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Y Combinator is accepting applications for S18
- polloyksi 9y agoDue to Trump, and all the negative press USA has gotten lately, I wonder if it makes an impact of how eager people are to move to the USA anymore? Also, in case foreigners get accepted to YC, will it be more difficult than before to be able to stay in the USA for the duration of the program?
- dogma1138 9y agoSome will but not in any measurable amount the US is still the best place for start ups to go big.
- spamizbad 9y agoWith Bannon gone, I think the only immigration hard-liners left in Trump's circle are Stephen Miller and his chief of staff John Kelly who could very easily quit before ICE has a chance to wreck YC. Whitehouse Chief of Statff is a notorious high-turnover position and Kelly apparently threatens to quit on a weekly basis. Anyway, YC never threw Thiel under the bus so maybe they can call in a favor if things get dicey?
- cobookman 9y agoHow would ICE impact YC Founders. Has YC ever sponsored an Illegal Immigrant as part of its class?
- briandear 9y ago> ICE has a chance to wreck YC.. What would wreck YC is if potential foriegn applicants actually listened to the FUD and then decided not to apply.
- andreshb 9y agoThiel got the cold shoulder "Trump reportedly told Peter Thiel they'd be friends for life — and then ghosted him" http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-told-peter-thiel-theyd-be-friends-for-life-then-ghosted-him-2018-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-told-peter-thiel-theyd-...
- melvinmt 9y agoI moved to the US in 2011 with my first startup (and was lucky enough to be able to stay here). I don't think I would be able to do the same under Trump: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/trump-immigration-slowdown.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/trump-immigration-slow...
- zakshay 9y agoI'm waiting for a resolution on H4-EAD. Thats going to be a very important factor for me (since my spouse depends on it).
- shafyy 9y agoWe moved to SV in June from Switzerland to start a company. Is Switzerland overall a better place to live? Of course. But SV is still the best place to start a business. Trump luckily didn't impact that. And I don't think he can.
- cobookman 9y agoCan you name a new US law / enforcement that Trump passed which directly impacts Founders. Trump is mostly talk.
- matt4077 9y agoIt's quite obvious that he's intend to reduce immigration. That's not likely an immediate problem for white founders from Europe. But there's obvious potential in Africa, the Middle East, or Asia. And it's crystal clear that if Trump gets his way, Elon Musk would have a rather hard time getting permanent residency in the US. Apart from these actual, specific challenges, emigrating is a huge step for most people. The general hostility against "strangers" would definitely make me think twice about moving to the US today, even though I once spent a year in the Southwest and had a wonderful time. Just dealing with customs officers at the airport has become a nightmare over the last decade: Being fingerprinted like a criminal is the most obvious change. But I've lately noticed that the attitude more and more resembles the thuggishness usually associated with police states. They have always had all the power, but lately they seem to relish to show it to you. Need 10 seconds to find your flight number? "Go to the back of the line, NOW, and try again with the respect the greatest country on the face of the earth deserves". (actual quote).
- briandear 9y agoYou get fingerprinted going into Europe too at some airports.
- mysterypie 9y agoI'd be interested to know which European countries? And does it vary by the nationality of the visitor[1]? [1] For the USA for example, Canadians visiting for business or tourism (an implied B1 or B2 visa, respectively), are exempt from fingerprinting. Canada is the only exception to the USA's fingerprinting rules.
- phonon 9y agoUmmm... https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/07/trump-begins-to-dismantle-obamas-startup-visa-program/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/07/trump-begins-to-...
- paulsutter 9y agoAll the media coverage is causing fewer people to apply for visas, so it might actually be easier than before to get a visa (not kidding). Canadian universities are seeing 500% increases in applications, even tourism is down, because of exactly this sort of worry. The fear is enormous, but the actual changes are small, ergo, could be easier to get a visa now.
- askafriend 9y agoThere were numbers released recently that showed that tourism since 2015 in top destinations increased - with the exception of 2 countries where it declined (Turkey, and USA). https://twitter.com/FitzGeraldUCSD/status/955139776901869568 https://twitter.com/FitzGeraldUCSD/status/955139776901869568
- taytus 9y agoNot sure why you are getting downvoted. I feel this is a real fear many people are feeling right now.
- dmode 9y agoIt has already impacted tourism and international student enrollment in colleges. Logically, business creation would follow. Canada is reaping the benefits. Tourism is up 20% and college enrollment is up by significant percentage as well.
- willhslade 9y agoSource please?
- dmode 9y agoFor tourism decline: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/how-to-reverse-america-s-foreign-tourist-problem https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/how-to-re... For college enrollment decline: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/us/fewer-foreign-students-coming-to-us.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/us/fewer-foreign-students...
- 0800 9y agoAnecdotal, but: I myself turned down a job offer in SV in part due to Trump. When asking 4 random co-workers, none seem keen to move to the US, 2 of them even citing safety concerns (they are minorities from India and Africa and heard horror stories of former colleagues still in the US).
