

Ask HN: Should I apply for YC fall batch? - confused09

Hi,<p>I have a business background and I am non-technical. I started 2 small ventures as a teenager (both were profitable), and after that I have been in the regular corporate job for about a decade. Most of the places I interviewed for a job, they often suggested that I consider doing my own business as that's what lights me up during the discussions. I too wanted to, but never really got to it until recently. Though I have been involved with a lot of startup and related activities over the years.<p>I often faced a problem while at work, and started looking for available tools to solve that problem - couldn't find anything that directly solved this problem, though there are some round-about solutions available and off late, a few startups are trying to solve similar/related problem.<p>I thought that there might be others like me facing the same problem, so I went out asking my business associates and friends if they too faced the same problem - many said yes. Then I started thinking about a solution for this problem. The next step for me was to validate the business idea and the problem further. I met with a couple of senior executives from the silicon valley startup community - most of them said that the problem is worth solving, and encouraged me to go build a prototype solution. Since I am non-technical and the tool would require hackers to build it, so I thought of getting further validation from potential users - again, I got encouraging feedback. By then, I knew I had to do something about it.<p>So, I asked few engineer friends to help build the prototype. Though we didn't really get any far - as they had other commitments and couldn't spend the time required. Then, I started looking outside for potential technical co-founder - a Stanford student agreed to help out. Plus, I also roped in another solid technical guy as my advisor. We have built a very basic version of our app, and we are planning to go for a private alpha next month - and work with real users in shaping our application/tool.<p>I was also thinking of applying for the YC fall batch. But then suddenly, my Stanford co-founder decided to scale back his involvement as he has too many things going on in his life, and he feels he wouldn't be able to commit time required by our startup. Since our app is almost ready (some bugs need to be fixed), I hired a freelancer to help me finish the remaining work, so we can go ahead with our private alpha next month. Meanwhile, I am also looking for another technical co-founder.<p>But for now, I am a single, non-technical, female founder of a software startup, debating whether it is worth it to apply for YC right now and what are my chances. Having some traction for my app will make my case a bit stronger, but it will take some time to build that traction and YC application deadline is October 19th.<p>I thought of turning to the HN community for advice. What would you recommend?<p>Thanks.
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pg
Since we care most about the people, it's hard to say without knowing more
about you as an individual. But I get the impression you're rushing to make a
deadline. You may want to consider simply waiting till the next cycle, which
is only another 6 months more.

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confused09
If my Stanford co-founder wouldn't have scaled back his involvement recently,
we were just on track to apply for the YC fall batch. Now, when he is not
there as technical co-founder, the situation does becomes different. Earlier,
our chances would have been good as we brought in a decent balance of
complimentary skills to the founding team - we could have managed w/o traction
(if I may say so). But as a single non-technical co-founder, showing traction
becomes a must-have.

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thaumaturgy
afaik yc doesn't penalize you for applying multiple times, and there's no cost
to do it, other than the time involvement.

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confused09
It maybe true that YC won't penalize me for applying multiple times. Like I
mentioned in my other response here, I would be far more confident of applying
at this stage if I had a technical co-founder or traction. W/o either of
these, my case doesn't appear very strong, at least for now... and that's why
I have been going back-and-forth about applying right now or not.

Also, YC fall deadline is about 3 weeks away, and I don't want to make a hasty
move wrt finding a technical co-founder.

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MK5
It costs nothing to try, right? But don't apply-gamble to get in Yc quickly,
imo. Do your stuff and when you think you are ready, go for it.

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confused09
You are right - gambling does not make sense here. In the current situation,
if I had either the technical co-founder, or demonstrated traction for my app,
I would have been far more confident of my YC application.

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jtchang
Hi. Send me an e-mail (in my profile) if you are interested at all in a
technical cofounder.

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confused09
thanks, will check out your profile and ping then.

