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They get thousands of applications, it would take way too much time to answer them all. Plus, it's not like 'fix this and you'll get accepted next year'. In fac

They get thousands of applications, it would take way too much time to answer them all. Plus, it's not like 'fix this and you'll get accepted next year'. In fact, they do state a single reason in the rejection email, it's just that it's always the same: 'there were others that seemed better'. Keep working, and don't put too much value on a rejection. If anything, filling in the application itself is a nice way to think about your startup!

raresp 9y ago
Wrong, they could define a standard reject message and send it. It doesn't take more than a minute to do a copy-paste and press the reply button.
- HeyLaughingBoy 9y ago
  A friendly tip for the future: don't start a response by saying "wrong." It may not be your intent, but you come across as argumentative and confrontational in a situation that likely doesn't call for that.
- dirktheman 9y ago
  They do send standard rejection messages. At least, in 2011 they did, not sure about now. I got this canned message: "We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally. The applications we receive get better every funding cycle, and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot of genuinely promising groups. Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing. http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html We're trying to get better at this, but it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes. Y Combinator team"

raresp 9y ago

Wrong, they could define a standard reject message and send it. It doesn't take more than a minute to do a copy-paste and press the reply button.

HeyLaughingBoy 9y ago
A friendly tip for the future: don't start a response by saying "wrong." It may not be your intent, but you come across as argumentative and confrontational in a situation that likely doesn't call for that.
dirktheman 9y ago
They do send standard rejection messages. At least, in 2011 they did, not sure about now. I got this canned message: "We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally. The applications we receive get better every funding cycle, and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot of genuinely promising groups. Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing. http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html We're trying to get better at this, but it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes. Y Combinator team"