7 ms·
Tell HN: YC rejection emails have started going out
Via email:
We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding.
Please don't take it personally. The applications we receive get
better every funding cycle, and since there's a limit on the number
of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot
of genuinely promising groups.
Unfortunately we can't give you individual feedback about your
application. This page explains why:
http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html
Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know
we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group
to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that
we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall
just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing.
We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number
of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected
will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate
it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn
from our mistakes.
Y Combinator Team
- Hitchhiker 13y agoWell what is really weird is that yC's top hits as per an annotation on Harj's recent mock letter on Rapgenius got looked over: " We missed Dropbox, Heroku and Airbnb. " [1] If the 3 supposed hits that presently created most of yC's entire known value got passed over by the VCs at first go.. one has to be a bit skeptical about the whole idol contest. [1] - http://rapgenius.com/Harj-taggar-well-be-circling-back-lyrics http://rapgenius.com/Harj-taggar-well-be-circling-back-lyric...
- rdl 13y agoThat was a joke; he was writing as if he were an outside VC who wanted to get in on YC's next Dropbox, having missed the first one. (Coincidentally PG has said he didn't "get" AirBnB initially, but I don't think they got rejected; I'm not sure if the first Drew application which was rejected was for Dropbox or something else. I've never seen anything public about Heroku's application to YC)
- Hitchhiker 13y ago" Star systems in a society come about because of a paucity of influential sorting processes. " - Lanier, Jaron (2013-03-07). Who Owns The Future? (Kindle Location 598). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition. -- my thoughts -- I am sure it was.. but the main point is.. people attribute more rationality and objectivity to a process that frankly even by pg's own comments ( check out his essay on " two kinds of judgment ) is not so. Investors ( even incubators ) should be a secondary thought to an entrepreneur's path.. I'd go so far as to point that its best to have a defensive approach and look for paths do not require them ( even pg has hinted many times via his essays.. including the cockroach bit ). What happens when the first example arrives that clearly just bypassed the whole lot of the present ecosystem till a very late stage and hits the range of a Google or Microsoft ?
- pshin45 13y agoI believe I read somewhere that in his first YC application (the one that was rejected), Drew Houston applied not with Dropbox but with the SAT prep company he used to run before making Dropbox.
- yoda_sl 13y agoJust received it too... I will be curious to know how many applications were submitted for this batch.
- garydarna 13y agoIt was our first time applying and we were rejected. Oh well, back to work!
- garydarna 13y agoIf anyone here is a collector, check out http://CompleteSet.com http://CompleteSet.com and request an invite. If you like comics or toys, you'll love this.
- frankdenbow 13y agoJust got it too for Swagmate (http://swagmate.startupthreads.com http://swagmate.startupthreads.com). Would love to find out about the other projects you all are working on!
- garydarna 13y agoCool idea, I've always wanted some shirts from my favorite startups.
- frankdenbow 13y agoGood to hear, we've been shipping shirts from various startups for the past year in the subscription on the main site. Now doing more to help companies ship swag out. Whats your email? Would love to get your feedback.
- clicks 13y agoI just want to say that e-mail looks very well-written and comforting for a rejection e-mail. I wish companies sent similar rejection e-mails to job applicants. Keep your spirits up, rejectees, this is not the end of the world. Continue doing your thing. :)
- zalzane 13y agoI wish girls would do the same thing. Imagine how nice the world would be if everyone wrote their rejections this way!
- Aqueous 13y ago"It's not that you're particularly bad."
- smoyer 13y agoScariest thing I ever did was ask my wife out for our first date. And I used to be an adrenaline junkie!
- thaumasiotes 13y ago"You are rejected for undisclosed but mannerly reasons" isn't much more helpful than "no".
- munimkazia 13y agoHeh.. I think it is much more personal if a girl rejects you, and you need to know why. Tough love, man!
- bitlather1 13y agoNicest rejection I've had to date
- ciupicri 13y agoI for one wish companies would give more details to job applicants. I've heard that some companies don't give you any details for fear of (discrimination?!) lawsuits or, as a recruiter once told me, simply paranoia. If someone knows other reasons for this besides not keeping records of the interviews, I'd like to know more. What's even stranger/funnier is that some companies reject you without giving any specific reasons, yet they invite you to reapply for another position or the same later.
