4 ms·

Why did 30-year-old former Microsoft engineers apply to YC?

28 points by amitutk 13y ago

daviding 13y ago
Good luck. As constructive criticism of the headline, my mind fleetingly tried to parse what a 'yo' engineer was (and a Microsoft one at that), and why 30 of them had applied for YC. :)
- ritwikt 13y ago
  Good point and well 30 yo's applying to YC was funny .. Fixed it in the original post.
kgb-11 13y ago
note to founders, your landing page has several typos. the headline is the most glaring one.
jacalata 13y ago
tl;dr: because we think that the questions asked on the application are good ones to have considered simply for the future of a startup anyway.
flyinglizard 13y ago
I don't like doing this because I'm a founder too and, well, "you don't shit where you eat" - you don't go and pass judgement about the ventures of others because you don't want to be in their spot yourself. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but notice their landing page reeks of buzzword laden hustle and nothing more. This, to me, is not a legitimate venture, or at least not presented as such. 1. The service doesn't seem to exist; 2. The landing page textual content is badly made and badly spelled, which makes you question the capabilities and efforts of the team behind it; 3. They have this slider that name drops companies they have nothing to do with (AirBnB, CoffeeTable etc) with some headline stats and icons, and slides out of your way just before you begin to read the smaller print, which is about how these companies improved business metrics using push notifications. It has nothing to do with their product whatsoever. But you wouldn't think that on first glance, as they deliberately made it look like customer testimonials. This to me is a huge red flag; 4. They have a $599 recommended plan which is way above what SaaS MVPs usually aim for; 5. Microsoft employs ~100k people worldwide. Being a Microsoft employee is completely meaningless in this context, and I feel is only used to lend them credibility in light of points #1-#4. There's a very fine line between MVP, hustling and outright scamming. I feel they went too far. I'm sorry if I hurt someone's feelings but I doubt this is YC material.
- mattmanser 13y ago
  I think the service looks very, very interesting. A potential conversion game changer. There's actually not a single link to the website in the post, I'm pretty certain they've not even got an MVP yet, or if they do it'll just be string and duct tape. He talks about phone interviews, they're still in customer exploration. I think it entirely depends on the light you look at it in. Turn to the left slightly, and it suddenly looks like the beginnings of something that just needs a bit of tiller correcting, a bit more businessman, a bit less engineer. That style of writing on the blog and on the website, to me, is very Indian. I think it's just a cultural difference, try re-reading it. And in the end if all they get out of the application is a clearer vision, they still got something out of it. OTOH I'm not sure why he thinks YC doesn't accept 30 year olds with solid engineering backgrounds...
  - flyinglizard 13y ago
    http://informion.com http://informion.com is what I assumed their service is. I apologize if this is not the service they discuss (this is what appears on the author's bio line at the bottom). When I wrote my comment it was really coming from a place of honest criticism. It wasn't cautionary, as I don't expect most HN-ers to go dropping $599 on their recommended plan. As a founder myself, I felt I had to give them my opinion of how this looks from the outside. Yes they had spelling errors as other posters politely noted but this is just going around the edges of the core issue here.
  - avilay 13y ago
    mattmanser - thanks for the encouragement. Our website is indeed www.informion.com (flyinglizard got that right). Our service is actually just string and duct tape (a hodge-podge of Java and Python programs running on data sets contained in zip files). We are working hard at getting an alpha version out by end of April that can be used by customers. And yes, both of us are 1st gen immigrants to the US from India :-)
- curiousDog 13y ago
  - #2 might not be testament to their abilities rather because English is not their first language. Nonetheless, they should hire a professional. - #5 Not ~100k devs. Google and Apple both have >40k employees. Does your point still hold? MSFT interviews for the most part are still good. I personally don't even know them and agree with the rest of what you say.
m0g 13y ago
Please don't use caps meaninglessly. This blog is awfully hard to read.
dalek2point3 13y ago
You've misspelt "notifiactions" on your main page.
- avilay 13y ago
  Thanks! Fixed it. Please let us know if you spot any other typos.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
vqc 13y ago
I wonder how big of an effect getting on the front page of HN has on your YC application. I can't imagine it being that much, but this won't be the first time someone has tried (and succeeded).
- ritwikt 13y ago
  I must say that we really didn't plan it this way we wrote this yesterday given we felt strongly about it. The intent was not necessarily to talk about YC but to: 1. Spell out the framework we used to evaluate accelerators so others could use it as appropriate For us it came to two things: a. Did we FEEL that the guys running the accelerator cared b. Had we developed respect for their OPINIONS As I said we found 3 fitting our criteria and YC was one among those – it depends on what pre-access founders get to these guys/their thoughts – being in Seattle guys @ 9 mile have helped us out from even before we left our day jobs, similarly Andy and Techstars alum has been nothing but vested. Thought this will be helpful for others deciding on accelerators. 2. Using YCs app as a tool for improving sales/pitches We found YCs application & what they expect to have most resonance with what customers asked and expected – I would concur that almost all applications have these questions in one form of the other but PG has done well to express what they expect in his essay – we found him echoing what our customers expected but never demanded – so the app could be a tool one could use to refine the sales call/pitch.
- avilay 13y ago
  Yes, I agree that this will not have much of an effect on our chances at YC. Our objective was not to get on the front page of HN. It was to have a conversation around the pros/cons of applying for "ivy league" accelerators. (All the added feedback on the website is a plus :-) )
lukasm 13y ago
"Do not have network intros to YC-Partners" that got me thinking what are my odds of getting in. pg once said "your chances are either very high or very low". No intros. Haven't co-founder a successful startup in the past. Haven't worked for FB. I'm from "middle of nowhere".
- ritwikt 13y ago
  We really have none of these - yet wanted to apply and encourage others like us to apply. We laid out our reasons with the hope to encourage a few more to polish their customer pitches using the framework we used ... For us it came to two things: a. Did we FEEL that the guys running the accelerator cared b. Had we developed respect for their OPINIONS As I said we found 3 fitting our criteria and YC was only one That Ethos seems to be have been lost :( ..
rco8786 13y ago
Seems like 30 year old engineers from Microsoft/Amazon would pretty much fit in perfectly to an ideal YC founding team.

