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YCommonApp: Apply to 25+ YC-funded startups in under 10 minutes
- lanstein 16y agoE La Carte is hiring, but doesn't have a website of any kind? I see you do own the domain.
- sabj 16y agoI love the idea. What about non-technical people passionate about tackling problems? Undesirables? ;)
- nicholasjbs 16y agoRight now the YCommonApp is geared towards developers, though it's possible there'll be another option in the future for non-techies. (However, if you're a designer, several of the companies participating are also looking for UX/UI folks, so I'd encourage you to apply anyway :D)
- kineticac 16y agoDefinitely going to be using the YCommonApp in the near future for hiring to Fanvibe! This is an awesome way to find potential hires. Nice work guys.
- paulsingh 16y agoPardon my ignorance, but I don't get it. Why would you want to hire someone that "sprays" their application across 25+ companies?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- shazow 16y agoThe reality of an applicant is that there is extremely little information about a startup and its reputation, and what little there is is almost always identical to every other startup (free food, have an impact, big challenges, blah blah blah). You only really discover whether it's a good fit or not after you've worked there for months. If you're really lucky, after you've had all the interviews. But really never ever before you've even applied. During the application process, I'd argue that the employer has the best idea whether the fit would be good or not.
- cyen 16y agoWhat happened to wanting to work on a product you (can) love?
- shazow 16y agoProduct changes more frequently than the team or culture.
- edanm 16y agoThis is especially true of YC companies, I suspect. I'm pretty sure all YC-funded startups have great working conditions, and most of them have pretty good ideas and a good chance of making it.
- prog123hn 16y agoWhy do you see Glade advertise Glade PlugIns on prime time television? Because sometimes you turn on the television to watch True Blood and still decide to buy a Glade PlugIn. This model helps centralize the process for the popular companies, and it gives the less popular ones access to quality candidates. Everyone has a hiring problem.
- tlrobinson 16y agoPerhaps you should be able to select only the companies you know you're interested in. Some people have specialties that would suit certain companies more than others.
- michaelfairley 16y agoGo to the company's website and apply manually? Or just shoot an email at jobs@company.com?
- stevejobs 16y agoWhy would one apply to a YComb job when if one is skilled enough he can apply to YComb itself?
- cschep 16y agoIf you've got the skills, but no experience with the start up scene, it would be a great time to hone your skills while learning about what it really takes to make a business work (from scratch) first hand. You would come out (more) ready to do it on your own idea on the other end. But yeah if you've got an idea and the skills and the motivation required, by all means apply you YComb yourself.
- nicholasjbs 16y agoDifferent people enjoy different things. For example, many hackers would prefer to work at a company where they could concentrate all their time on coding rather than start a startup themselves where they'd have to spend much of their time doing other tasks.
- strlen 16y agoReality of start-ups: if you're a founder and spend all your time coding, you're going to fail. I love coding, so I'd have to have an extremely compelling vision were I to do anything else.
- robryan 16y agoIf a company goes under the founder may have ended up living frugally as possible for a long period of time for no end reward. The employee has been there with them, faced the same challenging work but has had a comfortable wage the whole time and are just out of a job. That being said may people would much prefer to take the risk as founder, there are plenty of other people out there though happy with the employee role at a startup for the time being or may have already tried the founder path.
- akkartik 16y agoBecause you don't have a team put together?
- physcab 16y agoOh wow, this brings back memories of applying to all the UC schools.
- giantfuzzypanda 16y agoExcept the UC schools don't support the Common App.
- tomh- 16y agoAs much as I love seeing other people on video, this method of applying for jobs is not for everyone. Somehow I feel really uncomfortable when there are cameras pointing at me.
- nicholasjbs 16y agoThere are two versions of the YCommonApp: one with video, and one without. You can apply using whichever you choose. That said, we think the one with video is much more powerful. None of the YC companies are looking for slick presentations, just good hackers, so the videos should be pretty informal and conversational.
- catch23 16y agoVideo is more powerful potentially, but it's also very hard to "edit". I remember applying to YC via a video app and I probably had to redo the video at least 10 times before I felt satisfied with it. It's easier to just edit text with a mouse cursor than it is to edit video. Speaking into a camera isn't very natural, so it's hard for me to create such a video in a single take, however this problem probably wouldn't occur if it was a talking head that I was speaking to.
