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Just got the glorious rejection email :) https://mail.mixmax.com/m/kWxSBXQlxWO9sN6AC https://mail.mixmax.com/m/kWxSBXQlxWO9sN6AC We interviewed in-person for W
by jaymeh13 9y ago
Just got the glorious rejection email :) https://mail.mixmax.com/m/kWxSBXQlxWO9sN6AC https://mail.mixmax.com/m/kWxSBXQlxWO9sN6AC
We interviewed in-person for W17 in October and got rejected because we didn't articulate a good plan for growth.
- we grew 4,000% since October
- launched huge features for both sides of our marketplace
- received acquisition interest in < 3 months of being live
- most importantly, made something that people are loving and using on a daily basis.
It's a bummer for sure but not the end of the world.
To anyone who got an interview,
Figure out your biggest weakness and a plan for how you overcome it. Your interviewers will exploit it.
Here's some notes on our experience going through the interview
https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/YC-Interview-Experience-L45KzTpfufdiYSHmvhsiw https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/YC-Interview-Experience-L45KzT...
Good luck all
- patwalls 9y agoHey this is awesome. Thanks!
- KevinJ90825 9y agoWorking with @jaymeh13 and interviewed with him for W17. To those who got an interview: congratulations! Keep trying to prove yourself wrong and you'll expose any of the weaknesses that they will try to find in the interview. To those who didn't: Congratulations anyways! The YC application process itself makes you think deeply about your business and you should keep that with you and take it as a learning experience. Best of luck to everybody!
- mzg92 9y agoHoly cow if that doesn't get you in I don't know what would...
- elizabeth8890 9y agoThat's really helpful! And funny! Thank you!
- sontek 9y agoCan you provide any tips on how you reached out to other alum in preparation (you said you prepared with AlphaFlow and Snapdocs for example). Also, are you allowed to share any of the questions you had that you found surprising?
- jaymeh13 9y agoSure. We simply emailed other YC founders asking if they had advice on the interview process. The questions are no secret. It's really only 3 questions: 1. what are you working on. 2. How do you grow. 3. How does this become a billion dollar company. Articulating the problem, how it scales and is defensible is key. Here are a few links we used - http://henrikzillmer.com/dos-and-donts-at-the-y-combinator-interview http://henrikzillmer.com/dos-and-donts-at-the-y-combinator-i... - http://blog.trak.io/ycombinator-our-interview-experience-after-flying-5351-miles-for-10-minutes/ http://blog.trak.io/ycombinator-our-interview-experience-aft... - https://medium.com/@octal/maximizing-your-chances-of-getting-into-y-combinator-summer-2014-b0a75aa7401f#.ysammbhed https://medium.com/@octal/maximizing-your-chances-of-getting... - https://medium.com/startup-lesson-learned/we-just-interviewed-at-ycombinator-heres-the-full-transcript-187312cd2cf5#.2o9l3aimh https://medium.com/startup-lesson-learned/we-just-interviewe...