5 ms·

http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combina

http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.

collint 15y ago
A good way to stop being a "nobody" is to get your names on your online properties. Twitter handles on your blog posts would be a good thing. It took way too much effort to track you guys down on angel.co, and even then I don't have twitter handles. ( ps: I'm also hanging out in Iowa, hacking on a startup. Hit me up @collintmiller, maybe we can cook up some ways to remind people this is the state that brought you the computer. )
- noahc 15y ago
  Yes, please add it to your website. Or even better to your HN profile page. I'm in Iowa too and I wanted to give you some non-public, very specific (and hopefully helpful) feedback.
  - littlegiantcap 15y ago
    jeromy@seedlauncher.com I look forward to hearing from you. :)
mbreese 15y ago
Getting into YC isn't the goal here... having a successful company/product is. I would try to just build something that solves a pain point for you. If you want to prove yourself based on what you can build in 72 hours, then pick something and do it[1]. That will get you more consideration than something like this. [1] But, I'm not a fan of "look what we built in 72 hours" types of projects, so you may want to just try to build your product.
- tensafefrogs 15y ago
  This is really the key here. It doesn't matter where you are from. What matters is what you can do (or, in the case of proving to people that you are competent, what you have done). Do some small thing well to show that you have a chance at doing something bigger just as well. This is how life works, not just startups.
motti_s 15y ago
Regardless whether you get a response from YC or not, I think that what you did is more creative than chasing down a bunch of YC alumni you don't know and getting reluctant recommendations that carry no weight. Good luck!
patio11 15y ago
Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox. There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far in life. I suggest working on it. With specific reference to you being in Iowa: howdy! I live in a rice field in Central Japan. I work that into speeches frequently, often as part of a self-deprecating joke. I probably overuse self-deprecating jokes if I'm being totally honest with myself, but when I use them, the idea is not to convey "I'm not as competent as all you cool kids from the Valley who paid good money to hear me talk today", it is close to exactly the opposite of that. You say you don't know any YCombinator alums. Is knowing YCombinator alums a priority to you? Winners routinely achieve their priorities by taking the basic, obvious steps for achieving them. There's a series of tubes between central Iowa and every YCombinator alum. There's also planes which regularly fly between Iowa and Silicon Valley. (I am totally serious.) You may be inclined to state reasons why YC alums (or anybody else whose cooperation would be valuable) would not want to talk to you. How about you just don't state those reasons and instead wait to hear them from the horses' mouths instead? Better still, how about instead coming with reasons why they would of course want to talk to you, because you're building things that will solve identifiable problems for them?
- vecter 15y ago
  Better still, how about instead coming with reasons why they would of course want to talk to you, because you're building things that will solve identifiable problems for them? Bingo.
- littlegiantcap 15y ago
  I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials and we're worth a shot.
fbuilesv 15y ago
Let me share my experience. Last year I decided to apply to YC with a project I had been working on for a while with a couple of friends. We were nobodies (from Colombia (South America)) and knew no one related to YC. We decided to get a decent demo of our product, wrote to 15-20 YC alumni to try and get some feedback. About 8 replied back and from those we got one to write a recommendation to the YC crew. We still don't know if that helped or not but we ended up getting an interview with the partners (who showed some interest in our idea). We totally blew the pre-interview talk with Harj on Skype. Sadly, we were told that due to legal issues they had decided not to fund us (and we had to close shop a couple of months later due to these specific problems). If a group of three colombians with a not-so-great demo could make it, I don't see why you guys wouldn't be able to!
newobj 15y ago
'''We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice".''' '''We have a lot of drive''' Somehow these statements seem contradictory... and I'd be taking a hard look at your "business guy" right now if he can't even start by at least attempting a little networking...
- littlegiantcap 15y ago
  That would be me. :) The thing is I'm finding cold emails aren't generally well received, if they are even answered at all. We'd go to more networking events and the like but most are on the coast and plane tickets are expensive. We're building up a strong network here in Iowa. What I was referring too was Y Combinator specific people. So we do what we can with where we're at. Not that I'm complaining because im really not, all I'm saying is from our current position, it's difficult (but definitely not impossible) to build strong relationships with Y Combinator alums.
  - dorkitude 15y ago
    Keep trying. This post raises all sorts of questions from my end. How many of these cold emails have you sent? To what extent have you varied the copy in those emails? Are you just asking for something, or are you offering something as well? Have you gotten advice from other successful hustlers (concretely, talk to some seed stage founders for hustle ideation; abstractly, read How to Win Friends & Influence People at least once per year) on what you might want to put in the email? What about non-email channels? Have you gone through Twitter (This is how I've met multiple investors and advisors, totally cold, with no friendly introduction.)? How about crawling toward them meticulously through LinkedIn? How about networking via HN? Have you tried hanging out on relevant IRC channels? Have you contributed to their questions & answers on Quora? I don't mean to be overly critical here. The OP is a great example of inbound marketing hustle, and I commend you guys for it. Two of the key ingredients in startup success are determination and resourcefulness. Clearly you're resourceful, now crank up the determination a notch. Right now it sounds a bit like you've found good excuses not to keep trying. If you can't land a Skype call with someone who might be able to help you get noticed by YC, what evidence do we have that you're going to land a Skype call with a key distribution partner in six months? Keep trying. Keep swinging and striking out. You'll see patterns. You'll improve. Eventually, you'll start making contact.
littlegiantcap 15y ago
To clarify, I don't mean this as a knock to Iowa. I love it here, I just wanted to emphasize that connections to Y Combinator alums are hard to come by out here.
nostromo 15y ago
Leave Iowa. I was born in Idaho. I've since lived in New York, Seattle, and San Francisco; have built a great network and resume and recently raised a round for my startup. ... but I didn't do it from Idaho and you won't from Iowa.
- noahc 15y ago
  One word, Dwolla. It depends on your startup and what it does if iowa is a good choice. Funding isnt easy no matter where you live,congrats!
skmurphy 15y ago
Have you reached out to the folks at http://www.startupcitydsm.com/ http://www.startupcitydsm.com/ that's a local resource you could tap. Feel free to contact me directly through my profile for an introduction. re: "Frankly, we are a bunch of 'nobodies' in the middle of Iowa" "Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true." Brian Tracy
- littlegiantcap 15y ago
  I have. They're awesome guys. The thing is what I said was not at all a knock against Iowa. I love it here and the people are amazingly helpful and nice. It was more self depreciating humor to the fact that we're realitivley unknown college students.
danbmil99 15y ago
If you don't live here, and/or have social contacts here, well... do we have to spell it out for you? Welcome to the snobbery of Silicon Valley.
dclowd9901 15y ago
You sound a bit like my co-founder: determined, but ultimately thinks very little of themselves. Stop it. As that beat-up old Twitter account "ShitMyDadSays" once said: "...Out of your league? Son. Let women figure out why they won't screw you, don't do it for them." In other words, focus on your problems, hell, list them out. Then make a plan to address each one, and get going. Between the sense of accomplishment you'll get by actually doing something, and the self-confidence of becoming what you think you should be, you create a field of competence around yourself that makes you hard to ignore. When your life goes from one where you're focusing on your shortcomings to one where you're focusing on your successes, you go from liability to asset, even in your own mind (arguably the most important place).

