Congratulations to everyone who got invited to interview.
And everyone else, remember, YC can help you get to where you want to go faster, but isn't everything. Don't give up and you will make it anyway.
The funny thing is, we had no intention to apply to YC originally, but once we did, you start to dream about how it could change your life. How that might be the defining boost and help you need to succeed.
The nice thing about cofounders is they help you stay positive. We are currently working on game related software, which is not exactly your typical YC company, but we thought it was a decent enough concept. We plan to keep pushing forward, maybe try a kickstarter.
Unfortunately this means I will have to go back to getting a job again, with $36.43 in my bank account, I pretty much am on empty...
People that run incubators are amazing human beings, but they're not fortune tellers.
I'm a mentor for a much less prestigious accelerator program, I've sold a company, I've selected companies for our local angel network, and I've had business ideas flop, funding doors close, and (much earlier) been rejected from schools I wanted to attend.
A few lessons learned:
1) application processes at this scale are very inaccurate at picking successful companies. at some level you entered a lottery with a merit component. that doesn't mean YOU got a fair, deep, true look.
2) investors/mentors surprisingly often don't necessarily know wtf they're talking about. When they're in an area they don't know about, some of them get hyper critical and knee jerk dismissive. Take any criticisms with a grain of salt. Since you don't know who at YC saw your app, you can't judge their ability to judge it. If you want to double-check your work, get feedback from someone who has built a similar business... that means the business drivers were the same (if consumer- same traffic gen strategies; if b2b- selling into same spot in similar orgs).
3) Startups are truly 50% skill and 50% luck. The key is to stay lean so you can stay in the game, solve the smallest problem that's interesting (@ev), and get it in front of real users and iterate.
Keep your head down and keep learning, and luck will find you. It's a cliche, but I'll just say it because it's true in my experience: people who succeed are willing to do things that others won't. You're at a point where you may have to make some tough decisions about how to manage your time. If you believe there's merit in your business, make the sacrifices to continue working on it.
We didn't even hear about Y-Combinator until the week before, but I'd echo notdarkyet's comments about how you start to dream. Either way, the process has already been a very worthwhile exercise, without which I would t have discovered Hacker News, so there are a lot of positives to take away.
Unlike notdarkyet I go back to a very well paying job, but that's a curse in itself because it makes it far too easy to become complacent and comfortable.
I guess I just need to find the next thing to fail at until next round :-)
YCombinator are good, but not infallible. Just because they reject your application doesn't guarantee that your idea doesn't have legs.
1. I feel the programme represents the best possible start for the company, the buzz of being around so many super smart people with a constant focus on delivery would help make it a success.
2. The programme would provide a framework for the transition we need to make from a corporate job to startup world. No matter what anyone tells you, it's extremely difficult to give a startup enough attention when you're doing it "on-the-side" of a big four corporate job due to the sheer number of hours (let alone the regulations). It's also very hard to leave a six-figure tax-free salary at 27 under current economic conditions without a framework for a transition.
I recognise that 2. is a complete excuse regardless of its merits. Given that I don't want to be sitting around at 70 wondering why I never did what I truly wanted to, I now have a lot of thinking to do about where to take this - i.e. take the plunge and self fund; minimise workload to bare minimum to find some time to work on the side; find a startup in Silicon Valley to join to move in the right direction.
It isn't a charity and given the number of applicants the chances are high that some other team has a more sellable or easier to market plan. For most of us that didn't get in the worst possible outcome is a bruised ego. Keep on working and see it as a chance to have a friendly competition with the companies that did get in this batch :)
97% of applicants get rejected. 3% of applicants get an interview. You can read all about it, along with about 30 blog posts of interview experiences, at:
Incidentally, since it's all over, here's what we posted for "tell us something interesting". (I think that was the question). I posted how 1/998001 is an awesome number!
http://rentivo.com/ycombinator/divide
(Perhaps I shouldn't have shown the PHP code! Ha. It's hard to make something so hacky not look so ugly).
Good luck and don't take it hard.
Ultimately, I don't think anything should change for anyone who got rejected.
Probably the nicest rejection letter I've ever seen, YC is definitely astute at winning hearts and minds.
We are getting involved in another incubator however it would have been great validation to get into YC. The caveat one has to hold onto is that it's your customers and users you have to be validated by, and not YC.
Great process, just building the application helped to develop insights into many of our assumptions, and product market fit. I'd encourage everyone to apply just for that reason.
Success = Success.
Get your customers to love you. Get people to pay you for your product / service. Be better tomorrow than you are today.
If you were doing all those things when you applied, that 1 data point doesn't a failure make.
