Comment by CoffeeDregs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by CoffeeDregs | Hacker News Reader

[pre-apologies for the CAPS, but they seemed warranted.]

I definitely appreciate the analysis, since analyses of any kind of stressful interaction are helpful. But I did want to comment on a small thing:

    YC is a very special kind of interview.

I assume that this is referencing the previous bits of TFA, so I'd suggest that possibly YC is a COMPLETELY TYPICAL INTERVIEW FOR THIS KIND OF SITUATION.

HN is a wonderful resource, but the idea that a YC interview is of "a special kind" is naive. [I'm sure the down-votes are heading my way...] YC is a type of VC-ish firm. Getting to pitch to any VC is rare and the kinds of questions mentioned in TFA are pretty standard. YC is going to invest their time in you and that is quite expensive for them to do, so it makes sense for them to push you in lots of directions to see how broadly you've thought about the problem.

Random: I was in a board meeting yesterday getting peppered with questions about AWS AMI setups, framework choices and API load resiliency... And I'm just an advisor. Investors care a lot about a lot of things.

I've pitched 30+ VCs and angels (occasionally successfully!) as well as YC partners.

The YC interview is different. Extreme time pressure, absence of many social norms and a room of brutally smart people.

YC also has a way higher "full yes" rate -- 25-50%! -- than any VC or angel, at the interview stage. VCs seem to cull at the interview (assuming you're smart enough to have contacts, you should be able to get an interview; if you're really good, you should get a 1-2 partner interview vs. associates or principals); YC culls using the applications first, and a single round of interviews with full partners.

10 minute time limit, scheduled into an entire day of interviews against other teams, sounds pretty untypical to me. Plus how often do you get interviewed by the likes of Paul Buccheit?

    10 minute time limit

As TFA said, it's not a 10 minute time limit... 10 minutes is the pressure relief valve. But let's say "10 minutes". That, plus some time for questions, is a fairly standard angel round setup.

    how often do you get interviewed by the likes of Paul Buccheit

Pretty much every time you do a serious VC pitch. There are certainly crappy firms, but my experience has been that good firms select an excellent set of folks and you will be grilled once you get through the initial screens.

The differentiator of YC is the stage of investment and the shepherding of the teams, not the "very special kind of interview". [And I don't want to discount that YC might do a superlative job with their interviews, but I've not heard anything to suggest that the concerns/questions are atypical.]

It's not a 'special' kind of interview in the type of questions or the general format. I'd say it's special in the little amount of time you have and how you get cut off mid-sentence. I've also never pitched to Paul Buchheit before which made it special.

I'm definitely with you on this. Last year my team interviewed with YC (with Paul Buchheit in the room) and it was crazy.

10 minutes feels like 7-8 because of the adrenaline/nervousness. You don't usually get to finish your answers because they cut you off. They're straight to the point and cut through all the fluff (my suggestion is to have a 15 second answer and a longer answer for all questions if you want to get your points across). They're usually in "control", but you have to be strategic to lead things back to your "good side"

I think the article is really accurate on the YC process. Thanks for sharing.

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