collint 15y ago

A good way to stop being a "nobody" is to get your names on your online properties. Twitter handles on your blog posts would be a good thing. It took way too much effort to track you guys down on angel.co, and even then I don't have twitter handles. ( ps: I'm also hanging out in Iowa, hacking on a startup. Hit me up @collintmiller, maybe we can cook up some ways to remind people this is the state that brought you the computer. )

noahc 15y ago
Yes, please add it to your website. Or even better to your HN profile page. I'm in Iowa too and I wanted to give you some non-public, very specific (and hopefully helpful) feedback.
- littlegiantcap 15y ago
  jeromy@seedlauncher.com I look forward to hearing from you. :)

mbreese 15y ago

Getting into YC isn't the goal here... having a successful company/product is. I would try to just build something that solves a pain point for you. If you want to prove yourself based on what you can build in 72 hours, then pick something and do it[1]. That will get you more consideration than something like this. [1] But, I'm not a fan of "look what we built in 72 hours" types of projects, so you may want to just try to build your product.

tensafefrogs 15y ago
This is really the key here. It doesn't matter where you are from. What matters is what you can do (or, in the case of proving to people that you are competent, what you have done). Do some small thing well to show that you have a chance at doing something bigger just as well. This is how life works, not just startups.

motti_s 15y ago

Regardless whether you get a response from YC or not, I think that what you did is more creative than chasing down a bunch of YC alumni you don't know and getting reluctant recommendations that carry no weight. Good luck!

patio11 15y ago

Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox. There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far in life. I suggest working on it. With specific reference to you being in Iowa: howdy! I live in a rice field in Central Japan. I work that into speeches frequently, often as part of a self-deprecating joke. I probably overuse self-deprecating jokes if I'm being totally honest with myself, but when I use them, the idea is not to convey "I'm not as competent as all you cool kids from the Valley who paid good money to hear me talk today", it is close to exactly the opposite of that. You say you don't know any YCombinator alums. Is knowing YCombinator alums a priority to you? Winners routinely achieve their priorities by taking the basic, obvious steps for achieving them. There's a series of tubes between central Iowa and every YCombinator alum. There's also planes which regularly fly between Iowa and Silicon Valley. (I am totally serious.) You may be inclined to state reasons why YC alums (or anybody else whose cooperation would be valuable) would not want to talk to you. How about you just don't state those reasons and instead wait to hear them from the horses' mouths instead? Better still, how about instead coming with reasons why they would of course want to talk to you, because you're building things that will solve identifiable problems for them?