- roryreiff 13y agoWe received our second YC rejection for Splash (http://splash.io http://splash.io). Back to work indeed!
- sfrechtling 13y agoJust curiously - how many video views did everybody get? We had 5 views for a total of ~4 minutes.
- basch 13y ago1 view, 30 seconds. They didn't even get to the actual proposal.
- rdl 13y agoThe viewing happens "embedded" usually, which I think doesn't report view count or timing as accurately. (I've seen different behavior on what seem like the same configuration)
- basch 13y agoI was thinking that must have been the case. That or I didn't spit out what made it revolutionary quickly enough.
- timhargis 13y agoWe had like 15 from 5 different cities with 4 of 5 in SV and Boston including a SV view this morning. All views were for the full 2 minute video. Maybe we were on the cut-line, not sure. The competition is stiff...congrats to the people that got interviews. We didn't have a prototype at all and I think even with a really strong team, it certainly has to hurt the chances.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- hiddenstage 13y ago0 views. Which is weird because last batch we got 4 views and we feel this was a much better application.
- thetrumanshow 13y ago
- zmitri 13y agoJust keep going, building, and keep applying. Don't stop for anything or anyone.
- MatthewB 13y agocompletely agreed. just keep working and apply again next time around.
- pysyfyc 13y agois there anyone who hasn't received anything?
- tanlivia 13y agome....
- clittle 13y agoNothing here yet. We applied a week late. Anyone else apply late with no email yet?
- KCAnderson 13y agoNothing here yet either, I applied late as well. Keeping my fingers crossed they even have a chance to read the application. Good luck!!
- bluekeybox 13y agoStill nothing. Does anybody know at all if they send out the rejections in waves or all at once? Any YC Alum help here would be greatly appreciated. Also, do they lump late applications in with the rest of the group or am I going to be sick to my stomach until we hear back?!
- reeper150 13y agoThat is how I feel too. It has been 3 days since the e-mails started going out, but it feels like 3 years!
- KCAnderson 13y agoDid anyone who applied after the deadline hear back yet, good or bad?
- reeper150 13y ago
- phdtree 13y agoRejection by YC does not mean your idea/team/execution is not good. Just keep working on your startup, in the mean time you may want to try some other top programs like techstars, 5000startups, angelpad, etc
- garydarna 13y agoI think it's easy to forget that there was a time when accelerators did not exist. It's a great resource and experience for those accepted, but not being accepted does not necessarily equate to failure as you suggested.
- terenceong 13y agowhere did he suggest that rejection = failure?
- bkeydub 13y agoso many accelerators that provide the same value as YC out there - http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
- vetusko 13y agoit's a really useful link, thank you!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- liddybird 13y agowww.getjuniper.com just got rejected! We definitely have better luck with getting ladies to like us than getting PG to like us. ;)
- boringkyle 13y agoLove that you have a functional page and not another one of the launchrock sites I had to click through. One alumni told me that YC was all about picking billion dollar, not million dollar businesses. In that case, could you say juniper would scale to the billion dollar market? Could your users track their usage with a recurring Google calendar entry? (I know women that do). Why not scale to include other high usage products - toothpaste, toilet paper, etc? (I know of one startup in stealth mode doing this, so it's probably a feasible plan). Sorry for playing devil's advocate - really like what you got so far though.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sscgod 13y agoFirst time and Declined! Would love to see what you've done. Come check out our application at http://parlayz.com http://parlayz.com. A social network for sports fans where you can make sports prediction models without data or programming skills. Hope to see you guys soon in the bay area.
- strukturedkaos 13y agoWe, Body Boss (http://bodybossfitness.com http://bodybossfitness.com) didn't even have a product last time year, and we thought just having a good idea was enough for acceptance. In the past year, we've boostrapped like crazy, built a product, launched and acquired plenty of customers to validate our idea. YC rejection for the 2nd year in a row has done little to dampen our spirits and ambition. Here's to another rejection that motivates us to succeed! - Proud Rejectee
- jmduke 13y agoJust wanted to say that I'm nowhere near your target market but the landing page looks excellent, incredibly polished for less than a year's work. Best of luck to you!
