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YC Startup School 2018: a free, 10-week, online course
- akuji1993 8y ago> 1,587 (56%) of the companies completed the course, and, since then, 38 of them have been accepted to the core Y Combinator program In other words, your chance of getting into YC by these means, is about 2%. Still might be worth, just for the information alone though.
- haggy 8y agoThat feels right given the number of ideas that turn out to be side projects vs. Become real companies
- bobwaycott 8y agoYou’re mistakenly assuming everyone applies to join YC when calculating that percentage.
- Liron 8y agoFor context, 2% is also the acceptance rate of all YC applications. I'm guessing that people who apply to Startup School tend to be very early in the founding process, which gives them an a priori lower chance of getting accepted (even though YC is open to super early stage), and then SS raises it. Also, the kind of people applying to Startup School are probably not the kind of experienced founders whose application looks more promising at the very early stage.
- anthuswilliams 8y agoI took the course last year but did not apply to YC. I'm assuming there are others in this situation as well, so I'd conclude the acceptance rate for SS graduates is higher than the acceptance rate for the general candidate population.
- adora 8y agoHi, I'm Adora, a YC partner, and will be helping out with the course. Very excited to meet and work with everyone. Happy to answer any questions.
- lihaciudaniel 8y agoIs there any age restriction?
- clbrook 8y agoWhen applying is the login the same as the regular YC login or do I need to create a new account?
- jeremya 8y agoI see that the course begins on August 27th. What is the deadline for applying to Startup School?
- adora 8y agoAugust 13.
- wslh 8y agoThanks Adora. Just a suggestion: I took the 2017 course and it was great, now I think an aditional growing startup course will be complementary for companies that need to solve growing challenges.
- deleted 8y ago
- jcolella 8y agoThis is great. This empowering and in general knowledge sharing on building startups is why many companies are successful here in the US. Very cool
- taytus 8y agoApplication sent! Best of luck everyone!!
- sreyaNotfilc 8y agoSounds sweet! I'm actually releasing a website/business September 1st. So, this is perfect timing. Might as well give it a go.
- elvirs 8y agothis is awesome. lines up with our stage of development too. filled out the form, hoping to become part of YC community
- Viccco 8y agoMost definitely joining in. Perfect timing, as I'm preparing to launch
- mkirklions 8y agoI am developing a finance tech, full stack app, solo. This would probably be fantastic, but the time/money commitment is >Not working my 9-5 job that pays 2k/week >Not obsessively working on my app after work 4hr/night 5 + 12hr2= 44 hours/week of not programming Im sure its a great opportunity, but I am unsure if its the better decision. I already have a community that visits Efficiency Is Everything, I already can program, and I have a significant savings. Business skills may be a real thing to learn, but its a risky 10 week proposal. Anyone care to share thoughts on this decision? I would rather find out I'm wrong, than be wrong and make a bad decision.
- sandslash 8y agoWe totally understand that founders may have other commitments that are more important than their nascent company. That's one of the main reasons we started Startup School, and kept it completely remote. The program itself only has two requirements: that you are working on a startup (PT or FT) and that you're able to commit ~3 hours a week of to watch the lectures and attend office hours.
- mkirklions 8y agoThat isnt bad at all. I will re-read the article and consider it. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
- f0rgot 8y agoReminder that you can also just audit the course, if you all you really want is the info.
- amino 8y agoI took part in the innaugural startup school and really loved it. I would like to join this one too. Can I still apply with the same idea?
- sandslash 8y agoAbsolutely!
- tuyguntn 8y agoAnyone who tried this course last year, can you please share your thoughts on this course and * why should we take this course? * what have you achieved after taking this course? * did it help you build/finish your startup?
- philip1209 8y ago> why should we take this course? 1) Content - learn a lot from lectures 2) Accountability - office hours will hold you to your goals and keep you making progress 3) Mentorship - Experienced founders and office hours mates will help you make sure that you are working on the right problems in the most efficient way. 4) Community - it's inspiring and energizing to be around founders in a similar position as you. Plus, it can give you early users and customers. (Our first customers were through Startup School). > what have you achieved after taking this course? My co-founder and I make enough profit to live on our business while traveling full-time. > did it help you build/finish your startup? Yes. And, I want to participate again this year. Our 2017 problems were building the right product. Our 2018 problems are navigating product/market fit and growth.
- utdiscant 8y ago* The content is just really good. Beyond that, I think the interactions with the other startups in our group were really valuable and some of them I still talk to today. The office hours were good, and hopefully some of the practical challenges around scheduling last year will be solved. * We got accepted into YC after being in Startup School. * Yes, I believe that the lessons in the course have been important for us.
