7 ms·
Tell HN: Startup School acceptances have been emailed
Go check your email!
- limedaring 16y agoI'm in! I even had a dream last night that I wasn't accepted. I feel rather ridiculous.
- tomjen3 16y agoA lot of people who graduate college claim that they have a dream wherein they fail college, years after they graduate. Maybe this is something similar to that.
- limedaring 16y agoI'm also about to submit my YC app, so I think I'm especially worried about failing anything to do with YC. :P
- joneath 16y agoI got in and I am not not even a active contributer to HN (read everyday, just don't comment or post). Pretty excited to hear PG, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman, and Mark Zuckerberg. Should be a good time.
- dko 16y agoI setup a saved Twitter search to make sure I didn't miss anything. That said, see you guys there!
- gigafemtonano 16y agoI refuse to accept that I suck Paul. Seriously. You're 1-5 people trying to judge on what you think is going to work. I personally think reddit gave you a bit of an ego trip. I think your vision of the future is clouded by visions of the past. The future is strange and you're going to miss it. Enjoy your 15 minutes.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- milkshakes 16y agoi'm not sure what the startup school email said (i live on the east coast), but my rejection from yc was pretty civil... We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally. The quality of the applications continues to increase with each cycle, and since there's a limit on the number of interviews we can do, 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. 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.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- statictype 16y agoVery nice. It says a lot about YC that they put effort into making rejection letters not sound discouraging.
- jackowayed 16y agoThere's a difference between being rejected from something (which has a fairly low acceptance rate, strong applicant pool, and brief application) and sucking. Now, if you're going to complain and get discouraged by one unimportant failure (hell, you can still see the talks on Justin.tv), then you do suck because everyone that doesn't suck has failed lots of times and gotten over it.
- joneath 16y agoUse this "rejection" to empower you to build something amazing. I know if I was rejected I would use it as motivation to be great. No one can tell you what you are made of besides yourself.
- cglee 16y agoRejected! Guess that means I can do rails rumble now.
- p01nd3xt3r 16y agoThats exactly what I was thinking.
- zapnap 16y agoand we'll be glad to have you :)
- jedwhite 16y agoNot in. Oh well. Sounds like an overwhelming response and bigger venue again next year. Looking forward to watching some of it on justin.tv though. Have a productive day everyone who made it in. :)
- jmspring 16y agoLikewise denied. A bit of justin.tv and hackin' away on a current project will occur in its place.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jpwagner 16y agoAfterparties?
- sbowles 16y agoGood question. I'm flying in from LA. I would definitely stick around for a party or two afterwards if I knew about 'em in advance.
- devinfoley 16y agoI'll be flying from LA too. Maybe we should cab-pool or something?
- sbowles 16y agoIf we are on the same flight, happy to share a cab. Once you figure out your flight schedule, email me.
- theli0nheart 16y agoYo, I'm coming from LA too (and am renting a car). Email me and we can all figure this out.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- pg 16y agoI believe Airbnb is going to host a big one in SF.
- skbohra123 16y agoselected. now rushing for visas. can you assist?
- sahillavingia 16y agoMade it! Man, it's only been a couple months living in the US and I love it. Now, how to get from USC to Stanford with no car or driver's license. Anyone from or near to USC going?
- jackowayed 16y agoI think there are pretty cheap flights from LAX->SFO. You could also look into Amtrak (which I think only goes to Oakland, which is ~2 hours away from Stanford by BART and Caltrain), but often Amtrak's just about as expensive as flying. If you're really looking for cheap, there's buses like Greyhound, but they're slow and you'll encounter some sketchy people. But I think they've gotten better, and some buses even have WiFi.
- waterlesscloud 16y agoAmtrak goes to San Jose, but the timing from LA is inconvenient...
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- sahillavingia 16y agoUpdate: booked my flights and transportation to/from LAX. See you guys there. Look out for me!
- venturebros 16y agorejected...le sigh what is the criteria to get in anyways?
- ilovecomputers 16y agoReject here as well. I think the "What's the coolest thing you've made?" question held the most weight. Edit: I say this because I felt my response lacked anything significant. I have to say, it is a good motivation to get you working on side projects.
- venturebros 16y agoHmmm I agree with you but I have a feeling that "Where you went to school and major" was the deciding factor on whether or not they got to that part. I say that because I am not a Comp Sci major and I do not go to a legit school.
- SymbMeta 16y ago[cough, CS grads at MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, etc., cough]
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- henryw 16y agoI (who was luckily invited) think they look for more than school. I doubled in two non-CS majors from a non-MIT grade college. I learned to code on my own for kicks at first and then out of necessity.
