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It's a lot of work that goes into these applications, and I absolutely don't sweat the rejection (hurts a little, but that's all right, we're not in the busines

It's a lot of work that goes into these applications, and I absolutely don't sweat the rejection (hurts a little, but that's all right, we're not in the business of passing the YC application), but as a future suggestion maybe — and I absolutely understand YC gets a ton of applications — if there was a way to just get a short comment on why an application was rejected, it would be so incredibly helpful. One sentence, perhaps even just a standard tick-box canned-response the reviewer hits at the end of reading it ("market-fit not clear", "worried about team", etc.). No interest to argue about it, but the value given back to startups would be tremendous, with very little time required (ticking the final rejection-reason box, even if it just says, "not really something I'd be interested in"). I would even pay for it. I know that's absolutely not within YC's context and mindset, but I'd pay to just read one short line that helps us see what you saw (or hoped to see but didn't).

DrBobDengler 10y ago
Also a Summer17 reject. I support and would pay if required. YC encourages me to resubmit (50% of recent batches have applied multiple times), yet I have no clue what to clarify or resolve. It makes no sense to me or YC for me to keep submitting applications if there is some glaring flaw. If they don't like my idea, so be it. But if there is a hint that might make the next application better than a crap shoot, I want to know about it. If they would consider me a stronger candidate if I had more progress, have more users, be less serious on my video, have revenue, have a longer runway, have a tech founder, didn't understand something, thought my forecasts were unrealistic, needed a fact that I failed to include, etc. that would help immensely. You are right, they have the money, so they can decide on whatever basis they choose, but if there is something that they expected to see but didn't or didn't expect to see but did, or wanted to see less/more of, or more proof of, that would really go a long way to increasing my confidence that I did all I could in my application and the decision was truly beyond my control - I could live easier with that, and move on. Thanks.

DrBobDengler 10y ago

Also a Summer17 reject. I support and would pay if required. YC encourages me to resubmit (50% of recent batches have applied multiple times), yet I have no clue what to clarify or resolve. It makes no sense to me or YC for me to keep submitting applications if there is some glaring flaw. If they don't like my idea, so be it. But if there is a hint that might make the next application better than a crap shoot, I want to know about it. If they would consider me a stronger candidate if I had more progress, have more users, be less serious on my video, have revenue, have a longer runway, have a tech founder, didn't understand something, thought my forecasts were unrealistic, needed a fact that I failed to include, etc. that would help immensely. You are right, they have the money, so they can decide on whatever basis they choose, but if there is something that they expected to see but didn't or didn't expect to see but did, or wanted to see less/more of, or more proof of, that would really go a long way to increasing my confidence that I did all I could in my application and the decision was truly beyond my control - I could live easier with that, and move on. Thanks.