4 ms·

Tell HN: Our YC Interview Story and Advice

100 points by tdavis 18y ago

brandonkm 18y ago
Great story. I'm sure quite a bit of other startups and applicants can relate to your situation and its always great hearing about the lead up to getting funded by YC.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  I wish additional young startups would share their stories. Many of them are much more interesting than ours.
fallentimes 18y ago
In unrelated news: we managed to spend almost the entire reimbursement check that night.
- hugh 18y ago
  If you'd spent the whole investment in one night I'd be impressed.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    Hopefully three years from now at Robert's Steakhouse in New York City :).
    - jmorin007 18y ago
      I'm pretty sure we'll be spending more than the amount in that original reimbursement check that night.
      - fallentimes 18y ago
        If we're lucky enough to make it that far, the goal will be to keep it under six figures.
vlad 18y ago
Nice post! You said you hadn't realized your idea wasn't exactly unique until after you had started working on it. Some may call this a stretch, but I think this is similar to Steve Wozniak often creating things that already existed, just not to his standards or accessibility (i.e. costs, limited time and place, etc.) When a startup doesn't have it's hopes up on just trying to be the first to accomplish something, but more importantly to create a quality, accessible product, that is probably when things come together for them.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Believe me, the only thing I have in common with Steve Wozniak is a seven-letter last name :).
mattmaroon 18y ago
I'm both happy and sad that they're not doing the same thing this year. I really liked interviewing all the companies, but it also monopolized a couple days. I think they took my advice an all of them actually, so it didn't feel like a waste of time.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Glad you liked us.
- yters 18y ago
  Do selected startups also help in the next round's selection process?
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    Not this time (that I know of).
sobriquet 18y ago
Sounds so easy! 40 hour mock up, off the cuff interview, and head to the bar! I can handle that. But seriously, I'm sure all the hard work that's not mentioned in the post is starting to pay off. Congrats, and thanks for the encouragement and advice.
- tdavis 18y ago
  I'm not yet convinced that the hard work ever pays off, it just begets more hard work ;) It's like, if you have 2 apples and eat 1, how many apples do you have? Normal life? One apple. Start-up life? 17 apples. Want to know what happens when you eat another one? No. No you do not. ... Just make sure you really like apples.
  - charlesju 18y ago
    Lol, for some reason, I totally understand what you mean, even though what you said was pretty much gibberish.
- jmorin007 18y ago
  Just to clarify a bit...Dan is one of the best "off the cuff" speakers that I know, and Tom is almost inhuman in his ability to work for countless hours straight and turn out an amazing product. The Ticketstumbler advice is definitely spot on: - Make sure that you know your shit when you're going in for the interview. Know your competitors inside and out (there will be laptops open during the interview and active googling will be conducted while you're talking), and be able to articulate why you're different. - Be confident in your idea, but also be open to suggestions/recommendations. Push back if you feel it's necessary, but being open and flexible are traits that YC is looking for. - Anticipate obvious questions and have intelligent answers ready. - Definitely have a demo/prototype. We'll be writing up a more in depth blog post in the next few days on the Anyvite blog, but just wanted to toss some ideas out there now in response to the TS blog post.
  - jumper 18y ago
    "Anticipate obvious questions and have intelligent answers ready." Does that include putting the answers in the presentation? I suppose their might be some that wouldn't really fit there even if they were predictable though. Otherwise, I'm not sure if intentionally withholding them until the QA part is a good way of looking stupid or smart...
jumper 18y ago
"...we spent the next 8 years playing Starcraft" Heh. Reminds me of my friends and I falling into it. Somehow, I can't help but think Starcraft could be a useful if crude litmus test to divide people into social groups. I wonder if there are any entrepreneur focused lan parties...
- fallentimes 18y ago
  We pioneered the goon/ling 2v2 strategy ;p. I didn't let myself bring my Starcraft CD to college.
babul 18y ago
Our interviews went pretty well despite getting absolutely grilled by Pete from Songkick. It was probably one of the sharpest, toughest interviews I’ve ever had. Pete is such a nice friendly guy it makes me smile thinking of him grilling someone (though, of course, he can). So who was being "good cop"?
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Pete was the only one from Songkick that interviewed us. He was much nicer after the interview :). It wasn't a mean grilling - just a thorough one. He was/is very impressive. Also, it didn't help that we were on a transatlantic conference call.