- dzlobin 16y agoI'm wiling to bet that it doesn't matter. I got in and I don't go to an amazing school
- jcnnghm 16y agoI was accepted and I dropped out of the University of Maryland. Must be other stuff.
- il 16y agoA few hours ago, I was getting ready to post a question on HN that would have been phrased something like this: "Ask HN: I got rejected from Startup School. How can I improve myself to get accepted next year?" Fortunately, I didn't have to ask this question because, to my surprise, I got accepted. I guess pg+co. saw the hacker spirit in my application. I'm humbled and incredibly excited to attend this event, meet all of the other hackers there, and learn from people much smarter than me. I can't wait!
- chopsueyar 16y agoCongrats! I wish you much success on your endeavors.
- ericz 16y agoBerkeley students, whose going?
- rms 16y agoI live in Berkeley and plan on driving to Startup School. I can take up to 4 other people in my car.
- nphase 16y agoI was planning on being in the area that week, and this would've been the icing and cherry on top. Unfortunately, didn't get in. I figured my #gov20 work would count for something, but it seems it doesn't (which is fine, perhaps I'm just not that interesting of a hacker!) - any pointers for how to frame the pitch so it seems more appealing to the YC crew? Are there any meetups/after parties/etc in the area that one could attend? Half of the value of being in that auditorium would be meeting other hackers/entrepreneurs, I would hope not to lose out on that completely while i'm in the valley.
- speek 16y agoIs anybody flying in from Boston?
- revorad 16y agoHow many people got in? How many applied?
- dmix 16y agoFlying in from Toronto. The person I was planning to go with didn't get accepted, so any founders who want to grab a drink Friday in SF, my emails in my profile.
- jcnnghm 16y agoI'm guessing the best area to stay is San Fransisco, is that right? Or is Palo Alto better? I haven't been to the Bay Area in years, so I'm really not sure which area of either place would be best, any suggestions. From San Fransisco, what's the best way to get to Palo Alto, is there good public transportation, or should I rent a car? If anybody else is going to be around, and is interested in exploring, drop me a line, we can probably figure something out.
- jlees 16y agoThere is a public train service (Caltrain) that runs from San Francisco downtown (4th and King) to the Stanford campus (Palo Alto station). Renting a car is advisable if you're going to spend any significant time in the Bay Area but if you mostly plan to go to SS and then hop around SF, public transportation should be fine. If you're entirely here for SS, staying in Palo Alto is probably the wiser choice but there are more options in SF.
- evo_9 16y agoTry to stay in Palo Alto - the commute from the city is long enough (45-60m) to make it worth it. Plus Palo Alto is awesome (but pricy).
- kroger 16y agoOr you can stay in nearby cities like Menlo Park or Redwood City. I used to live in Menlo Park and I went to Palo Alto all the time. You may want to get a bike, though ;-)
- b3b0p 16y agoI got in. I figured if I got in everyone got in, but seeing this post, I guess not. Now, I have to schedule a flight (from Oklahoma), find a place to stay and schedule PTO at work. Also, I guess I can't do this and Rails Rumble... if anyone wants a spot in Rails Rumble who was unable to get in, they can have mine if I can give it out. Or, is it possible to do this and Rails Rumble? Perhaps that is pushing it. P.S. Wow, hipmunk.com is awesome!
- kn0thing 16y agoCongrats! And I'm glad to hear hipmunk is working out so well for you. Don't ever hesitate to send feedback our way! contact@hipmunk.com
- iloveyouocean 16y agoI applied but did not receive an email. Does that mean I was not accepted or did something else happen?
- icey 16y agoCheck your spam folders; pg has said that everyone should get an email whether they were accepted or not.
- scottyallen 16y agoSame here. I applied, but no email on way or the other. Is there a way to check acceptance status on the web?
- scottyallen 16y agoNevermind, turns out I did get accepted, but the email got eaten by my spam folder. This is the first time I've lost an important email to the spam folder - kinda scary, particularly when you realize there's 1500 threads of spam in there...
- geekinme 16y agowow,i saw the acceptance email today and am super excited! after watching similar videos on youtube over the years, i am looking forward to being there in person and meeting some of you folks there! thanks pg and ycombinator!
- tylerhwillis 16y agoI bet understanding the acceptance process here would be fascinating. YC is, by all accounts, is an organization tirelessly focused on making decisions based on the merit and potential of the founders. They have clear opinions of what is a good indicator of merit, but have shown a willingness to test their opinions and refine. If anyone involved would be willing to shed light, I'd love to know how you've refined the process of identifying good Startup School participants over the years.
- otwixto 16y agohow many of you were personally interviewed or received follow up questions before acceptance or rejection? Also, did anyone get accepted who didnt receive any follow up for the YC staff?