7 ms·

Ask HN: YC rejected twice. Why? How can we improve without knowing the reason?

17 points by nisthana 9y ago

nisthana 9y ago
FYI - I have redesigned the website based on all the great feedback received from everyone. http://mentr.io http://mentr.io
azeirah 9y ago
Ask them, not us.
db48x 9y ago
You can't improve your odds at a roulette wheel either.
Alex3917 9y ago
> How can we improve without knowing the reason? Add a zero to your KPIs, then apply again. Repeat as necessary.
smt88 9y ago
Your goal should be to build a sustainable business, ideally one that is cash-flow positive very early on. If you can't do that, a secondary goal might be to try to prove your concept with some paying customers. When you reach those goals, you'll get investors (if you need them). They may be YC or they may not. YC isn't the only source of money, and there's no evidence that it's the best one, either. If you can't reach those goals, badgering investors into giving you some money isn't a solution. It'll just prolong the life of a business that's doomed to fail.
hluska 9y ago
With all due respect, someone who got accepted to Yale would not write: "I was accepted at Yale. Julia of Mentr was amazingly helpful and guided me all along the way. I'm so thankful her who helped me with my essays and got me to this point." Obviously fake testimonials and stock photos are major red flags. If you have to use fake testimonials, for the love of all that is holy, find a good writer.
- thesmallestcat 9y ago
  How is that obviously fake? Are you saying every freshman at Yale, including international students, speaks and writes perfect English?
  - hluska 9y ago
    Maybe not perfect English, but I'd expect a significantly higher level of English than that quote demonstrates. Add in a stock photo and why would anyone think that that is real?
    - thesmallestcat 9y ago
      It's way more likely that somebody lets you use their words, and that they get published unedited, than that they let you use their likeness on your website. So I don't find it dubious at all. I guess I'm naive or something.
      - hluska 9y ago
        I might be wrong, so thanks for engaging. You might be naive, but I might be an asshole. :) But seriously, if I were doing a Y Combinator application, I would make sure that my testimonials were spot on. I would do so because one of Y Combinators' most enduring bits of advice is 'build something people want.' I'd even equate that to grammatical errors in a website. You're competing for an interview against thousands of the best minds around. Proofread your copy!
        nisthana 9y ago
        Are you saying startups that are from countries who don't speak english are not eligible for YC because they cannot speak perfect english?
        hluska 9y ago
        I'm definitely not saying that. Y Combinator accepts companies from a diverse number of backgrounds/countries of origin. Rather, I'm saying that when you apply to Y Combinator, you are competing against the best entrepreneurs around for a very limited number of seats. Since Y Combinator is so competitive, your chances of getting in would be better if you started working with a good writer or editor.
smt88 9y ago
Edit: I was wrong. The testimonials are real. Only the first picture is a stock photo. I just quickly checked out Mentr, the company listed on your profile. The very first picture is obviously a stock photo[1], which I confirmed with a Google search. Lying to customers and misrepresenting prior success might be a common tactic in Silicon Valley, but it also shows a lack of integrity (and lack of users) that would worry me as an investor. If you can't find 5-10 real people to use your service and talk about it, you should move to the next idea. 1. https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-blazer-jacket-on-wooden-bench-206559/ https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-blazer-jacket-on...
- nisthana 9y ago
  Thats not true. All the students are real, except the one who did not send her profile picture. I could have left it alone, but she is one of the best student success stories. I did not lie, I can share their emails. Also not sure if you ever ran a company, but many times in business you need to take these risks. You need to work with whatever you have.
  - smt88 9y ago
    I've run several businesses. I've never used fake testimonials, which is what I thought you'd done by reverse image searching the first picture. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions based on the first image!
  - closed 9y ago
    It sounds like OP's feedback is not that you shouldn't take risks, but that they think the risks you took may backfire with investors. (Or rather would backfire with OP, an investor, or someone taking that perspective).
  - jetti 9y ago
    You may want to proof read your testimonials again. The testimonial from Leah has two different surnames. She is called "Leah Smith" and then "Leah Remini".
