 may be) ...