- anthuswilliams 8y agoI took this course last year. The lectures/coursework were very helpful (albeit freely available on youtube as well). But it was the mentorship that really makes it valuable. You get placed in a cohort representing a wide range of business plans and industries. Some were moonshots requiring a lot of capital-raising and dealmaking, and others (including ours) were smaller SaaS products targeting particular business niches. There were participants at each stage of the startup pipeline, some without a product (or even a concrete idea), some just starting to sell to customers, and some mature companies with employees and interns and such. We were making a lot of mistakes common to first-time founders, building things without first asking our customers about them, not experimenting with our message, etc. Meeting with our mentor helped us combat those issues and probably was the difference between having a functional company and not. We'll probably try to do it again this year. Our challenges are different; last year we were trying to get our product built and get acceptance for our first few customers, whereas now we're trying to figure out how to scale our sales pipeline. I'd recommend it to anyone working on a startup, regardless of where they are in the process.
- code_devil 8y agoHi Adora, This is awesome. I just applied for it. How many hours of lectures will we have in a week? As it’s an online course - do you recommend being in one physical location/geography?
- sandslash 8y agoYou should expect a minimum 3-hour commitment a week: roughly 2 hours of lectures and 1 hour of group office hours. Lectures you can watch at your own leisure. As for location/geography, as long as you have a device with internet access you can be wherever works best for you. We'll do our best to align timezones so scheduling is easier for you and your group during the course.
- code_devil 8y agoThanks sandslash!
- matte_black 8y agoWhat does the information in the course have to offer that is different from all the other books, courses and content out there on building a startup? Seems like everything out there basically presents the same concepts just in different words.
- snowmaker 8y agoIf you just want the content, you can audit it. The reason to do the course is that it's actually a program. You'll work directly with a mentor who is a current YC founder and get to know other companies in your group.
- kaycebasques 8y agoThe course seems rather no-strings-attached. For example, it mentions that the most promising companies will get $10K of "equity-free funding" as well as other goodies. Appeals to altruism aside, what's Y Combinator's incentive here? Is the hope that companies will feel loyalty to YC, and join the core program?
- ai_ia 8y agoGoogle has also a startup launchpad with provides equity free funding. I am not sure why though, but its great for founders like me who are interested.
- wuliwong 8y agoI think that going through this program and receiving $10K of equity free funding would substantially increase the chances of a company sticking with YC.
- Liron 8y agoYC already invests $1M worth of human capital to put on Startup School. Whatever their original motivation is to do it, it's worth another $1M to do it better.
- krrishd 8y agoI didn't take it as a true 'course' last year but incidentally watched a lot of the lectures -- heard some really genuinely novel perspectives that aren't as self-evident as a lot of startup education ~seems~ nowadays, so i'm excited to see how the course has evolved!
- k__ 8y agoIt's nice that the offer the material to people who don't have an idea for a product in the near future.
- bob_theslob646 8y agoI wonder what the logic is behind this? Is it getting too costly to educate people in person? Is this as effective as in person? >Those companies will also receive a video interview with a YC partner later in the year for advice or aid in applying to a future YC batch. I laughed at that comment due to how it shows how competitive it is to get into YC.
- sandslash 8y agoWe wanted to create a program with content that would be helpful for any new founder/startup, regardless of where they are. It's not meant to replace the in-person YC program (that's still our core offering). Think of it as a crash course in starting a company. Just because you can't make it to the Bay Area doesn't mean you shouldn't have access to advice and community! We just want to help startups be better startups.
- nathcd 8y agoIt looks like the "What is your most impressive accomplishment?" question on the application has a max length of 60 characters. I can understand it needing to be short, but that seems really short. I'm having a tough time trying to slice and dice a sentence to fit.
- adora 8y agoOops, good point. We'll change that soon. Will update here once done. Edit: good to go now.
- dimitry12 8y agoSome fields on the "COMPANY DETAILS"-form are obviously too short. For example "How far along are you?" is 60 characters.
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- chasely 8y agoI applied with the low character requirements; I assumed you were encouraging brevity for the sake of the reviewers. Should I reapply or will it not have a large impact on admission decisions?
- soyapi 8y agoApparently, you can update your application before the deadline, Aug 13th.
- conquistadog 8y agoVery interested. How much about one's idea must be disclosed? Is there any protection for secret sauce?