- coralreef 9y ago
nisthana 9y ago
@everyone - If you cannot help, I dont need your sarcasm. @smt88 - well said and every entrepreneur knows this goal. However in order to make a sustainable business, it needs initial capital and marketing investment to be able to reach a critical mass. Without that, the product will not have enough usage to go beyond its current state. I did not apply to YC for investment, it was for the network they brought with them. They could connect me with growth hackers who can get the marketing done with smaller budget. Their mentorship would have been beneficial to take the business to next level. I can get loan from the bank, but that does not mean its valuable.
- andrewmcwatters 9y ago
  > If you cannot help, I dont need your sarcasm. This is not a productive way to talk to any community.
  - rokche123 9y ago
    I feel this statement could carry a lot of meaning about the original question as well. It was obviously not the feedback they desired, but one needs to be able to accept opinion once they as for it. Hopefully, they will pick it up this time.
    - nisthana 9y ago
      I accept all opinions - but not the ones that are not useful. For example someone said something about roulette. How is that useful? Why did they even spend time to write that statement? I love critical comments, I really love them. I have replied to each comment above. What I can't take is sarcasm. That's it.
      - mseebach 9y ago
        You quite frankly appear to have somewhat of an attitude. You come off as defensive and carrying a chip on your shoulder. Why on earth would you get yourself involved in a petty fight over people writing comments that aren't "useful" on your post? Have you never used this site before[1]? People try to give you feedback that your site feels fake to them. You're not internalising it, you launch straight into a hurt defence. Someone quoted from YC policy, presumably to shed some light on the situation, and you dismiss it as a stock response written by a lawyer, lecture them on what they should be doing and start praising a competitor. In short, if you already have all the answers, what do you need YC for? 1: Frankly, your apparent confusion as to how commenting works is a bit jarring - it befits someone asking for help to acquaint himself a bit with how things work, but that's the least of your problems.
andrewmcwatters 9y ago
> So why don’t we tell people why we didn’t invite them to interview? Because, paradoxical as it sounds, there often is no reason. The median application is usually pretty good. The reason it gets rejected is not that it seems particularly bad, but that there are a sufficient number of others that seem particularly good. [1] https://www.ycombinator.com/whynot/ https://www.ycombinator.com/whynot/
- nisthana 9y ago
  Well thats stock statement written by a lawyer. YC should spend time letting founders know where they failed, and what can they do to improve. We spent days to write the perfect application, why cant they spend few minutes for the feedback? StartX does it. They called me for a 15 min feedback and told me where I was wrong. I loved it because I came to know my blindspots.
kifler 9y ago
Genuine question: What value proposition does your company offer? Can't I get these same questions answered from a variety of different sources? Additionally, some of the mentor responses lack a certain level of professionalism to be called a mentor. Example: "Question: Hi I am applying to NYU this fall. I have never visited NYU before because I live all the way in California. I was wondering if you could share your experience starting at NYU? Also any background info like where you came from, how was the transition, did you have to move far, etc.? Any extra information you want to add would be rlly helpful. Thanks in advance! Answer: Absolutely! I'm from Chicago, Originally. (not the actual city, the suburbs. Fucking Suburbia, man.) I hope it makes you feel better to know that I'd never visited NYU before actually ..."
- nisthana 9y ago
  Sorry, I should have replied here-- @kifler - Mentr is a peer to peer mentoring platform for college and career advice. It lets high schoolers, who are unable to find any help related to college (except for factual info available on google), with real college students to get college advice. It fosters peer to peer communication, which is exactly whats happening right now. It does not mandate someone should have a degree in "mentorship" (if there is anything like that) but allows free information to be served. In the example below, the NYU student just felt like "fucking suburbia" and thats what she wrote. Moreover, as a company, we love when such "open" discussions happen and not afraid to hide it. Thats why you see this is as the top thread. If anyone feels all the communication between peers should be professional or highly intellectual, they need to hire professional college counselors. Was I able to answer your question satisfactorily?
