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Ask HN: YC S10 applications almost due. How excited are you?
I'm applying for the first time. I learned about YC in the summer of 07, the summer after my first year in university. At the time, I didn't really understand what YC did, but I sent the application link to my partner Andy to check out for fun. He remarked, in an email I still have: "they only fund <20k not really worth it." LOL.
At that time, we were two 19 year olds who had sunk $22k of our own money into a project which we thought was the next big thing. Of course, it wasn't. But we learned some harsh, important lessons and moved on to build other projects as if nothing ever happened.
A couple years later, we're 21 and stumble across Paul Graham's essays. They all made sense, and the lessons he preached were exactly the types of lessons we learned in failure. But particularly one essay presented an important new idea we hadn't thought about. It was the one about startup hubs and how important it is to be in the valley. I remember shooting up a message over MSN with Andy about moving to the valley. I think he was hesitant, but quickly realized we had nothing to lose; if we failed and went back home, we were the same as the rest of our graduated friends, broke and living with our parents.
So it was settled. We'd try to get into YC when we were done with school. If we couldn't, we'd build our own startup anyway. I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
I graduated last summer, and Andy is finishing his term in May. We're now 22 years old and applying to Y Combinator S10.
- patio11 17y agoI'm tempted to write "Best of luck to all of you who are applying" but I've never really believed in luck so, while it sounds more awkward, "May your applications speak accurately and positively about the extent of your ability to create a successful business." One wee little suggestion: mentioning your age is a lot like an exclamation point. If you're writing a novel, you get one exclamation point. Maybe two. You don't have to use them if you don't want to, but under absolutely no circumstances do you put three exclamation points in five paragraphs. That just makes the publisher's assistant write you off as unserious. If you feel the need to bring your age up, have a quick mental conference along the lines of "I wonder if it would be more impressive to delete mention of my age and instead mention something which would suggest that I am likely to create a successful business." My guess is 99 times out of 100 the answer is "Hmm, yep."
- coryl 17y agoCool, thanks. I was kinda just casually writing, I didn't intend on telling a story when I made the post, it kind of just happened lol. I was actually recreating/remembering what happened as I was writing, so I guess I was using age to show how much time passed by.