5 ms·

What we did to (not) get into Techstars - Part 2

15 points by MicahWedemeyer 18y ago

AlexTheFounder 18y ago
Its interesting to see who they choose in the end. 20 companies is a pretty high number to get them all right. Anyway, keep going and maybe when the summer ends you will have better chances of further funding than any of the TS (or YC or ...)companies!
pclark 18y ago
David's feedback doesn't say why you were rejected. I'd have found that a kick in the guts if I'd actually met and had a dialog with our investors. With our YC application (we were rejected) we got x2 recommendations from previous YC founders, had other investors in this or the next round of funding, had an online demo, had users on said demo, and had a team of hackers/designers + various other things that we thought might add value to our application. We didn't get in and have no idea why. The difference is our process was all part of our startup making a demo? networking with other founders? getting users? I walked away from YC pondering why we were rejected, but reassured that we didn't waste our time - because most of the things we were going to do either way. If I'd spent more than an hour talking to an investor I'd want a reason (and therefore value) as to why they walked away.
- MicahWedemeyer 18y ago
  I think a lot of us get our rejection letters and sit there scratching our heads. We did everything right and still got turned down. My goal with these posts was to provide a benchmark and hopefully keep my and others' hopes in check. No matter how good you are, you're still a long-shot with these things. When working on your application in a vacuum, you start to feel so confident, and that makes the blow harder to bear.
  - pclark 18y ago
    Hah, totally. Deals fall through. Applications do too, who knew?
  - pclark 18y ago
    what was the reason? or was there simply no reason other than a flood of equally-or-even-better startups?
    - MicahWedemeyer 18y ago
      We never got a fully straight answer. As best we can tell, it was a lack of excitement and knowledge of our target market, plus (probably?) other exciting applicants.
- veemjeem 18y ago
  You know, I'm not sure if all those things mattered that greatly. Our application made it past the first round of screening (we got an interview invitation) and our demo broke when they were viewing it (we checked the logs). We committed code the night before without testing it and although a simple fix, it broke something else. We didn't have recommendations, we were a small team of 2 (no designers -- we did our own design, ugly but not horrible). The entire YC application form was done in basically 5 hours at a local coffee shop. It took us forever to do the video, for some reason it's hard for me to talk to a stationary camera. We don't have users or investors lined up. We didn't even have incorporation documents yet. We probably have a good 4 months of hard work before we can even consider a private alpha launch (and we've already been working for the last 7 months on it). Neither of us actually even considered applying to YC, we just didn't think our app was ready for anyone to see it yet, but surprisingly they didn't think so, or maybe they saw something about us that they didn't see in others.
  - pclark 18y ago
    kudos for through so far - they must have seen something awesome in you guys. I'm instantly excited to see what you're upto :)
    - davidw 18y ago
      Interview stage != getting in. Congrats in any case!
  - AlexTheFounder 18y ago
    I have a feeling that YC tries to fund the companies that change how people perceive and use technology. Others are just the me-too examples. Is that the case with what you do?
    - veemjeem 18y ago
      I would say that our project is definitely unique and could be applied in other fields, but we're sticking with one and seeing how it goes. There's also a dozen ways to make money and none of these include advertising. Because it's different, I'm often worried that people might not "get it" and may never use it.

Its interesting to see who they choose in the end. 20 companies is a pretty high number to get them all right. Anyway, keep going and maybe when the summer ends you will have better chances of further funding than any of the TS (or YC or ...)companies!

pclark 18y ago

David's feedback doesn't say why you were rejected. I'd have found that a kick in the guts if I'd actually met and had a dialog with our investors. With our YC application (we were rejected) we got x2 recommendations from previous YC founders, had other investors in this or the next round of funding, had an online demo, had users on said demo, and had a team of hackers/designers + various other things that we thought might add value to our application. We didn't get in and have no idea why. The difference is our process was all part of our startup making a demo? networking with other founders? getting users? I walked away from YC pondering why we were rejected, but reassured that we didn't waste our time - because most of the things we were going to do either way. If I'd spent more than an hour talking to an investor I'd want a reason (and therefore value) as to why they walked away.

MicahWedemeyer 18y ago
I think a lot of us get our rejection letters and sit there scratching our heads. We did everything right and still got turned down. My goal with these posts was to provide a benchmark and hopefully keep my and others' hopes in check. No matter how good you are, you're still a long-shot with these things. When working on your application in a vacuum, you start to feel so confident, and that makes the blow harder to bear.
- pclark 18y ago
  Hah, totally. Deals fall through. Applications do too, who knew?
- pclark 18y ago
  what was the reason? or was there simply no reason other than a flood of equally-or-even-better startups?
  - MicahWedemeyer 18y ago
    We never got a fully straight answer. As best we can tell, it was a lack of excitement and knowledge of our target market, plus (probably?) other exciting applicants.
veemjeem 18y ago
You know, I'm not sure if all those things mattered that greatly. Our application made it past the first round of screening (we got an interview invitation) and our demo broke when they were viewing it (we checked the logs). We committed code the night before without testing it and although a simple fix, it broke something else. We didn't have recommendations, we were a small team of 2 (no designers -- we did our own design, ugly but not horrible). The entire YC application form was done in basically 5 hours at a local coffee shop. It took us forever to do the video, for some reason it's hard for me to talk to a stationary camera. We don't have users or investors lined up. We didn't even have incorporation documents yet. We probably have a good 4 months of hard work before we can even consider a private alpha launch (and we've already been working for the last 7 months on it). Neither of us actually even considered applying to YC, we just didn't think our app was ready for anyone to see it yet, but surprisingly they didn't think so, or maybe they saw something about us that they didn't see in others.
- pclark 18y ago
  kudos for through so far - they must have seen something awesome in you guys. I'm instantly excited to see what you're upto :)
  - davidw 18y ago
    Interview stage != getting in. Congrats in any case!
- AlexTheFounder 18y ago
  I have a feeling that YC tries to fund the companies that change how people perceive and use technology. Others are just the me-too examples. Is that the case with what you do?
  - veemjeem 18y ago
    I would say that our project is definitely unique and could be applied in other fields, but we're sticking with one and seeing how it goes. There's also a dozen ways to make money and none of these include advertising. Because it's different, I'm often worried that people might not "get it" and may never use it.