  - kifler 9y ago
    So what's stopping me from checking into r/nyu and asking a multitude people to respond? Where is the money to be made? What makes a freshman mentor qualified to actually talk about the breadth of a program or a career when they have little to no exposure of a full 4 year program or job-track? There are a number of questions that aren't answered succinctly on your site (at least that 'pop-out' at me) or within your post.
nisthana 9y ago
Thanks everyone. I love all the comments below, and let me explain them one by one.
nisthana 9y ago
@kifler - Mentr is a peer to peer mentoring platform for college and career advice. It lets high schoolers, who are unable to find any help related to college (except for factual info available on google), with real college students to get college advice. It fosters peer to peer communication, which is exactly whats happening right now. It does not mandate someone should have a degree in "mentorship" (if there is anything like that) but allows free information to be served. In the example below, the NYU student just felt like "fucking suburbia" and thats what she wrote. Moreover, as a company, we love when such "open" discussions happen and not afraid to hide it. Thats why you see this is as the top thread. If anyone feels all the communication between peers should be professional or highly intellectual, they need to hire professional college counselors. Was I able to answer your question satisfactorily?
thecupisblue 9y ago
1. I find your app's design distracting. It is outdated and it gives me waaay too much info. Both the colors and the blurred background bug my eyes. 2. Your website shows testimonials first, then has a short banner, yadayada, then I have to watch a short video on how it works which is just a video of app in use. I'd love to know what it is first, then read testimonials, then see a demo. 3. Looking at your instagram and you should definitely hire a designer. Instagram is where your audience is and where you should be targeting with ads and growing your userbase. 4. Your "Chat" tab has some nice view numbers! That's great - maybe organise it a bit more? This could be a potential goldmine. Here's an idea. Take quotes from those essays, put them on a blank colored canvas and post on IG. Example: "NYU is fucking amazing when you get here because it's free, interesting, the teachers are hella cool" and hashtag it with proper tags. You'll probably get some attention and when user arrives to your profile he should see what you are and how you can help him. Also, kifler asked legit questions.
- nisthana 9y ago
  BTW - today I tried your idea of posting the text on IG. Thanks for the idea :-) I also changed the website based on your suggestions. Hopefully its better than before
- nisthana 9y ago
  These are some awesome feedback. Thanks for taking time. 1. Very good feedback. The app is designed by me, I am no designer, but we could not afford a designer as we are bootstrapped. So I took the lead and designed it. Given a chance, I would definitely hire the best designer but need to live with it until I can raise funds 2. Makes sense. I will work on it 3. Great thought. Currently we leverage some college students to manage the Instagram account. They are not designers, but very enthusiastic about social media. Point well taken! 4. Thats awesome idea. I will implement it for sure. Thank you so much for your time. Loved the feedback
nisthana 9y ago
@hluska if Y Combinator cannot deal with the speed that a startup needs to move, which means things cannot be perfect, then my startup is not a good fit for them really. But as far as I know YC, they love scrappy people who put together things people love. My company is already changing people's lives by helping them get to college and thats all what matters. Screw "good english"
JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
This app just makes me keep thinking of the protege Seinfeld episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQQuwuoHpQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQQuwuoHpQ
- nisthana 9y ago
  Lol. So true. I might use it for my marketing purposes :-))
mikeleeorg 9y ago
My feedback would be to work on making your business successful, regardless of getting into an accelerator program. If you can succeed, the act of doing that will resolve any concerns any accelerator program may have. And if you're wondering why you'd need YC if you are succeeding on your own - sometimes you don't. But the benefit of an accelerator, or even investors, is that they can take your existing growth path and increase it's speed tremendously.
davidddavidson 9y ago
1. Even if your testimonials are not fake they do not come across as genuine but instead like the text from a 419 scam. 2. What is w/ the text "Care your family" in the top carousel?

