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What Founders Ask Founders About Getting into Y Combinator
- sytse 10y agoGitLab CEO here, AMA
- jontonsoup 10y agoWill you read over my application? Would love feedback!
- sytse 10y agoYes, please coordinate with kirsten@gitlab.com for a 25 minute Google Hangout with me, please link to this comment in your email to her. If the advice is generic enough we might work with you to publish it https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/ceo-preferences/#pick-your-brain-meetings https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/ceo-pref... (you have a final say in what gets published). This process was also used to produce the OP.
- jontonsoup 10y agoOh wow that's awesome. Thanks! Will send an email.
- sytse 10y agoGreat, looking forward to it.
- jnpatel 10y agoSid, willing to meet with us too? It'd be very appreciated! (I totally understand you can't do this for everyone who'll ask.) P.S. I'm also open to a peer feedback session for anyone else applying!
- sytse 10y agoI'd be happy to. Shall we make it a video call other people can join too? Tomorrow, Saturday, at 11:00 Pacific? I'll be in https://gitlab.zoom.us/j/351494573 https://gitlab.zoom.us/j/351494573 at that time for anyone that can discuss their application publicly. If you attend please comment so, if you can't also comment so we can try to find an alternative. By the way, I'm a YC participant and not a YC partner. I don't speak for YC and I'm just trying to help.
- jnpatel 10y agoSounds great, looking forward to chatting with you and others!
- sytse 10y agoGreat, looking forward to it too.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mellavora 10y agowildfire looks kindof cool.
- sytse 10y agoYeah, jnpatel (Jay's) app http://www.wildfireapp.io/ http://www.wildfireapp.io/ does look cool. I wonder how they get the data for that.
- icebraining 10y agoI got curious too; in the Berkeleyside article about it, they say "right now, posts come from a combination of community users, Wildfire staffers and local news partners, including Berkeleyside. To verify information, and decide whether or not to push out an alert to the community, the team checks posts against what is released by authorities and the local media, too."
- dvdhsu 10y agoSid, are you willing to meet with us quickly too? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
- sytse 10y agoSure! Are you able to join https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12616194 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12616194 ?
- dvdhsu 10y agoIf possible, private would be better for us. I'd be happy to make literally any 25' slot you have over the next 2 days. This is really generous of you, and we really appreciate it. Thanks!
- sytse 10y agoNo problem, please email kirsten@gitlab.com to coordinate a time, please link to this comment, if you want it the next 2 days my preference is Sunday 4pm Pacific but I'm not sure that works for you. I propose we do https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/ceo-preferences/#pick-your-brain-meetings https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/ceo-pref... (you get to redact the notes)
- the_watcher 10y agoJust an FYI - looks like the link to Placket points to https://about.gitlab.com/2016/09/30/what-founders-ask-founders-about-getting-into-yc/www.placker.com https://about.gitlab.com/2016/09/30/what-founders-ask-founde..., so it just 404s.
- sytse 10y agoThanks for watching out for us. Fixed with https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/commit/e213dac8d5d36d7595a5f8deaa061fccb1cc96ce https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/commit/e213dac8... (deploy is in progress)
- the_watcher 10y agoNo problem - I've made that mistake myself on more than one occasion.
- idlewords 10y agoHow many wolves in Sweden?
- sytse 10y agoLess since January http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/swedish-hunters-to-begin-mass-slaughter-of-wolves-despite-legal-challenges-a6794841.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/swedish-hunte...
- open-source-ux 10y agoIn your Y Combinator application, you say: "...to create and grow a competitive open source offering you need to have a proprietary commercial version to generate scalable revenue, support income alone is not enough." I've often wondered if you can make money selling an open source software product that isn't dependent on support or services. In your application form, you're essentially saying this isn't possible. Do you have any advice for people creating open source products regarding this view of open source vs closed source for sales and revenue? Do you still feel that anyone with an open source product should also be providing a closed-source commercial version which will actually be the main source of revenue? How have people in the Open Source field reacted to this viewpoint given that there is a strong negative reaction to closed source in some quarters. I'd love to find a way of selling an open source product that didn't have to rely on a service contract or support for revenue. Is it impossible without a closed source offering? Any thoughts, much appreciated.
- agibsonccc 10y agoAnother open core YC founder here. Can confirm it's the best way to go. Pure oss tends to become services heavy quick. Another thing to think about: If your open source support is good enough, they may not pay for your support offering either.
- sytse 10y agoThanks for chiming in, I totally agree. Of course some products and markets have been able to make the support model work, like RedHat. But it is very hard to pull off and I think it used to be easier in the past when companies where very worried about support and licensing. Nowadays they are much more comfortable with open source. What we are seeing is that companies that pay for our premium support tend to cancel that after the first year because they didn't need it. We want to make a product that is easy to install and maintain. This reduces the demand for support. There is a incentive for companies selling support to be a bit less aggressive documenting everything. An open core model needs a very careful balance between being a good steward of the project and the need for revenue. We documented what we learned so far on https://about.gitlab.com/about/#stewardship https://about.gitlab.com/about/#stewardship and keep our ears open on forums like these.