- 1996 8y agoWhy do you care? ideas are worth little. Implementation matters most! Last week I talked with a competitor. I detailed my plans for the next 6 months. It commits me to follow them, and may incite discussion. There is almost 0 risk they can match the features or my timeline. I am quite productive, and there is no secret sauce. Just complexity, and interdependance. Can't have a baby in 1 month with 9 mothers. And should they do, I will be happy to copy the unique features they add. The disclosure opened some talks however. I am ready to sell consulting or some specific parts they need to do their product, and that have not much of an impact in mine.
- conquistadog 8y agoYou make a fair point, but that advice is a very hard ask for some. Just looking for some reassurance.
- anonymous5133 8y agolol, you are being way too friendly. Business is a game of war and you must play the game to win. If you give any details of your future plans then only do it as a means of deception ;)
- Kagerjay 8y agoI submitted this anyhow I do not think business skills is something I really need, mentorship is nice but I have great mentors locally, but the issue I face right now is mostly lack of technical knowledge, so this startup school might be irrelevant to me in all honesty I have an idea I wish to persue because it solves an actual problem I face everyday and by building it it would make a lot of other goals I have much easier to obtain. I am mostly just interested in the case studies of how other startups do things. Mostly curiosity about how YC
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- legionof7 8y agoIs it just me or does the Add Picture button not work? I tried both Firefox and Chrome.
- carusooneliner 8y agoMy cofounder and I took this course last year. About the format of the course and efficacy: - assigned mentor: we were assigned a former yc startup founder as mentor. the mentor had 30 minute 1-1s with us once a month and gave us useful advice on a wide range of matters. - weekly homework: choose a single metric you'll measure through the duration of the course and report the metric and growth weekly. The metric could be DAUs, number of customers you've talked to, whatever. It's for you to figure the most important thing to focus on. We were running the startup in a bit of an ad hoc manner until startup school; weekly metric reporting helped focus our efforts in service of a single meaningful metric. - group calls: we were lucky to be in a good peer group comprising about 30 startups of all kinds -- medical device to SaaS to consumer apps. There were weekly 1-2 hr calls chaired by the mentor. Before the meeting, the mentor sent out a questionnaire to fill out -- what's your product's value prop, what setbacks have you faced, etc. -- and startups would be randomly chosen to talk about their response to the questionnaire. Lot of time for Q&A. Our peer group is still in touch through a facebook group, where we occasionally share progress. - Demo day: record a 2 minute video talking about our startup. This forced us come up with a concise statement to describe our startup and gave us a platform to showcase it. If I had to summarize the benefit of startup school, it would be three things: - quality mentorship - diverse peer group - forcing function for startup to hit goals I'll venture to say it's probably one of the most valuable things an early stage startup could invest time on.
- DenisM 8y ago>30 minute 1-1s with us once a month Was that actually useful? I can't imagine them understanding (or remembering) anything about your company in that little time.
- wasd 8y agoWe did the first batch of Startup School. We had mandatory N to 1 meetings. Those weren't that useful for us (it felt like we were a bit further ahead than other companies) but a few companies got a lot of value out of it. Our optional 1-1 were insanely useful. Our mentor was a yc alum saas cofounder. He was took notes and saw our homework every week. His perspective was priceless and there weren't many problems we were facing that he hadn't already seen. Like other people mentioned, you come with a problem and they help you understand how to tackle it.
- madeuptempacct 8y agoThis sounds like an asshole question, but it's one I have always had. If someone has a truly great idea, how do they know it won't be stolen by mentors with more resources and lawyers?
- jld 8y agoWhile it's certainly possible, most people have their own ideas and problems they are already working on. Relationships and execution end up counting way more than ideas. On balance, if you have a great idea, you'll be better off growing it with good mentorship compared to the small risk that it gets stolen by a mentor.
- Finbarr 8y agoIdeas are pretty worthless. Execution is everything. It takes years of follow through to realize the value of good ideas.
- patio11 8y agoYour mentors (broadly defined) will happily tell you that your idea rounds to valueless and that all of the value created happens over years of patient execution, much like the years of execution that they spent working on their most recent adventure, and that entrepreneurs who are likely to be successful don’t sit around idle in a room lounging on stacks of money, chit chatting with lawyers, and waiting to stab a passing startup in the back.
- Finbarr 8y agoReally happy to see this running again. The design looks to have been hugely improved. Great job YC software team!
- ericzawo 8y agoI've been working on my own media platform with friends and think this will provide a lot of value. I've worked for various media companies in the past as both an employee and freelance journalist and want to really make an impact with our brand. Hoping we get in!
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- bambax 8y agoI took this course last year and enjoyed it a lot. My company exists and is growing. Can I take it again? -- Is it possible, and does it make sense to take it twice?
- sandslash 8y agoYou can definitely take it again. Content this year, for the most part, will be different than last year's.