28 points by amitutk 13y ago

Good luck. As constructive criticism of the headline, my mind fleetingly tried to parse what a 'yo' engineer was (and a Microsoft one at that), and why 30 of them had applied for YC. :)

ritwikt 13y ago
Good point and well 30 yo's applying to YC was funny .. Fixed it in the original post.

kgb-11 13y ago

note to founders, your landing page has several typos. the headline is the most glaring one.

jacalata 13y ago

tl;dr: because we think that the questions asked on the application are good ones to have considered simply for the future of a startup anyway.

flyinglizard 13y ago

I don't like doing this because I'm a founder too and, well, "you don't shit where you eat" - you don't go and pass judgement about the ventures of others because you don't want to be in their spot yourself. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but notice their landing page reeks of buzzword laden hustle and nothing more. This, to me, is not a legitimate venture, or at least not presented as such. 1. The service doesn't seem to exist; 2. The landing page textual content is badly made and badly spelled, which makes you question the capabilities and efforts of the team behind it; 3. They have this slider that name drops companies they have nothing to do with (AirBnB, CoffeeTable etc) with some headline stats and icons, and slides out of your way just before you begin to read the smaller print, which is about how these companies improved business metrics using push notifications. It has nothing to do with their product whatsoever. But you wouldn't think that on first glance, as they deliberately made it look like customer testimonials. This to me is a huge red flag; 4. They have a $599 recommended plan which is way above what SaaS MVPs usually aim for; 5. Microsoft employs ~100k people worldwide. Being a Microsoft employee is completely meaningless in this context, and I feel is only used to lend them credibility in light of points #1-#4. There's a very fine line between MVP, hustling and outright scamming. I feel they went too far. I'm sorry if I hurt someone's feelings but I doubt this is YC material.