Rejection letter:
"We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally. The applications we receive get better every funding cycle, and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot of genuinely promising groups.
http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html
Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing.
We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes."
Go local, go dopios.com
No one's been accepted yet ;)
The end result for us is that we continue to build, but at a slower pace. We're positive and determined, and probably more focused for having gone through the YC application. We'll be hacking on it nights and weekends, we'll see where we can go on our own or with a different angel, and if we think it's right, we hope to be in the running with the rest of you for YC W13. So until then, ladies and gents, good night and good luck.
I currently work as a sysadmin for a 1bn bank, but developing software is my passion and what I really want to do is start my own tech company.
I'm taking small steps. I've completed 2 bonus projects for my bank to build useful web-apps. I work on my own time & maintain IP ownership to my software so you could say I just need to start selling to other businesses.
Applying to YC is another small step to help push myself in the startup direction. My goal for the application was just to get my name in front of someone at YC. If my video was watched then I consider it a smashing success.
lord_nolan at about dot me
Let's talk.
But don't get discouraged. There is a common meme that startups need to work 'til they puke to "make it" (check out this site: http://blastingstation.com). Plenty of startups were successful by working hard, staying focused, and persisting.
Remember, as a startup founder, your only job is to find and motivate great talent; set a clear vision; and make sure you don't run out of money / time. Stay focused, set milestones, and persist.
Also, you should check out StartupPlays.com <- it's an online accelerator with modules to help you grow your startup by some of the same mentors in the YC program.
Now I'm going to ask for financial support from relatives. Pay for hosting, contract work to freelancers.
I need a developer Co-Founder, and a designer Co-Founder. Feel free to contact me if interested. lord_nolan at about.me
And by "Co-Founder", I mean fully-committed for equity. I don't have money, and I do receive some, it won't be very much. Money is for contractors and freelancers. and hosting, legal fees, etc.
I feel like not doing so is really lacking respect for the teams who put hours filling it up. Add on top of that the fact that some demos are not even tried.
As some people like to say, applications are only for the people who didn't find a better way to get in.
It's not a matter of manning up or having respect. Do the math on what it'd take to email 3,000 rejected applicants.
Imagine reading 3,000 applicants!
I think a blog with regular updates from teams, showing their progress & determination.
I think it would be great to build a bit of an YC anti-portfolio and showcase the progress of the folks that just made it happen anyway.
YC admit themselves that they miss out on some great teams.
I'm sure it would be a great community also.
I agree that the checkpoint brings some value.
Yes, that has floated around as an idea. Totally not out of the realm of possibilities! We think that eating out is such a big problem for people with dietary needs, that it often affects their social life very negatively in many ways. This is the big challenge we are after.
But we are definitely on the lookout of our users telling us what they want to see in Eatfindr and following their needs. We've been live for a couple of weeks now, so our selection database is still growing, but we have over 15,000 gluten-free restaurants from across the US, as well as over 1,000 humane & organic restaurants.
What we are doing is trying to give a sentence or two of feedback suggesting how an application could be made stronger and/or advice on how we think they should proceed.
Remember, Steve Jobs got rejected by many people at first, before he got his first investment.
My startup is Jawoco.com, search engine which will let you search the web via social media recommendation.
Also have my web browser called Xtravo and the link can be found at jawoco.com
So who's applying for TechStars?
http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html
Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing.
We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes.
Y Combinator Team
I ran our application past several YC alumni who gave it a thumbs up, and some of them even +1'd it behind the scenes. I thought our application was quite impressive. Even that wasn't enough to get an interview.
Good luck to those of whom have been invited for interview, and of course those whose haven't! :)
We're building a site that tells you what to buy: the best model of anything, accurately, by crunching owner ratings. We'd love any feedback:
Congrats to YC S12.
Btw we're doing lots of fun machine learning stuff, let me know if you might be up for interning here in Palo Alto. You can use the feedback link at the bottom of the site.
Thanks, but I actually work at eNotes.com right now and going to be doing a startup with some friends. Always good to know, though :D ML is fun; when I was in high school I worked for a company which made a product recommendation engine called xPatterns and it was a lot of fun.
I'll check out xPatterns. Nice, good luck with the startup.
Not sure if we'll get a reply in time to make it over to the states (from Australia), but the FAQ suggests that they will respond at some point:
"You can submit a late application up till the start of the summer 2012 YC cycle in June, but we can promise nothing about how carefully we'll read it or when we'll respond to you."
Thanks for pointing that out :)
I wish they would give some kind of note on why people are rejected. This would help budding entrepreneurs a lot more