

Y Combinator Is Now Getting Over One Application Every Minute - himaniamoli
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/10/y-combinator-is-now-getting-over-one-application-every-minute/

======
americandesi333
We just submitted our application and I have to admit that YC's application
questions themselves are a great exercise for anyone who is starting a new
business. I felt that all the questions really made us think about each and
very aspect of our platform and challenged us to articulate it in simple
words.

We are excited to see what comes out of it and good luck to the rest of
awesome ideas!

~~~
camdykeman
I couldn't agree more. Filling it out the first time we applied actually led
us to the full developement of our business plan, right down to the design of
the GUI and the financial metrics we would use. We now know exactly what is
required of us to become profitable, how much we can stretch our margins, etc
etc. Granted this is not necessary for YC but it let us know exactly where we
stand and how hard we have to work before we can all afford to eat again.

The application process also taught our founders a little more about
eachother. The things my cofounders put as their "most impressive
acheivements" blew me away.

------
ChuckMcM
I find statistics about this really inspiring. Even if YC only funds 3% if the
volume keeps growing that is a good sign. Combined with the previous
discussion on China which pointed out that growing an economy by infusing cash
alone doesn't give you the results of long term growth, only innovation does,
makes me optimistic.

Sure there will be a lot of hopelessly naive applications, can't be avoided
really, but there could be some real ground breakers as well.

~~~
diminish
i find this statistics misleading, because one cannot get meaningful results
from last minute submission rate.

~~~
petervandijck
Only misleading if you try to read things into it.

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callmeed
Are there going to be any grubwith.us dinners with YC founders this term? (the
last one we went to was really great).

~~~
eddylu
Yeah we'll make sure it happens =)

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markkat
Not really a plus from the applicant side. It's crazy impressive, but how many
can they take?

~~~
zitterbewegung
I assume they only take a limited amount of start-ups. What they really need
is more people sifting through the applications which you can see that they
have hired lots of partners.

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brackin
Is this a huge leap? or similar to previous batches. I know the applications
are rising each batch but i'm interested in if this is considerably higher
than previous years.

~~~
lucisferre
I believe someone had a blog post recently where they estimated this years
total batch at around 4000 based on previous years numbers and rate of
increase. So ~1600 on the last day seems like it could be in the ballpark of
what was expected.

~~~
brackin
Interesting, I suppose people want up until the last minute to work on their
application, demo, etc. Maybe they just decide to apply last minute.

~~~
jeswin
:) We decided to apply early on, but wanted to have a working prototype out.
Still a couple of days away from something demoable; applying in the next 2
hours.

(Node.js starts off as simple. And then as you start writing serious code, the
flow control and nested callbacks begin to bite. You get back on track once
you figure out various patterns of flow control (or libraries like async and
Step). )

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delphey
I suppose that means demand for the service is greater than supply. The
question might be, do you wish you had more supply, or better quality of
demand?

Maybe charge $5 application fee to weed out the worst :-D

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gunz_rozez
Really nice to see true unbridled entrepreneurism alive and kicking....
Companies like Y Combinator play their part, the ecosystem is really what it
is all about

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frsandstone
Link to the tweet: <http://twitter.com/#!/paulg/status/123509842412445696>

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Jun8
Being someone who submitted an application around 11:59pm in a previous
season, I wonder what makes people wait until the last minute. In our case it
was the big decision of whether we should apply or not (we didn't have a site,
didn't really talk it through among ourselves), which pretty much made the
resulting rejection a self satisfying prophecy.

~~~
modeless
Are you ever really done with something like this? There's always something
you could improve, given more time. Using all the available time makes sense.

~~~
donw
I believe that the best time to start is right now.

PG has said, many times, that he's more interested in the team than the idea.

A solid team isn't really going to change that much over a few months, as
they've probably known each other for years. Show that in the interview, and
you'll have a better chance of getting at-bat with YC than a few months of
polish on your startup.

On top of that, showing real progress between submitting your YC app and
actually talking to YC speaks worlds about your ability to execute, far more
than having a polished last-minute entry.

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hagyma
I was asking HN some time ago if I should wait for Y Combinator, or...

Well, i did not apply anywhere else, and it seems i waited until the very last
day. I'm glad I waited, though as 7 days ago my application would contain a
totally different app. :)

Good luck everybody!

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par
Good luck with the mass volume of apps pg and friends! We've been doing a lot
of updates in the last couple of days, esp today (did the final re-submit),
but we initially submitted quite some time ago. I hope you all find the latest
version of our app.

------
henryksarat
Submitted mine last minute because I went to the ycombinator website tonight 2
hours prior to the deadline to see when the deadline actually was. I've been
busy talking to my customers and creating the product. Glad I had an urge to
go on today.

------
strato
For us it was a battle of making the application better versus submitting
earlier. We decided to make the application better and then submit yesterday,
rather than being one of the crowd working up to the wire.

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badmash69
I apologize for this dumb question but why do I still see the "edit your
application link" ? Shouldn't this link disappear after the application is
submitted ? Or did I screw up my submission ?

~~~
skb_
_6\. Edit and resubmit as much as you want, but be sure to submit at least
once before the deadline (October 10 at 8 pm PST), because you haven't applied
till you do.

7\. Early submissions have a significant advantage because we have more time
to look at them and engage with the founders.

8\. We may have questions about your application. If there is a question
waiting from us, you'll see a link to it on this page and at the top of Hacker
News (when you're logged in). So check HN regularly after submitting._

They allow you to submit early and resubmit if you want to word things better
or if they contact you about something that's unclear to them in your
application.

------
bragen
Count mine among the ones they received in the _last_ minute. Great excercise
-- glad I did it no matter what.

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Jage
With all due respect, who cares?

It could be that much more naive and ignorant people are submitting
applications now than before. 99% of these applications could be hogwash and
disposable. That may not be the case, but who's to say it isn't?

The quantity of applications doesn't actually indicate anything except greater
name recognition and maybe more recent entrepreneurs, but even that is a
stretch

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garydevenay
Good to see the interest is still growing! Hoping to see a lot of useful
things coming out of this batch.

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scottsanchez
This is seriously impressive. Speaks to the value startups anticipate getting
out of the YC experience.

~~~
briandear
Unfortunately, I think that some companies are in it for the funding as
opposed to the experience itself. The real value of YC has little to do with
any checks you get, but the knowledge you earn. I would take a YC spot over a
$5 million VC check in an instant. $5 million buys a lot of Heroku dynos, but
the YC-knowledge/experience is something that can make you potentially 50x
anything you could get without YC.

~~~
scottsanchez
Agree. Relationships, advice and experience (probably in that order) are how
you get on the path to success, not money.

Having said that, $5M or a YC experience would be a tough choice -- would
depend on the nature of my idea. <=$2M or YC I'm going YC all the way.

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casca
They much be very excited to wade through 100s of buzzword compliant ideas
with no business model attached and the plaintive cry of "it's social and
location-based. We deserve some money!".

Bubble? What bubble?

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citizenkeys
Hey, Himani.

Y Combinator Universe still has the most comprehensive unofficial collection
of information for Y Combinator Applicants/Interviewees:

<http://ycuniverse.com/interviewees.php>

My best advice: Remember that Y Combinator is a means and not an end. The goal
is NOT "to get into Y Combinator". The goal is to make something people want.
And there are plenty of resources for start-ups beyond kissing PG's butt for
money and introductions.

~~~
ig1
Promoting your own websites is generally seen as ok by the HN community, but
you should point out that it is your own website and avoid being self-
laudatory about it (i.e. "the most comprehensive")

