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Guide to applying to YC – from a founder who was accepted on the third try
For the last year, I checked more than 100 YC applications of other founders and many of them have the same repetitive issues.
So I prepared a simple guide with examples that will help founders build successful applications and avoid common pitfalls.
I've personally applied for YC three times, and was accepted only on the third time with Fluently.
This guide is based on my personal experience and was reviewed by other YC alumni. However, I would be glad if you could share your thoughts on that too.
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- preommr 2y agoThis is missing the most important requirement: Be an AI company.
- skyfaller 2y agoI thought you were just being snarky, but I went and looked, and wow, it really is all "AI": https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=F24 https://www.ycombinator.com/companies?batch=F24 Without looking carefully, I can't tell which ones are generative AI / boiling the oceans to bullshit you; it's possible that some of these are legit uses of machine learning, which existed before ChatGPT and will hopefully continue to exist in the future. But I bet it's all ethically questionable bullshit. Forerunner AI jumps out as a likely ethical black hole, based on its one line description "Copilot for aerospace engineers making rockets, munitions, satellites." On top of code theft, water use, emissions, and the many other horrors of Copilot and its ilk, we can also add war profiteering. EDIT: Prediction: YC's next batch will include a startup trying to replicate whatever the fuck this is: https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/ https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/
- burcs 2y agoHonestly this is the same level of snarkiness of saying, "Be a web company." in the early 2000s YCombinator is a tech investor, of course they are investing in the future. It just so happens that in this current tech cycle AI is the future.
- tivert 2y ago> YCombinator is a tech investor, of course they are investing in the future. It just so happens that in this current tech cycle AI is the future. I think the term you're looking isn't "future," it's "hype."
- burcs 2y agoI am sure wheelwright's felt the same way... I just saw a realtime generative minecraft demo, your head is in the sand if you think this is hype.
- bhaney 2y ago> I just saw a realtime generative minecraft demo Wait, that demo wasn't a joke?
- comrh 2y agoI feel like that is a great example of hype. Some that looks impressive but once you watch for a bit you realize it's a shallow copy that required a million hours of footage to generate.
- det2x 2y agoSo much pessimism and downright denial on the impact of this technology. The old guard have put earplugs in and wonder why everyone's dancing, they just can't hear the music. In this context it's their refusal to try anything and attempt to downplay everything. The technology will move on, with or without them, and that's the most beautiful part. You can hate the marketing of AI, you can hate people starting startups to take advantage of this new technology, but you can not stop this technology from moving forward. They will fall into the same category as the people who denied the impact of the Microcomputer, the Graphical User Interface, and the Smartphone.
- dartos 2y agoPersonally, I didn’t find the Minecraft demo very impressive, aside from the speed of inference. 20fps is quite an achievement, generating Minecraft screenshots, not as much.
- senko 2y agoOne of the most impressive companies in my batch (W24) had nothing to do with AI, or indeed software: https://www.astromecha.co/ https://www.astromecha.co/ So no, not a requirement. OTOH if you do come with an AI idea, they won't reject you just because they already accepted a few hundred others :)
- twelve40 2y agomaybe that's why it was impressive/memorable?
- tptacek 2y agoI think it's likely everyone is overindexing on this, in every direction. The modal reason any startup applies to YC is to line up fundraising. Investors are obsessed with AI right now. Yes, they shouldn't be. At the same time: the CS techniques underneath "AI" are the most important thing to happen to CS in decades; it would be a little weird not to somehow intersect "AI", if only because you're working with embeddings or high-dimensional data somewhere; it would be like building an application purposefully without topological sort, or without trees. And if you're doing anything like that, it would be pretty dumb not to play up the "AI" angle in this market. I'm sure a lot of it is pure slop, just a bunch of prompts and a CRUD app. But I wouldn't be so quick to assume that anybody talking about "AI" is just a bunch of prompts.
- rebryk 2y agoNo, I do not think so. Tom accepted us 80% because of our team, not the idea.
- ldjkfkdsjnv 2y agoGo to ivy league school + ai raising pre-seed venture capital is more similar to getting hired at an investment bank (as an entry level/post mba banker) than it is to starting a company
- burcs 2y agoThis mindset is tiresome, especially seeing it on Hacker News... I literally went to the cheapest state school in rural Pennsylvania and still was accepted into YC. My co-founder didn't even finish college, at some point I think people just want to make excuses. Also — I don't understand your second point. It's an accelerator. Capital is part and parcel when it comes to accelerating.
- ldjkfkdsjnv 2y agoI live in NYC and know a ton of founders. its just the facts. people certainly get funded outside the normal background, but probably 70% of early stage funding goes to the same types of people
- thruway516 2y agoIt's a fairly safe bet if you're trying to minimize your risk as much as possible. Sure it lacks imagination and you probably miss out on the true outliers but most Vcs are really conservative risk averse investors no matter what they say.
- pfannkuchen 2y agoFancy schools are just a way to get pre-vetted candidates. If you aren’t pre-vetted, it doesn’t mean you’re worse, it just means vetting you is more work and has more risk.