- snowmaker 9y agoSo far, it has not impacted our founders. The international founders in the current batch did not have any more trouble than founders in the past.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- staunch 9y agoYC is still the best and most open gateway to Silicon Valley investors. But that's only true because they have no real competition and it's a closed system. An open system wouldn't require gateways. There wouldn't be a need to be walked into a private party by a trusted club member. It looks like the answer to even this huge roadblock is new technology. Amazingly, it's not even theoretical at this point, it has actually begun. These new decentralized protocols and "ICOs" are going to all but eliminate Silicon Valley as a center of orbit. All startup funding will move onto the internet, where it belongs.
- MediumD 9y agoI disagree. You need to have someway of filtering out companies that don't have potential. These 'gateways' are vetting on behalf of investors who don't have the time/resources to perform a rigorous due diligence of everyone who wants funding. Without any sort of closed system, investors would get swarmed with people asking for money. ICOs are interesting, but how do you get around the scams and pretenders without any sort of filter, if anyone can host an ICO?
- qnk 9y ago4. If we invest in you, your group is expected to move to the Bay Area for June–August 2018. 6. Y Combinator doesn’t supply office space. We have space you can use if you need to, but we expect you to work out of wherever you find to live. Why is it so important to be in the Bay Area? I get that for some interactions it'd be ideal to be there, but I don't see the need for a team to actually move there.
- nikanj 9y agoThe commute to the office hours/dinners?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- verelo 9y agoApproximately 7 years ago I applied to YC, and rightly so I was rejected [our idea sucked, our presentation of it sucked even more...i had a lot to learn in general]. Having said that, given how far the world has changed in that time, but how little progress YC seems to have made [other than diluting their value across a larger number of companies per cohort], I don't know they're still as interesting in the world today. Additionally, i hate Bay Area "culture". I feel like it's got a lot of the problems Hollywood has, and frankly even if it didn't, i'm not sure I'd want to live in an overpriced apartment in the burbs. On the plus side, the weather is great...
- thoaway012218 9y agoI now have a business that grossed $50k+ last month just because I was forced to answer the "what did you hack lately" question. YC rejected my application but the hack idea, which I posted on Youtube, had so much interest it became a real company. Thanks YC!
- plinkplonk 9y ago> "what did you hack lately" question. Is this part of the application anymore? I took a quick look and all I could find was "Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible. " "Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered. " both of which seem to be, at best, sanitized versions of the original questions which IIRC referred specifically to hacking systems, and impressive achievements of founders. (If somebody has saved the original questions from the PG era, could you confirms this?)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- blhack 9y agoTo anybody considering applying: I've applied twice and been rejected both times. Just the application process itself was hugely valuable. The questions really make you think out your model. It helped us identify some [now] obvious flaws in the way we were trying to solve our problem. You're not wasting anybody's time by applying.
- lettergram 9y agoI've actually applied at least 6 times. Interviewed twice. Rejected every time, yet don't regret it at all. Both times I was interviewed, I've continued the projects and they are actually both still going strong. Ones being funded by various grants (related to EEG research). The other, which I interviewed for W18, just launched and is already self-sustaining with profits off investing + subscriptions: https://projectpiglet.com/ https://projectpiglet.com/ The process of interviewing helps to clarify business values, and honestly - I'll be applying again with a clearer vision. The main thing they appear to look for is viable business, future vision, then team. I highly recommend applying. Finally, and the primary reason I suggest applying is the people you meet! Just from my trip for the interview(s) I met several different teams, some of them I ended up introducing to other people to get them business. Other startups ended up helping me. It's worth the trip.
- blhack 9y agoI'm curious about your EEG research. I remember getting one of the original emotiv epocs but being really disappointed in it.
- lettergram 9y agoLol that's actually what we used initially (still do). We rolled our own way of processing the EEG signals (which are notoriously noisy), then we used a technique to remove movement. Now typically those type of analysis are done post run. However,I worked on it for a while and now in real-time we can do error correction based on movement. This enables those EEGs to be within spitting distance of medical grade EEGs.
- almostApatriot1 9y agoplease give extra scrutiny to blockchain start ups looking to ICO. I've seen Y Combinator tossed around for a couple companies as a means to pump their coin, and I'm sure a lot of would be scam coiners would love that type of attention.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- arekkas 9y agoIf an international founder is accepted, does she/he need some special visa - like work visa or those H1B ones?
- sAbakumoff 9y agoI'm wondering if YC will accept a block chain based startup.
- chrischen 9y agoThey have already.
- sAbakumoff 9y agoIs there a list somewhere? Do some of them do ICO
- rrecuero 9y agoMoneytis(Request Network) and Quantstamp have both done a token sale
- chrischen 9y agoAnd fairly large rounds at current Eth prices.