mattmanser 13y ago
I think the service looks very, very interesting. A potential conversion game changer. There's actually not a single link to the website in the post, I'm pretty certain they've not even got an MVP yet, or if they do it'll just be string and duct tape. He talks about phone interviews, they're still in customer exploration. I think it entirely depends on the light you look at it in. Turn to the left slightly, and it suddenly looks like the beginnings of something that just needs a bit of tiller correcting, a bit more businessman, a bit less engineer. That style of writing on the blog and on the website, to me, is very Indian. I think it's just a cultural difference, try re-reading it. And in the end if all they get out of the application is a clearer vision, they still got something out of it. OTOH I'm not sure why he thinks YC doesn't accept 30 year olds with solid engineering backgrounds...
- flyinglizard 13y ago
  http://informion.com http://informion.com is what I assumed their service is. I apologize if this is not the service they discuss (this is what appears on the author's bio line at the bottom). When I wrote my comment it was really coming from a place of honest criticism. It wasn't cautionary, as I don't expect most HN-ers to go dropping $599 on their recommended plan. As a founder myself, I felt I had to give them my opinion of how this looks from the outside. Yes they had spelling errors as other posters politely noted but this is just going around the edges of the core issue here.
- avilay 13y ago
  mattmanser - thanks for the encouragement. Our website is indeed www.informion.com (flyinglizard got that right). Our service is actually just string and duct tape (a hodge-podge of Java and Python programs running on data sets contained in zip files). We are working hard at getting an alpha version out by end of April that can be used by customers. And yes, both of us are 1st gen immigrants to the US from India :-)
curiousDog 13y ago
- #2 might not be testament to their abilities rather because English is not their first language. Nonetheless, they should hire a professional. - #5 Not ~100k devs. Google and Apple both have >40k employees. Does your point still hold? MSFT interviews for the most part are still good. I personally don't even know them and agree with the rest of what you say.

m0g 13y ago

Please don't use caps meaninglessly. This blog is awfully hard to read.

dalek2point3 13y ago

You've misspelt "notifiactions" on your main page.

avilay 13y ago
Thanks! Fixed it. Please let us know if you spot any other typos.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

vqc 13y ago

I wonder how big of an effect getting on the front page of HN has on your YC application. I can't imagine it being that much, but this won't be the first time someone has tried (and succeeded).

ritwikt 13y ago
I must say that we really didn't plan it this way we wrote this yesterday given we felt strongly about it. The intent was not necessarily to talk about YC but to: 1. Spell out the framework we used to evaluate accelerators so others could use it as appropriate For us it came to two things: a. Did we FEEL that the guys running the accelerator cared b. Had we developed respect for their OPINIONS As I said we found 3 fitting our criteria and YC was one among those – it depends on what pre-access founders get to these guys/their thoughts – being in Seattle guys @ 9 mile have helped us out from even before we left our day jobs, similarly Andy and Techstars alum has been nothing but vested. Thought this will be helpful for others deciding on accelerators. 2. Using YCs app as a tool for improving sales/pitches We found YCs application & what they expect to have most resonance with what customers asked and expected – I would concur that almost all applications have these questions in one form of the other but PG has done well to express what they expect in his essay – we found him echoing what our customers expected but never demanded – so the app could be a tool one could use to refine the sales call/pitch.
avilay 13y ago
Yes, I agree that this will not have much of an effect on our chances at YC. Our objective was not to get on the front page of HN. It was to have a conversation around the pros/cons of applying for "ivy league" accelerators. (All the added feedback on the website is a plus :-) )

lukasm 13y ago

"Do not have network intros to YC-Partners" that got me thinking what are my odds of getting in. pg once said "your chances are either very high or very low". No intros. Haven't co-founder a successful startup in the past. Haven't worked for FB. I'm from "middle of nowhere".

ritwikt 13y ago
We really have none of these - yet wanted to apply and encourage others like us to apply. We laid out our reasons with the hope to encourage a few more to polish their customer pitches using the framework we used ... For us it came to two things: a. Did we FEEL that the guys running the accelerator cared b. Had we developed respect for their OPINIONS As I said we found 3 fitting our criteria and YC was only one That Ethos seems to be have been lost :( ..

rco8786 13y ago

Seems like 30 year old engineers from Microsoft/Amazon would pretty much fit in perfectly to an ideal YC founding team.