100 points by tdavis 18y ago

Great story. I'm sure quite a bit of other startups and applicants can relate to your situation and its always great hearing about the lead up to getting funded by YC.

fallentimes 18y ago
I wish additional young startups would share their stories. Many of them are much more interesting than ours.

fallentimes 18y ago

In unrelated news: we managed to spend almost the entire reimbursement check that night.

hugh 18y ago
If you'd spent the whole investment in one night I'd be impressed.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Hopefully three years from now at Robert's Steakhouse in New York City :).
  - jmorin007 18y ago
    I'm pretty sure we'll be spending more than the amount in that original reimbursement check that night.
    - fallentimes 18y ago
      If we're lucky enough to make it that far, the goal will be to keep it under six figures.

vlad 18y ago

Nice post! You said you hadn't realized your idea wasn't exactly unique until after you had started working on it. Some may call this a stretch, but I think this is similar to Steve Wozniak often creating things that already existed, just not to his standards or accessibility (i.e. costs, limited time and place, etc.) When a startup doesn't have it's hopes up on just trying to be the first to accomplish something, but more importantly to create a quality, accessible product, that is probably when things come together for them.

fallentimes 18y ago
Believe me, the only thing I have in common with Steve Wozniak is a seven-letter last name :).

mattmaroon 18y ago

I'm both happy and sad that they're not doing the same thing this year. I really liked interviewing all the companies, but it also monopolized a couple days. I think they took my advice an all of them actually, so it didn't feel like a waste of time.

fallentimes 18y ago
Glad you liked us.
yters 18y ago
Do selected startups also help in the next round's selection process?
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Not this time (that I know of).

sobriquet 18y ago

Sounds so easy! 40 hour mock up, off the cuff interview, and head to the bar! I can handle that. But seriously, I'm sure all the hard work that's not mentioned in the post is starting to pay off. Congrats, and thanks for the encouragement and advice.

tdavis 18y ago
I'm not yet convinced that the hard work ever pays off, it just begets more hard work ;) It's like, if you have 2 apples and eat 1, how many apples do you have? Normal life? One apple. Start-up life? 17 apples. Want to know what happens when you eat another one? No. No you do not. ... Just make sure you really like apples.
- charlesju 18y ago
  Lol, for some reason, I totally understand what you mean, even though what you said was pretty much gibberish.
jmorin007 18y ago
Just to clarify a bit...Dan is one of the best "off the cuff" speakers that I know, and Tom is almost inhuman in his ability to work for countless hours straight and turn out an amazing product. The Ticketstumbler advice is definitely spot on: - Make sure that you know your shit when you're going in for the interview. Know your competitors inside and out (there will be laptops open during the interview and active googling will be conducted while you're talking), and be able to articulate why you're different. - Be confident in your idea, but also be open to suggestions/recommendations. Push back if you feel it's necessary, but being open and flexible are traits that YC is looking for. - Anticipate obvious questions and have intelligent answers ready. - Definitely have a demo/prototype. We'll be writing up a more in depth blog post in the next few days on the Anyvite blog, but just wanted to toss some ideas out there now in response to the TS blog post.
- jumper 18y ago
  "Anticipate obvious questions and have intelligent answers ready." Does that include putting the answers in the presentation? I suppose their might be some that wouldn't really fit there even if they were predictable though. Otherwise, I'm not sure if intentionally withholding them until the QA part is a good way of looking stupid or smart...

jumper 18y ago

"...we spent the next 8 years playing Starcraft" Heh. Reminds me of my friends and I falling into it. Somehow, I can't help but think Starcraft could be a useful if crude litmus test to divide people into social groups. I wonder if there are any entrepreneur focused lan parties...

fallentimes 18y ago
We pioneered the goon/ling 2v2 strategy ;p. I didn't let myself bring my Starcraft CD to college.

babul 18y ago

Our interviews went pretty well despite getting absolutely grilled by Pete from Songkick. It was probably one of the sharpest, toughest interviews I’ve ever had. Pete is such a nice friendly guy it makes me smile thinking of him grilling someone (though, of course, he can). So who was being "good cop"?

fallentimes 18y ago
Pete was the only one from Songkick that interviewed us. He was much nicer after the interview :). It wasn't a mean grilling - just a thorough one. He was/is very impressive. Also, it didn't help that we were on a transatlantic conference call.