vecter 15y ago
Better still, how about instead coming with reasons why they would of course want to talk to you, because you're building things that will solve identifiable problems for them? Bingo.
littlegiantcap 15y ago
I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials and we're worth a shot.

fbuilesv 15y ago

Let me share my experience. Last year I decided to apply to YC with a project I had been working on for a while with a couple of friends. We were nobodies (from Colombia (South America)) and knew no one related to YC. We decided to get a decent demo of our product, wrote to 15-20 YC alumni to try and get some feedback. About 8 replied back and from those we got one to write a recommendation to the YC crew. We still don't know if that helped or not but we ended up getting an interview with the partners (who showed some interest in our idea). We totally blew the pre-interview talk with Harj on Skype. Sadly, we were told that due to legal issues they had decided not to fund us (and we had to close shop a couple of months later due to these specific problems). If a group of three colombians with a not-so-great demo could make it, I don't see why you guys wouldn't be able to!

newobj 15y ago

'''We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice".''' '''We have a lot of drive''' Somehow these statements seem contradictory... and I'd be taking a hard look at your "business guy" right now if he can't even start by at least attempting a little networking...

littlegiantcap 15y ago
That would be me. :) The thing is I'm finding cold emails aren't generally well received, if they are even answered at all. We'd go to more networking events and the like but most are on the coast and plane tickets are expensive. We're building up a strong network here in Iowa. What I was referring too was Y Combinator specific people. So we do what we can with where we're at. Not that I'm complaining because im really not, all I'm saying is from our current position, it's difficult (but definitely not impossible) to build strong relationships with Y Combinator alums.
- dorkitude 15y ago
  Keep trying. This post raises all sorts of questions from my end. How many of these cold emails have you sent? To what extent have you varied the copy in those emails? Are you just asking for something, or are you offering something as well? Have you gotten advice from other successful hustlers (concretely, talk to some seed stage founders for hustle ideation; abstractly, read How to Win Friends & Influence People at least once per year) on what you might want to put in the email? What about non-email channels? Have you gone through Twitter (This is how I've met multiple investors and advisors, totally cold, with no friendly introduction.)? How about crawling toward them meticulously through LinkedIn? How about networking via HN? Have you tried hanging out on relevant IRC channels? Have you contributed to their questions & answers on Quora? I don't mean to be overly critical here. The OP is a great example of inbound marketing hustle, and I commend you guys for it. Two of the key ingredients in startup success are determination and resourcefulness. Clearly you're resourceful, now crank up the determination a notch. Right now it sounds a bit like you've found good excuses not to keep trying. If you can't land a Skype call with someone who might be able to help you get noticed by YC, what evidence do we have that you're going to land a Skype call with a key distribution partner in six months? Keep trying. Keep swinging and striking out. You'll see patterns. You'll improve. Eventually, you'll start making contact.

littlegiantcap 15y ago

To clarify, I don't mean this as a knock to Iowa. I love it here, I just wanted to emphasize that connections to Y Combinator alums are hard to come by out here.

nostromo 15y ago

Leave Iowa. I was born in Idaho. I've since lived in New York, Seattle, and San Francisco; have built a great network and resume and recently raised a round for my startup. ... but I didn't do it from Idaho and you won't from Iowa.

noahc 15y ago
One word, Dwolla. It depends on your startup and what it does if iowa is a good choice. Funding isnt easy no matter where you live,congrats!

skmurphy 15y ago

Have you reached out to the folks at http://www.startupcitydsm.com/ http://www.startupcitydsm.com/ that's a local resource you could tap. Feel free to contact me directly through my profile for an introduction. re: "Frankly, we are a bunch of 'nobodies' in the middle of Iowa" "Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true." Brian Tracy

littlegiantcap 15y ago
I have. They're awesome guys. The thing is what I said was not at all a knock against Iowa. I love it here and the people are amazingly helpful and nice. It was more self depreciating humor to the fact that we're realitivley unknown college students.

danbmil99 15y ago

If you don't live here, and/or have social contacts here, well... do we have to spell it out for you? Welcome to the snobbery of Silicon Valley.

dclowd9901 15y ago

You sound a bit like my co-founder: determined, but ultimately thinks very little of themselves. Stop it. As that beat-up old Twitter account "ShitMyDadSays" once said: "...Out of your league? Son. Let women figure out why they won't screw you, don't do it for them." In other words, focus on your problems, hell, list them out. Then make a plan to address each one, and get going. Between the sense of accomplishment you'll get by actually doing something, and the self-confidence of becoming what you think you should be, you create a field of competence around yourself that makes you hard to ignore. When your life goes from one where you're focusing on your shortcomings to one where you're focusing on your successes, you go from liability to asset, even in your own mind (arguably the most important place).