- boringkyle 13y agoI agree, impressive landing page. Every application round I see someone as polished as this, and then realize to not take rejection to heart. Rejections, even at YC, will have their fair share of false positives.
- strukturedkaos 13y agoThank you! It's too bad that you aren't in our target market. :-) Our progress so far is a huge testament to the skill, execution and resolve of our team (http://bodybossfitness.com/about http://bodybossfitness.com/about).
- larrys 13y agoYour site looks nice. But one thing. Your target market is "coaches and players" Yet your "about" page is targeted toward either a) getting funded or b) people who are into tech, read HN, etc. That's a problem. You start of with "Andrew Reifman" who is a "pixel perfectionist". This has nothing to do with anything that your target market (say the coach at my local high school team) would even remotely care about. The one person "Darren Pottinger" who has some street cred is listed as number two. I think Darren should be the prominent person on that "about" page with the rest of the team deprecated (smaller type) or even placed on a separate page. Perhaps get some "advisors" that are coaches, players or other users to fill space on that page as well. Give it some meat. That page to me says "we are looking to build a company" not "we have the expertise to help players and coaches with our product". If someone wants to invest - your team will matter. But it shouldn't be presented in a way that detracts from the product or service you are offering.
- DanielRibeiro 13y agoI'm just hoping to give a few people some perpective on such rejections: - Damien Katz (creator of CouchDB) was also rejected[1]. He went on and got $2 million from Redpoint Ventures [2] - On this video[3], Jessica Livingston interviews Drew. It shows that he was also rejected the first time he tried out YC. - The oscar of rejected but finally accepted: I got into YC after applying six times [4] - Peteris Krumins also got rejected with his browserling idea, got rejected[5], and went on to raise his own seed funding[6]. [1] http://damienkatz.net/2006/11/how_not_to_pitc.html http://damienkatz.net/2006/11/how_not_to_pitc.html [2] http://damienkatz.net/2009/12/relaxed_inc.html http://damienkatz.net/2009/12/relaxed_inc.html [3] http://blog.ycombinator.com/dropbox-interview-now-online http://blog.ycombinator.com/dropbox-interview-now-online [4] http://iamwil.posterous.com/i-got-into-yc-after-applying-six-times-heres http://iamwil.posterous.com/i-got-into-yc-after-applying-six... [5] http://www.catonmat.net/blog/launching-browserling/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/launching-browserling/ [6] http://www.catonmat.net/blog/how-i-raised-money-for-browserling/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/how-i-raised-money-for-browserl...
- iamwil 13y agoOscar of Rejected wasn't exactly on my list of life goals. But I'll take it.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- andyjsong 13y agoInterviewstreet was rejected twice before applying the third time to get an email asking them to come in for a 10 min interview.
- SeoxyS 13y agoChartboost got rejected from YC in S11. These days we're at $21M in funding led by Sequoia for Series B and ~55 employees. :) It's not the end of the world.
- 13y ago
- squeeky 13y agoAn experiment: I will buy your startup idea. http://getwant.com/view-public?id=lqBhOgBUvIO4ZB http://getwant.com/view-public?id=lqBhOgBUvIO4ZB
- bradleybuda 13y agoI'll throw my "rejected from YC" story into the ring: my co-founders and I applied to the S12 batch. We were fortunate to get as far as the interview phase, only to receive a very kind rejecting email from Garry Tan that evening. His basic criticism was: "you guys aren't serious about this idea" (we hadn't yet quit our day jobs). So we quit. We spent the summer building Meldium, reapplied for W13, and were accepted - and it was an amazing boost to our company. As a founder, you're going to get rejected a lot - use it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
- boringkyle 13y agoContext: We sent an application in for S12 and S13. Interesting that you mentioned "serious." Looking back I don't think I was a whole lot "serious" the last time I applied, but I think my application might have been better (see my comment below - got more video views last year, but that could have been an anomaly). In any case, I wonder if being in school this time hurts our chances. Most of our founders are graduating, and the rest have signed on to jobs. But we are more serious about it this time around - hacking away on public transit, on campus and pulling all-nighters to get features out.