17 points by nisthana 9y ago

FYI - I have redesigned the website based on all the great feedback received from everyone. http://mentr.io http://mentr.io

azeirah 9y ago

Ask them, not us.

db48x 9y ago

You can't improve your odds at a roulette wheel either.

Alex3917 9y ago

> How can we improve without knowing the reason? Add a zero to your KPIs, then apply again. Repeat as necessary.

smt88 9y ago

Your goal should be to build a sustainable business, ideally one that is cash-flow positive very early on. If you can't do that, a secondary goal might be to try to prove your concept with some paying customers. When you reach those goals, you'll get investors (if you need them). They may be YC or they may not. YC isn't the only source of money, and there's no evidence that it's the best one, either. If you can't reach those goals, badgering investors into giving you some money isn't a solution. It'll just prolong the life of a business that's doomed to fail.

hluska 9y ago

With all due respect, someone who got accepted to Yale would not write: "I was accepted at Yale. Julia of Mentr was amazingly helpful and guided me all along the way. I'm so thankful her who helped me with my essays and got me to this point." Obviously fake testimonials and stock photos are major red flags. If you have to use fake testimonials, for the love of all that is holy, find a good writer.

thesmallestcat 9y ago
How is that obviously fake? Are you saying every freshman at Yale, including international students, speaks and writes perfect English?
- hluska 9y ago
  Maybe not perfect English, but I'd expect a significantly higher level of English than that quote demonstrates. Add in a stock photo and why would anyone think that that is real?
  - thesmallestcat 9y ago
    It's way more likely that somebody lets you use their words, and that they get published unedited, than that they let you use their likeness on your website. So I don't find it dubious at all. I guess I'm naive or something.
    - hluska 9y ago
      I might be wrong, so thanks for engaging. You might be naive, but I might be an asshole. :) But seriously, if I were doing a Y Combinator application, I would make sure that my testimonials were spot on. I would do so because one of Y Combinators' most enduring bits of advice is 'build something people want.' I'd even equate that to grammatical errors in a website. You're competing for an interview against thousands of the best minds around. Proofread your copy!
      - nisthana 9y ago
        Are you saying startups that are from countries who don't speak english are not eligible for YC because they cannot speak perfect english?
        hluska 9y ago
        I'm definitely not saying that. Y Combinator accepts companies from a diverse number of backgrounds/countries of origin. Rather, I'm saying that when you apply to Y Combinator, you are competing against the best entrepreneurs around for a very limited number of seats. Since Y Combinator is so competitive, your chances of getting in would be better if you started working with a good writer or editor.

smt88 9y ago

Edit: I was wrong. The testimonials are real. Only the first picture is a stock photo. I just quickly checked out Mentr, the company listed on your profile. The very first picture is obviously a stock photo[1], which I confirmed with a Google search. Lying to customers and misrepresenting prior success might be a common tactic in Silicon Valley, but it also shows a lack of integrity (and lack of users) that would worry me as an investor. If you can't find 5-10 real people to use your service and talk about it, you should move to the next idea. 1. https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-blazer-jacket-on-wooden-bench-206559/ https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-blazer-jacket-on...

nisthana 9y ago
Thats not true. All the students are real, except the one who did not send her profile picture. I could have left it alone, but she is one of the best student success stories. I did not lie, I can share their emails. Also not sure if you ever ran a company, but many times in business you need to take these risks. You need to work with whatever you have.
- smt88 9y ago
  I've run several businesses. I've never used fake testimonials, which is what I thought you'd done by reverse image searching the first picture. I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions based on the first image!
- closed 9y ago
  It sounds like OP's feedback is not that you shouldn't take risks, but that they think the risks you took may backfire with investors. (Or rather would backfire with OP, an investor, or someone taking that perspective).
- jetti 9y ago
  You may want to proof read your testimonials again. The testimonial from Leah has two different surnames. She is called "Leah Smith" and then "Leah Remini".
coralreef 9y ago