- bambax 8y agoThanks! I forgot my password, and have trouble setting a new password for the previous account via the reset link; the website says "Please review the problems below:" but doesn't show anything else... Should I create a new account...?
- LeonM 8y agoI just subscribed, there are some bugs in the process though: - The photo image uploader does not seem to work (FF61). - The email validation link threw a 500 error on first try, second try succeeded. - The company name field in the second form cannot be empty, even though the field description says 'if you have one'.
- rrecuero 8y agoThey should be fixed now. Email us at software@ycombinator.com if you run into any issues.
- antaviana 8y agoIn our case, our "start-up" is a desktop product sold as a subscription that is developed and marketed within an existing professional services company we operate, which is serving a niche domain that the desktop product targets. Developing the product was always a bit of a hobby but patiently over 5 years since it transitioned from freeware to commercial, annual subscription billings have grown to over $500K. We estimate that our current customer base is a 3-5% of the TAM. The product business itself is already profitable because it requires barely one FT equivalent person for development and support (i.e. 2-3 people part-time working on it, mostly dev, a bit of support). Since it has a hobby, we fully relied on a low touch sales model so we never have done ads, conferences or engaged in sales efforts. Instead we grew via network effects among our customers. What I'm trying to say is that in all these years we've figured out some things along the way (most notably product-market fit and business model) and clearly left other things on the table (sales, marketing, recruiting) to fully develop the opportunity further. Back in 2014 I found immensely useful the "How to start an start up?" video lectures hosted by Sam Altman. Given our slow motion, age (I'm over 50) and probably the fact that our company would be an outlier in the group calls, what would make most sense for me to apply for, Startup School or Audit Startup School? Of my team most likely only I will have enough time/motivation to take the online course.
- jasonford1 8y agoI'm in a similar position. For whatever it's worth I applied for Startup School. My partners are in their 60's and have grown the business purely analog. 3-5% of TAM is about where we are as well. Cash flow positive for 9 years. Time to step on the gas.
- hsikka 8y agoI'm working on building Early Warning Systems that use ML and space data for Public Health problems and can see a commercial application for governments and communities. But I just started work, and this is a longer problem than most SAAS offerings, do you think Startup School is worth it in this case?
- adora 8y agoYep. We've tailored the content to fit all sorts of sales models. There'll also be plenty of other founders with similarly long sales cycles to chat to / learn from within the Startup School community.
- hsikka 8y agoAwesome thanks Adora! You probably don't remember but you interviewed me YC summer 2018 for a project called ModelDepot haha!
- ericdykstra 8y agoJust signed up, and looking forward to seeing the content, even though I'm just auditing this year. I have a question, though. In the "What industry do you plan to launch your product in?" question, one of the responses was "Diversity." What exactly do you mean by "Diversity Industry" and can you give some examples of companies in this space?
- thehodge 8y agoJust applied, I think as a part time husband and wife team with a child (and based in the UK) this is a more realistic opportunity than the physical YC (even though I think that would be an awesome adventure)
- fefehern 8y agoI've submitted an application but I do have a question: If I were to change gears (Say, go from one business idea to another), should I re-apply with the different idea?
- adora 8y agoYou can update your application up until Aug 13.
- volkk 8y agoA comment here mentions that over 2000 companies joined last year. How do mentors spread their time over this impressive amount of companies? Or does that number include the ones that are simply auditing? And if you're NOT auditing, does that mean that it's an application process where you must be accepted?
- adora 8y agoThat figure does not include audit. Advisors use most of their time on this doing group office hours sessions. Last year each advisor had around 25-30 companies each, so we only needed 100 or so. They're all YC alum who love to pay it forward. Anyone can audit the course. If you'd like to participate fully, it is an application process.
- anonymous645 8y agoWould u accept a me-too company ? This company just raised $10M A round. Fantastic backers, industry-experienced CEO. A very technical enterprise product. We saw their demo. The website is very detailed. Never signed any NDA. We have managed to code a similar MVP product. We also have a different technical and feature road map. This is not a $1BN target - maybe eventual acquisition at low 9 figures. Do u think this is a valid candidate for YC Online ? Would u strongly steer us away from such an approach ?
- aacook 8y agoCool. This is timely for me. I launched https://nanagram.co https://nanagram.co about 8 months ago. We help people send printed photos in the mail to their grandparents with a text message. I've been bootstrapping it with contract work in parallel but I'd like to focus on it full-time. Customers seem to truly love it and it's the happiest thing I've ever created. I'm thinking about putting together a family and friends round to focus full-time through the fall. Funding aside, I know I need some mentorship. Is the $10k funding awarded at the end of the cycle?
