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Comment by ivankirigin | Hacker News Reader

YC folks describe the accelerator effect of getting into the program. I think that makes sense. People expect non-failure from an openly declared intention to start a company. Founders respond to the fear of failure by working hard.

Many of those rejected probably don't consider themselves startups, just working on side projects. No build-up of expectation.

I have every intention to continue if not accepted into the next YC round.

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If most people succeed because they openly declare their intentions, the reverse seems true too:

You're more likely to succeed if you openly declare your intentions to succeed.

And it's true. I'm not sure we'd be able to launch tomorrow if we hadn't posted our intention to. Now we have all your expectations to live up to, and it motivates us.

From my experience - likelihood of succeeding because you tell people and all the other variations of this are just hoopla.

You will succeed if

1. You have a market

2. You service that market better than most or better

3. You can do what you are doing for years at a length. And then keep doing it some more without even thinking about it.

Sure, the idea has to be semi-solid. I was referring to the part of "Get this thing done, now. Get it out there and in front of people. Then we'll see if they bite."

I agree with the last 3 things you said but I think there is value to publicly announcing your intentions. It shows commitment to the idea and the willingness to sacrifice your reputation for the idea (there is a cost to people knowing about your possible failure, and the cost of people you care about and respect of dismissing your idea).

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