nisthana 9y ago

@everyone - If you cannot help, I dont need your sarcasm. @smt88 - well said and every entrepreneur knows this goal. However in order to make a sustainable business, it needs initial capital and marketing investment to be able to reach a critical mass. Without that, the product will not have enough usage to go beyond its current state. I did not apply to YC for investment, it was for the network they brought with them. They could connect me with growth hackers who can get the marketing done with smaller budget. Their mentorship would have been beneficial to take the business to next level. I can get loan from the bank, but that does not mean its valuable.

andrewmcwatters 9y ago
> If you cannot help, I dont need your sarcasm. This is not a productive way to talk to any community.
- rokche123 9y ago
  I feel this statement could carry a lot of meaning about the original question as well. It was obviously not the feedback they desired, but one needs to be able to accept opinion once they as for it. Hopefully, they will pick it up this time.
  - nisthana 9y ago
    I accept all opinions - but not the ones that are not useful. For example someone said something about roulette. How is that useful? Why did they even spend time to write that statement? I love critical comments, I really love them. I have replied to each comment above. What I can't take is sarcasm. That's it.
    - mseebach 9y ago
      You quite frankly appear to have somewhat of an attitude. You come off as defensive and carrying a chip on your shoulder. Why on earth would you get yourself involved in a petty fight over people writing comments that aren't "useful" on your post? Have you never used this site before[1]? People try to give you feedback that your site feels fake to them. You're not internalising it, you launch straight into a hurt defence. Someone quoted from YC policy, presumably to shed some light on the situation, and you dismiss it as a stock response written by a lawyer, lecture them on what they should be doing and start praising a competitor. In short, if you already have all the answers, what do you need YC for? 1: Frankly, your apparent confusion as to how commenting works is a bit jarring - it befits someone asking for help to acquaint himself a bit with how things work, but that's the least of your problems.

andrewmcwatters 9y ago

> So why don’t we tell people why we didn’t invite them to interview? Because, paradoxical as it sounds, there often is no reason. The median application is usually pretty good. The reason it gets rejected is not that it seems particularly bad, but that there are a sufficient number of others that seem particularly good. [1] https://www.ycombinator.com/whynot/ https://www.ycombinator.com/whynot/

nisthana 9y ago
Well thats stock statement written by a lawyer. YC should spend time letting founders know where they failed, and what can they do to improve. We spent days to write the perfect application, why cant they spend few minutes for the feedback? StartX does it. They called me for a 15 min feedback and told me where I was wrong. I loved it because I came to know my blindspots.

kifler 9y ago

Genuine question: What value proposition does your company offer? Can't I get these same questions answered from a variety of different sources? Additionally, some of the mentor responses lack a certain level of professionalism to be called a mentor. Example: "Question: Hi I am applying to NYU this fall. I have never visited NYU before because I live all the way in California. I was wondering if you could share your experience starting at NYU? Also any background info like where you came from, how was the transition, did you have to move far, etc.? Any extra information you want to add would be rlly helpful. Thanks in advance! Answer: Absolutely! I'm from Chicago, Originally. (not the actual city, the suburbs. Fucking Suburbia, man.) I hope it makes you feel better to know that I'd never visited NYU before actually ..."

nisthana 9y ago
Sorry, I should have replied here-- @kifler - Mentr is a peer to peer mentoring platform for college and career advice. It lets high schoolers, who are unable to find any help related to college (except for factual info available on google), with real college students to get college advice. It fosters peer to peer communication, which is exactly whats happening right now. It does not mandate someone should have a degree in "mentorship" (if there is anything like that) but allows free information to be served. In the example below, the NYU student just felt like "fucking suburbia" and thats what she wrote. Moreover, as a company, we love when such "open" discussions happen and not afraid to hide it. Thats why you see this is as the top thread. If anyone feels all the communication between peers should be professional or highly intellectual, they need to hire professional college counselors. Was I able to answer your question satisfactorily?
- kifler 9y ago
  So what's stopping me from checking into r/nyu and asking a multitude people to respond? Where is the money to be made? What makes a freshman mentor qualified to actually talk about the breadth of a program or a career when they have little to no exposure of a full 4 year program or job-track? There are a number of questions that aren't answered succinctly on your site (at least that 'pop-out' at me) or within your post.

