Got my 10th rejection late last night. Looked through my demo logs and it didn't seem like anyone even bothered to look at my demo. Then I went back and looked at my application form submission and realized I put the wrong link to my demo.. I spent months preparing for this and I put the wrong link!!?? lol.... Oh well, I can only move forward and continue with our plan. I have a feeling that the 11th time is the charm!
Started a slack support group for ycrejects. We will network, work together and support each other to reach our goals. We need not work in isolation. If you're interested ping me, email in my profile.
It's easy to fund companies that have traction and make money, but hard when they have neither. If YC had some ability to predict companies that do well when they have only an idea and no code, I no longer see evidence of it.
Hey friend, I was pretty bummed out at my last rejection too, and honestly had some similar feelings. Here are a couple of things I realized:
1) Maybe there actually was a problem with the approach we were taking to the problem we were trying to solve (there was).
2) We weren't far enough along for the YC program to actually work for us.
YC shouldn't the the solution to bootstrapping. If your team is solid and your solution is solid, then you're going to get to write an "I told you so" letter like you're prompted to in the rejection email. Not only that, but you won't be giving up any equity.
Not getting accepted sucks. Hopefully it doesn't discourage you from working on whatever it is that you're working on.
they may be sending invites from the categories populated least to most. Just a theory based off the anecdote that most consumer categories haven't heard back.