- neilv 2y agoFancy schools might indeed, coincidentally, vet founders for the same things these particular investors are looking for. For example, wealthy family safety net for extended risk-taking, connections for finding customers and partners and investors, confidence of founders in asserting will over hires, and appealing to class-based beliefs of other investors. But since most of us aren't investors, this isn't to say that fancy schools vet for, say, hires. While I generally like and respect the people I've known who happened to attend fancy schools, I've learned not to pay much attention to what schools someone attended.
- dgfitz 2y agoI guess I don’t get it, and I’d like to. Y-Combinator enables connections and mentorship along with a stipend. This allows a team to work full time for a few months, having quit or taken a hiatus from their day job. So the risk is $dayjob unless you’re a serial founder, the reward is the connections and money to float for a few months, while selling I think 10% of your company? The odds of your idea working out, even under the umbrella, aren’t great. Is that accurate?
- senko 2y agoMy feeling is that if you think quitting the day job is risky, you probably won't fit the profile YC and VCs look for. YC is an enormous brand in the VC and startup industry, and as a YC startup doors open to you that would be harder to pry open otherwise. The connections, and willingness of people to "pay it forward" are a huge (probably biggest) asset. The odds of your idea working are not great, that's correct. YC does encourage you to experiment and fail fast so you have time to adapt the idea or try another one. If all fails, having had a YC startup means it'll be easy to get into other startups (if you like the lifestyle - and you really have to like it!). That sad, YC is what you make of it. You get encouragement and support but nobody's going to force you to take advantage of all the things they have to offer. Watch a few episodes of https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5Nd98Sc9I-kkc0ZWe8peRMC https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5Nd98Sc9I-k... If you get a feeling "omg I want to work with those guys", then you might be a fit. If you get a feeling of "dude, no", then you're probably not a fit.
- dgfitz 2y agoThank you for the explanation, that is very helpful. You said “ My feeling is that if you think quitting the day job is risky, you probably won't fit the profile YC and VCs look for.” And “ The odds of your idea working are not great, that's correct.” So it is kind of geared towards wealthy people?
- Swizec 2y ago> So it is kind of geared towards wealthy people? Or young enough that there’s not much more to lose than a few years. If you’re choosing between going to a masters/phd or YC, then you’re in the right place. Or if you got laid off from a FAANG and looking for something fun to do while your severance lasts, doing a YC startup will beat other things you could add to your resume during this time. And if it works, great you’re on your way to something cool. If it doesn’t, then at least you had a fun gap quarter. But the people who really build successful companies don’t need any of this stuff. If you’ve got traction, VCs will find you. ~15 years ago I really wanted to get into YC. Now I realize that was because I wanted to be a founder more than I wanted to build a successful business. These days I focus on making the money machine go brrr and that's been working much better for me.
- carlgreene 2y agoAny other founders feel like YC has lost its luster? Not only are the number of AI companies in the portfolio ridiculous, but the large class sizes seem so much less personal. Not to bag on anyone who’s in YC right now, but it seems to be going the way of many ivy leagues - still meaningful, but very much not the same proxy for extraordinary it once was.
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- LanceJones 2y agoLooks like YC is moving to 4 cohorts annually -- and I agree with you on the AI product density in the past few batches -- but I've heard (from two alum) that the smaller sub-cohorts (i.e., within a batch) make it feel smaller and more intimate.
- senko 2y agoYes. 250ish per cohort meant the partners were spread very thin, and founders could realistically connect with just a subset of batchmates. I'm glad they're scaling back the batch size.
- dbbk 2y agoYes the sheer number of AI slop companies is so uninspiring. Where is the creativity? There are still plenty of great technology companies to be built that are not ChatGPT wrappers.
- echelon 2y ago> AI slop companies There is so much market up for grabs. Most companies will fail, but the ones that succeed can win really big. And the surface area is so much larger than attempting a non-AI company since the advantages are potentially huge. > ChatGPT wrappers. Create value. Doesn't matter how you do. Just create value.
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- atleastoptimal 2y agoGreat advice, but the fact that you're a former FAANG employee pitching an AI company did ~70% of the work
- tomcam 2y agoIs this mindreading or do you have direct knowledge of this assertion?
- woadwarrior01 2y agoLate 30s, former Facebook and Google engineer. Applied thrice at the behest of my co-founder, and got rejected each time. Once before we had a product, twice after being bootstrapped and profitable. Never again.
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- threeseed 2y agoI know someone who was in a recent batch. He said that 95% of the batch are between 20 and 30, mostly AI and mostly US. There are exceptions to the rule but let's not pretend there isn't a YC thesis.
- mdolon 2y agoGreat advice! The other thing I'd add is to get at least 4-5 YC alum to review your application in a Google doc and do practice interviews with them if you make it to the next round. Also, if you have friends who've done YC before, get them to recommend you!
- rebryk 2y agoYeah, that's good advice. I will add it to the doc. Thanks!