- dotBen 16y agoSeems like lock in here, in that you can't take your video elsewhere or send it to non-YC companies. If you've spent the time perfecting an intro video, why wouldn't you want to use that for other (non-YC) companies.
- davidbalbert 16y agoJust added Disqus and Opzi to the list.
- BrandonM 16y agoI feel a bit frustrated with the startup application process. The (very common) question, "List any links that will let us know who you are. For example, projects you've worked on or links to your GitHub, StackOverflow, Twitter, blog, website, etc." always seems to hold a lot of weight while being tangent to the work I would expect to be doing. I don't have a GitHub, I'm not a StackOverflow member, I'm not on Twitter, I don't have a blog, and I haven't had a website since graduating with my CS degree. That does not mean that I am not talented, smart, or motivated. In my case, I like to interact personally with friends as opposed to digitally. I like to work on personal projects to satisfy my curiosity without being worried about later publishing them. And I'm not interesting/vain enough to warrant a blog, website, or Twitter presence. I like to work hard, "learn" hard (I do enjoy Hacker News), and play hard, and keeping up on the latest shiny-new-technology-web-presence-clique seems tangential to that. My goal is to work for a few years in an interesting software development position on a smart team, getting paid a fair wage while providing the company with equal value in return. In those years, I would expect to learn (and contribute!) a lot while also paying off my debts and helping out my parents. After that, I would reëvaluate my goals and my career. What frustrates me is that I feel like I have to jump through hoops just to get into the mix. I feel like I won't even be seriously considered unless I develop a few simple web tools built on RoR, promote them on a DJango website with a blog, host the source to the whole thing on GitHub, jump into the Twitter craze, and try to make useful contributions to FOSS and StackOverflow communities that are already saturated with great solutions. That seems like a lot of unimportant crap when all I really want to do is good work. If it takes me an extra day to learn RoR because your company uses it, that seems very small in the entire scheme of things. I understand that I don't have a web-visible track record to point you to. I'm quite willing to work at an under-market rate for a few months until I'm up to speed and it is determined that I am a good fit. Is there anywhere interesting to work that is looking to hire somebody like me?
- nicholasjbs 16y agoHey Brandon, I hear what you're saying. Not having an impressive GitHub/StackOverflow/etc account in no way means you aren't an awesome developer. You sound like a smart guy who knows what he's looking for. I'd suggest applying. I know none of the YC companies care about whether you have a certain number of followers on Twitter or GitHub. They want people who are smart and get stuff done.
- sliverstorm 16y agoI'm more of a hardware hacker myself, and many of the linked web pages tell little about the startups. Does YC fund many hardware based startups, or is it exclusively software?
- nicholasjbs 16y agoThe vast majority of YC companies are pure software companies, but there are a few that aren't. A couple of the companies on the YCommonApp are working on hardware, including Wattvision.
- kwamenum86 16y agoWhat ever happened to choosing a company that you think is a good fit? Product fit is part of the equation.
- nicholasjbs 16y agoThe YCommonApp is a first step, not the last. Anyone who applies will have plenty of opportunity to learn more about the companies' products, cultures, etc before deciding which companies they think are good fits.
- kwamenum86 16y agoIt just feels like it could be a waste of time for all parties involved.
- bosch 16y agoSo I'm just wondering if any of these companies hire foreigners? Specifically Canadians. But if there could be some info up to let people know if they'll consider applications from outside the US that would be awesome so then some people don't waste time submitting a resume.
- nicholasjbs 16y agoI'm not sure off-hand which ones are open to this, but my guess is for a good engineer plenty are (particularly the larger ones). We'll try to find out for you.
- rahulvohra 16y agoI think you should submit. For a great hire, a great start-up will pull out the stops and help you sort out an appropriate visa.
- pbiggar 16y agoThere are lots of YC companies who have hired foreigners, and have paid for the H1B, T1N, etc. (I'm basing this on the YC mailing list traffic). It seems to happen frequently.