nisthana 9y ago

Thanks everyone. I love all the comments below, and let me explain them one by one.

nisthana 9y ago

@kifler - Mentr is a peer to peer mentoring platform for college and career advice. It lets high schoolers, who are unable to find any help related to college (except for factual info available on google), with real college students to get college advice. It fosters peer to peer communication, which is exactly whats happening right now. It does not mandate someone should have a degree in "mentorship" (if there is anything like that) but allows free information to be served. In the example below, the NYU student just felt like "fucking suburbia" and thats what she wrote. Moreover, as a company, we love when such "open" discussions happen and not afraid to hide it. Thats why you see this is as the top thread. If anyone feels all the communication between peers should be professional or highly intellectual, they need to hire professional college counselors. Was I able to answer your question satisfactorily?

thecupisblue 9y ago

1. I find your app's design distracting. It is outdated and it gives me waaay too much info. Both the colors and the blurred background bug my eyes. 2. Your website shows testimonials first, then has a short banner, yadayada, then I have to watch a short video on how it works which is just a video of app in use. I'd love to know what it is first, then read testimonials, then see a demo. 3. Looking at your instagram and you should definitely hire a designer. Instagram is where your audience is and where you should be targeting with ads and growing your userbase. 4. Your "Chat" tab has some nice view numbers! That's great - maybe organise it a bit more? This could be a potential goldmine. Here's an idea. Take quotes from those essays, put them on a blank colored canvas and post on IG. Example: "NYU is fucking amazing when you get here because it's free, interesting, the teachers are hella cool" and hashtag it with proper tags. You'll probably get some attention and when user arrives to your profile he should see what you are and how you can help him. Also, kifler asked legit questions.

nisthana 9y ago
BTW - today I tried your idea of posting the text on IG. Thanks for the idea :-) I also changed the website based on your suggestions. Hopefully its better than before
nisthana 9y ago
These are some awesome feedback. Thanks for taking time. 1. Very good feedback. The app is designed by me, I am no designer, but we could not afford a designer as we are bootstrapped. So I took the lead and designed it. Given a chance, I would definitely hire the best designer but need to live with it until I can raise funds 2. Makes sense. I will work on it 3. Great thought. Currently we leverage some college students to manage the Instagram account. They are not designers, but very enthusiastic about social media. Point well taken! 4. Thats awesome idea. I will implement it for sure. Thank you so much for your time. Loved the feedback

nisthana 9y ago

@hluska if Y Combinator cannot deal with the speed that a startup needs to move, which means things cannot be perfect, then my startup is not a good fit for them really. But as far as I know YC, they love scrappy people who put together things people love. My company is already changing people's lives by helping them get to college and thats all what matters. Screw "good english"

JohnJamesRambo 9y ago

This app just makes me keep thinking of the protege Seinfeld episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQQuwuoHpQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQQuwuoHpQ

nisthana 9y ago
Lol. So true. I might use it for my marketing purposes :-))

mikeleeorg 9y ago

My feedback would be to work on making your business successful, regardless of getting into an accelerator program. If you can succeed, the act of doing that will resolve any concerns any accelerator program may have. And if you're wondering why you'd need YC if you are succeeding on your own - sometimes you don't. But the benefit of an accelerator, or even investors, is that they can take your existing growth path and increase it's speed tremendously.

davidddavidson 9y ago

1. Even if your testimonials are not fake they do not come across as genuine but instead like the text from a 419 scam. 2. What is w/ the text "Care your family" in the top carousel?