- suhail 13y agoStay hungry, stay alive, and be relentlessly resourceful (as PG says). You'll figure it out. A long standing tradition: If you got rejected, please forward your rejection email to free@mixpanel.com and we'll hook you up with a free Mixpanel plan to help out while you're figuring it out. - Suhail
- bobsil1 13y agoThanks! Got a link, says "promotion ended." Much appreciate it though.
- jeffreyshaw 13y agoI love this tradition; and for the first time would like to make a similar offer: Anyone who got rejected from YC S13 forward your rejection email to freewine@undergroundcellar.com and I'll send you a $25 gift card for free wine from http://UndergroundCellar.com http://UndergroundCellar.com I'm not suggesting you drink your problems away, but a relaxing glass of wine can be a nice way to wind down before you get back to those 14 hour hack days.
- bobsil1 13y agoSome data points: we had 5 video views. Rejected. Probably too old for YC. But we're doing well, so no biggie. We applied with Arro, http://arroapp.com http://arroapp.com - tells you which product to get by analyzing millions of ratings online.
- dear 13y agoIt seems YC's scalability issue is their pain point. If anyone of you can apply with a startup to solve this pain point, you will be THE startup to rule them all!
- boringkyle 13y agoAny rejectees in Toronto want to meet up for a mind meld this weekend?
- joell 13y agoDidn't apply/get rejected but am always up to meet new techies in the city. email is in my profile.
- borski 13y agoWe've offered this before, and are doing so again, because startups are hard and a YC rejection is but one roadblock you will face (among many). So, Tinfoil Security is offering our $59 Basic plan free for life, and 50% off all other plans. Happy to keep startups secure :) Email your YC rejection letter to founders@tinfoilsecurity.com and we'll hook you up.
- maximgsaini 13y agoomg!! Thank you very much :)..here comes my email!!
- dhawalhs 13y agoApplied as a single founder with http://www.class-central.com http://www.class-central.com . Still looking for a co-founder, mail me if interested :)
- benjaminwootton 13y agoNice looking website guys!
- tomasien 13y agoIt's going to get harder and harder to get into YC (as has been the trend) which means getting rejected is going to mean less and less. It used to be an "oh we make mistakes, but mostly we find the right founders" and now it's "we find a lot of great founders, but we miss several successful ones each batch." Don't think it means nothing, it means something about where you are in your life as a founder and how well you can communicate that (and that matters), but not anything more than that. - 5x rejectee and pretty successful dude
- boringkyle 13y agoJudging from what I see here, most applicants sent in a landing page? Or was there more to it - any demos?
- jhdavids8 13y agoWe got rejected with http://pathgather.com http://pathgather.com. First time rejection from YC. Oh well...back to work on our beta release :)
- ruswick 13y agoWith acceptance rates so incomprehensibly, almost farcically low (the rate was under 2% last year, and must be approaching if not already surpassed 1%), I don't see much value in reading into one's rejection.
- shrig94 13y agoFlightCar was rejected on first pass--don't feel bad guys! The reason most startups fail is because the founders give up. So don't give up and keep hustling! --Shri (Founder, FlightCar)
- D-Train 13y agoCongrats to you and your team, Shri! I just read about FlightCar in TechCrunch. Very neat idea, and I look forward to seeing how everything goes!
- kamaal 13y agoThis reminds me of days around 11 years back, when I was studying for engineering college entrance exams. We would have entrance exams for coaching classes which prepared students for main entrance exams, basically the elite coaching institutes would ask candidates undergo a entrance test and pick up only the best. Many of my friends were rejected, including me. Some were selected. In the end in the main exams we did better than the guys who were selected for the coaching class. It just turns out after we were rejected we were motivated to push ourselves further more than others. Rejection can do wonders if taken in the right spirit. You basically go into the phase to 'prove something' to not just yourself but every one around. This is a very well drafted email. >>Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. Says it all. YC companies fail too. And there are a lot of non-YC companies that win. At the end YC is like the coaching class entrance exam, not the main engineering entrance exam. Your main test is how and what you do on the ground.