- Fomite 8y agoFor the record, I'm one of your users, and I absolutely love nanagram.
- aacook 8y agoHeck yes! This makes my day. I am printing this comment out and putting it on my fridge for my wife to see when she gets home. :)
- aaavl2821 8y agoThis looks really cool btw, my gf and I will very likely become users! I think it says that the $10k will be awarded to 100 companies that complete the course so I assume at the end
- Danilka 8y agoClever, sending a link to my GF right now. I wish you shipped to more countries.
- notananthem 8y agoI'd love to apply but I'm finishing an evening MBA and want to do it or just apply to YC after school. Got a year left, I'm going to just audit it. Can't believe how accessible YC is to the startup market, thanks YC :)
- waldrews 8y agoUI suggestion: Just Say No to multi-page forms that require you to submit the first page of (personal) information before being allowed to see questions on subsequent pages.
- TACIXAT 8y agoWhy?
- whollacsek 8y agobecause it's a dark pattern
- maximp 8y agoAlternatively, I hate filling out a whole form that requires for a bunch of info and then asks for way too much personal info at the end. I'd rather know what they need upfront so I can decide on whether to fill out the form at all.
- Wouter33 8y agoHeads-up: There is no overview/confirmation page at the end of the signup process, so no reviewing your answers before submitting. Just found this out the hard way!
- syntaxing 8y agoIs this course suitable for hardware products? There's some ideas and prototypes I have done that I always wanted to bring to market but not sure how to go about it.
- adora 8y agoYes, very much so.
- westoncb 8y agoWhat I wonder is if this would be very useful to someone trying to start a software business that they don't want to turn into a 'startup' in the sense it's generally used here (not trying to become a billion dollar company or even seeking investment at all). It seems like best advice and strategies for those routes have some overlap, but also a lot of points where good advice for one is bad advice for the other.
- mamaquin 8y agoHi Adora, Do you need to have a co-founder to get into the online startup school?
- ankitsoni 8y agoNot Adora here, you don't need a co-founder to join startup school.
- adverbly 8y agoIs the 10k available for startups in the US only, or is it international?
- adora 8y agoYou can be from anywhere.
- hyperpallium 8y ago> For the first time ever we are going to give $10,000 in equity-free funding to 100 of the most promising companies that join and complete the course.
- noobhacker 8y agoWhat are the recommended background readings to best prepare founders for this program? IMO it helps a lot when participants already use the same framework and speak the same language, so that more time can be devoted to specific problems. Obviously for people that hang out on HN, we already had some shared understanding. But a list of recommended readings to make sure all gaps are filled would be very useful as well.
- adora 8y agoOne place to start: https://www.startupschool.org/library https://www.startupschool.org/library
- jameshack223 8y agoFor your hack related issues; Contact cyberservices via Discord: jameshack223#1210 Skype Address: murien4321 ICQ: 709642247
- frissonlabs 8y agoI saved a very rough draft of my application but now, when I return to startupschool.org, it shows me the "Thank you for applying to Startup School!" message. Should I be worried? Or can I still edit my application via "Settings"?
- adora 8y agoYou should be able to edit your profile and company details when you log in.
- nad7vx 8y agosorry if this a dumb question: my cofounder and I are working on a app that we plan to release in South East Asia (i.e. India) because of what we believe is a better market fit as well as product positioning - does applying to this program make sense if our goal isn't (in the near term) to release this app in the US? Would we still be eligible for the equity funding?
- adora 8y agoStill makes sense, and you'll be eligible as long as you complete the course. One of our goals for Startup School is to help founders beyond the Silicon Valley and US. Great entrepreneurs are everywhere.
- allanmacgregor 8y agoJust submitted my application, regardless if I make it in or not I'm really excited to follow along with the videos
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- adityapurwa 8y agoI just applied and I am working full time, I wonder if I’d still be able to join the course considering I only have after office hours on it. I’m glad the course is during my college breaks.
- vardhankoshal 8y agoHi Adora, Can you please provide some idea of selection criteria and if possible, selection percentage?
- asaxena76 8y agoI am a solo founder with kids and mortgage. Wifey helps out a bit. Have a rough proto ( and software) of a kids educational robotics product. I put the product on cold storage realizing I can't do this part time and I don't have enough money in the bank to take time off . I really want to share and get some feedback but I am afraid I won't be able to spend a lot of time in building right now. I can spend 3-4 hours a week but thats about it . Do you think this will be a good fit for me. I would certainly like to be able to qualify for cloud credits so I can keep building this when I have time.