- sAbakumoff 9y agoOkay, will keep an eye on the 2018 YC graduates in hope to fund future block chain incumbents :-)
- rrecuero 9y agoYC has accepted and will continue to fund great blockchain startups. Here are some of the companies we funded: Dharma.io, Quantstamp, Moneytis (now Request Network), Coinbase
- tschellenbach 9y agoYC is a great option to build a business. There are more paths though, so don't be discouraged. Stream participated in Techstars NYC. The MD in NYC (Alex Iskold) is excellent. It's been 2 years and he's still helping us out. YC does a great job of selecting companies, but they can't always get it right. Qualifying early stage companies is very hard. I'd definitely recommend giving Techstars some thought as well. They really go the extra mile to help you succeed.
- bambax 9y ago> if your company is already incorporated as a non-United States company, to participate in YC you will need to convert your foreign company into a United States corporation I have always wondered what this means exactly. If I'm the CEO of a company outside the US, that is unrelated to what the startup would be doing, does it matter? Is it just a question of who owns the IP for the startup? And even if another company owns the IP, can't the IP be transferred/sold without converting the company itself?
- kirsty 9y agoIt depends on specific circumstances. If the IP in the foreign company is truly unrelated, then there are circumstances where it could make sense to just start a new company in the US. If the US company is going to use the IP, then there are lots of potential solutions and structures. Often we see founders with foreign companies do a share exchange so the shares in the foreign company are exchanged for shares in the US company and the foreign company then becomes a subsidiary of the US company. Particularly in the case where the founders plan to go back to their home country or to hire / operate in that country. If you get accepted into YC and have already incorporated a foreign company, then we can help you figure out what the best solution would be in your situation. If you aren't already incorporated and you don't have to immediately, then probably best to wait to find out if you're accepted into YC before incorporating anywhere other than the US.
- bambax 9y agoThank you!
- dlanged 9y agoCan anybody from recent batches comment on the extent of actual advice and mentoring received during the program? E.g. do you typically work closely with your advisor(s) on near daily basis, or is this more like booking a meeting with your university professor occasionally, when you need to discuss a particular topic?
- ScottBurson 9y agoInterviews are planned for "late May", yet the program presumably starts on June 1. This seems to make for an awfully short interval between finding out one has been accepted and actually starting. Can someone from YC clarify?
- katm 9y agoInterviews are in late April. We'll update!
- EGreg 9y agoI remember we used to apply every semester until we gave up years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2426118 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2426118 Now our company has become pretty successful without taking any VC. David Heinemeier Hansson (one of our advisors btw) at least is pretty proud :)
- seehafer 9y agoIf you’ve been rejected before don’t be discouraged, we were rejected twice before getting in last summer. Stick with it!
- an4rchy 9y agoIf anyone has any info, I would love to know how often YC reject companies/ideas because of a conflict of interest or if there's any rules/guidelines around that?
- andreshb 9y agoFrom what I've seen over the years and heard from YC founders, it is not uncommon for YC to invest in competing businesses. They have a lot of companies, and it is very likely that at some point there will be companies that evolve into competing with other portfolio companies.
- snowmaker 9y agoWe do have a policy on this. The short version is that we will fund competitors of companies we have funded in the past, so if that describes you, please don't be dissuaded from applying. From our FAQ: Will you fund multiple startups working on the same idea? Yes. If you fund as many companies as we do it's unavoidable you'll end up with some overlap. Even if you tried not to accept competing companies, you'd still get overlap because startups' ideas morph so much. The way we deal with it is that when two startups are working on related stuff, we don't talk to one about what the other's doing. In practice it has not turned out to be a problem, because most big markets have room for several slightly different solutions, and it's unlikely that two startups would do precisely the same thing.
- hamslamwich 9y agoGenerally, is there a rough percentage of their cohorts that are pre-revenue? Or does it vary wildly each round?
- snowmaker 9y agoMost.
- foodislove 9y agoEven if you know your startup isn't the right fit or you and team are not the YC type, the application is hugely valuable because it makes you think long and hard about what you are doing. We never got into YC, but we did end up with another accelerator. The one question that YC asks, that sets it apart is the question at the end: "what do you know about your industry or business that other people don't". It's a simple question with a lot of meaning. I found that working out a concise answer to that question turned out to be key to our fundraising and product positioning. If you don't have a ready answer to that question, most investors and accelerators will just make their own assumptions about what you do. Our industry is NOT the most exciting and hot trend so having that answer left and center turned out to be key to presenting what we do in a good light. Do the application even if you know you won't get in.
- sadfjaflj 9y agoThe only thing I don't like is that it requires a US company. I wish they were more open to legal entities elsewhere. Even Canada would be a better option (for me) given its right next door.
- partoa 9y agoWe've been working on a hardware startup for about 7 years now, 8 years since I had the idea. It took us such a long time because we had to learn a lot of things. Our prototype is a two weeks away, and actual tests with users a little over a month away. What would the ideal time to apply? Now, as soon as the prototype is done or after actual tests with actual users?
- cvaidya1986 9y agoI would highly recommend just applying. It really puts your thoughts in order for your startup. Also, if you have a ton of ideas, I would try to apply with the one that has the potential to scale quickly and is the simplest to explain to end users.