- PAULHANNA84 13y agoVery well put! Nice! :)
- makeshifthoop 13y agoIf your App or mobile startup got rejected by YC, don't worry, keep going at it. Get a free account at https://AppStoreRankings.net https://AppStoreRankings.net where we can help you get more users for your mobile (ios+android) apps. Just forward your YC rejection email to support@appstorerankings.net and we'll give you a free lifetime membership of our site.
- madradavid 13y agoI received this exactly email last year,September 16 to be precise,it was the first day of the rest of my life. Make no mistake about it, receiving this email hurts, but then you pick yourself up ,make your product better and better and keep on going. All the best moving forward....
- saravk 13y agoKettik, http://www.kettik.com/ http://www.kettik.com/ (not mobile friendly), was rejected as well. Not very surprised or dejected by it as I was pretty much in the exact opposite founder demographic they were looking for. Single founder, close to 35, middle of the road play by the rules kind of guy loved by all (2) the big corporations that hired me over a span of 11years. Oh well.. targeting for the YC application gave me the required focus in the last 5 months to turn my hobby/personal-use site into a full fledged travel blogging & recommendations platform ready to launch in a couple of months. I don't think i will re-apply any time soon. My goal, starting Kettik, was to achieve creative, financial and geographic freedom. To create something of my own, travel, live and work from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Not sure how free i would've been if i had funding, a team to manage and investors to give returns to. So i guess the best thing to do is to continue on my own and focus on making Kettik profitable enough to sustain itself, me and my co-founders (if i manage to find any). And maybe one day if it grows too big for me to manage, i'll go knocking on YC's doors again.
- maximgsaini 13y agoYou know what guys, I feel honored to have been given the opportunity to apply, be reviewed and then rejected. Today is one of the best days I have had in weeks. I just realized where we were and how far we have come in the month we were 'associated' with YC. YC really got us to speed things up, change our user interface, create a prototype (although YC never saw it, cause we were late), change our entire strategy. I think YC has done more than enough for me. Anything more and this would become a fairy tale :). To be honest, I never wanted this to be an easy fairy tale. I want this to be a story worth telling to my children. I like battles where the victor emerges half-alive. Now its time for me to captain this ship to the shore. And damnit I will :) This is my ship, my baby, and I will never let it sink alone. Im so thankful for the people in my life. They stick with me and believe in me regardless of my lunacy, willing to take the bullets for me. Keep working hard people. We'll meet each other at the finish line. :)
- ad93611 13y agoI've been rejected before. However it is worded, I know it is hard to take. Here is my sincere offer to help. http://gaglers.com http://gaglers.com will be happy to help with our live chat or community chat product. We have unlimited agents and SSL in all our plans. Send your rejection email to founders@gaglers.com and get to use our top plan(Pro) for free for 6 months. We love to help small and agile startups. Here is why, http://gaglers.com/blog/2013/03/29/live-chat-software-unlimited-agents/ http://gaglers.com/blog/2013/03/29/live-chat-software-unlimi...
- ngethe24 13y agoI also got the email above for my startup activepractice.com.au. Apparently, they are not joking when they say you need a technical co-founder. Anyone who is interested, drop me a line.
- agurha 13y agoUrlbox.io is offering our $9.99 plan free for life and 50% of all other plans. If you are a startup who requires to integrate screenshots as a service. Urlbox.io got easy API to help you up and running. Email your YC rejection letter to founders@urlbox.io and we'll get you going in no time.
- nicrogo 13y agoI've had my rejection letter as well and I was actually surprised how human and respectful was this letter. They're very good at marketing, it's like breaking up: it's not you, it's us! ;) I think it's obvious that this rejection letter should not put a stop to your projects but rather keep improving them, that's what I'm gonna do. I already applied to techstars and I will apply again at Y combinator. Next time I'll be ready! I'm looking for a co-founder in order to launch a new mobile advertising platform for hyperlocalized marketing. You can support my application at TechStars at the following url: http://www.f6s.com/geome#main/ajax-summary http://www.f6s.com/geome#main/ajax-summary I'm still at an early stage but if you're interested, PM me and I'll explain you what this is about. You can also follow me on twitter: @Nicrogo Many thx!!