- annerajb 10y agoWhat did you learn at YC that you feel you would have not learned elsewhere or that it would have taken you longer?
- sytse 10y agoWe learned many things. The two most important ones: 1. You can do more than you think. We came in wanting to grow into a 30 person company in 2020. Now we're 100+ people and plan to IPO in 2020. You realize that you have only so many years left and you want to make them count. And that with some help you can aim higher. Not every company should take VC and I love companies like Basecamp. But YC helped these two EU founders be more ambitious. 2. You can ship faster than you think. Seeing what is now https://www.wayup.com/ https://www.wayup.com/ and other people in our group achieve much more than us every two weeks made us question how we worked. We learned to iterate and launch the minimal iteration as soon as possible. It was a counter-intuitive lesson that greatly increased how effective we are.
- boxcardavin 10y agoWhat did getting into YC 'liberate' you to do that you later found out was just a mental block?
- sytse 10y agoSee https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12615911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12615911 but I don't think we would have overcome the mental block without YC.
- work4beer 10y agoHonestly you can just watch the CS183 video's, the same speakers on there, its their shtick it ain't going to change, What I find troubling is getting young people to come and live in the valley for 3 months. Why on earth with so many good places do these old fart's continue to suck young blood to Bohemia-Grove? For what? The action is now Asia, that is where the customers and many are, I think people should be doing this in HK,Singapore, and BKK. SV is a sewer.
- vbhartia 10y agoReading through your YC application, you were already so successful ($1M in rev, 60% growth rate, 1M users), did you ever have second thoughts about going through YC? If you had not gotten in, what would you have done otherwise? Congrats on your success!
- sytse 10y agoThanks! We never had second thoughts about YC. We did talk a lot during YC if we wanted to take outside investment. If you take investment you need to work to a liquidity event (acquisition or IPO). Since we would like to stay independent the only option is an IPO. Not many companies make make that. But we also wanted to make GitLab a great and popular solution. For this we need the best marketing and sales people. When we tried to hire those they wanted options in the company. It is not fair to give options if it will take very long to cash them. So we needed a liquidity event in any case. In that case it was better to take outside investment so the chance of getting to IPO was higher than without it. If we would have not gotten in we would have continued GitLab and probably applied again for the next batch.
- vbhartia 10y agoGot it. Thanks! How did you think about the standard terms - 7% of your company for 120k. Seems like you would've had a higher valuation already, so 7% would have been costly. Feel free to not reply, I understand if you can't disclose terms.
- sytse 10y agoI hoped for another valuation but we got the standard terms. In hindsight it was a really good deal for us. It is not about the $120k. They way I look at it now is, did it make us 10% more successful and valuable? For sure it did. The money is secondary, it is more like a full scholarship so you can attend the program than an investment.
- vbhartia 10y ago
- jkarneges 10y agoMost people I know that are interested in starting a company need help near the beginning, within 6-12 months of setting out on their own. Almost always pre-revenue, and very early traction (if b2b, maybe just a few users evaluating). Where are these kinds of entrepreneurs supposed to go? Is it still YC, when they have to compete with already-successful applicants? Kudos to GitLab bootstrapping to $1M ARR though. That's truly incredible. They should write a story about that part. :)
- sytse 10y agoYC is very helpful in the beginning, I wish we would have applied earlier. Many people in our batch where pre-revenue and pre-launch. You can always apply again the next batch when you have the numbers. Thanks for the kudo's. If someone wants to interview me to write that story I would love that. BTW I think the $1m number it was our last month multiplied by 12 instead of being true ARR as I know it know.
- vbhartia 10y agoI agree - It really feels like YC is now geared towards more later stage companies. Companies that are in the growth phase vs. finding product market fit. Also you have to be full time on your idea in order to be taken seriously. Is that a misconception?
- sytse 10y agoYC is still very much accepting companies that are still finding product market fit. But as far as I know you it really helps if you're willing to commit full time.
- vbhartia 10y agoYeah - definitely able to go full time after. It's hard and very privileged to be able to go full time now when the company is so early stage.
- tlogan 10y agoMy understanding is that YC combinator is either for companies which already made it and any VC would love to invest (like GitLab) or they are in very early stage (pre-revenue). If your company is so so (i.e., you are making money but growth is anemic, etc.) then YC is not for you. But you can always close the company and start a new one and apply to YC. At least that is my understanding and experience.
- jaypaulynice 10y agoMinor typo...the link says the deadline to apply to YC is October 4 2017...should be 2016...could throw some people off...
- sytse 10y agoThanks, fixed with https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/commit/e9fa504fed806b902e0a555dcba7a35b5bc22b36 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/commit/e9fa504f...