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I think most people would appreciate some feedback on something they work hard for, even if it's just an "atta boy, looks good, keep on going--sorry it didn't w

I think most people would appreciate some feedback on something they work hard for, even if it's just an "atta boy, looks good, keep on going--sorry it didn't work out", or even better some productive feedback ("you need to narrow your focus" or "market already saturated"). I have never applied for YC, but I have applied to other things in life that seem like a black hole from the outside. Just an acknowledgement of something that surely took a lot of time would be a nice gesture. I mean, I'm sure you're nice folks, right? Would you ignore applicants if you met them on the street?

BrandonM 13y ago
I imagine that the types of feedback you're suggesting, such as "market already saturated", would only be half of the story. A founder who is making such a mistake is automatically making a second mistake: not being good enough to realize the mistake in the first place. A founder who fixes the one mistake pointed out by YC would be missing the big picture, likely making numerous other mistakes. I don't think that most applicants want to hear the truth, which is effectively, "Based on problems X, Y, and Z that we can see after a cursory analysis, we can only assume that you're not smart enough for other program, else you would have realized those problems yourself."
- tvo 13y ago
  My entrepreneurial experience so far has been about making a lot of mistakes and learning from them. I think for a lot (but not all) of issues in startups and in life, "not being good enough" or "not smart enough" really just means "not having enough exposure or practice". Based on this view, constructive, specific feedback goes a long way in helping dedicated founders improve so that they too, can add value to society via their startup. I realize it is unfair to expect this from YC, considering they also have finite bandwidth. I wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee for this type of feedback from YC and I suspect a lot of founders wouldn't either.
  - BrandonM 12y ago
    I agree that entrepreneurship is a great opportunity to make and learn from mistakes in execution. It's also an opportunity to try completely new things that may or may not work. Other sorts of mistakes, though--like being ignorant of existing players, failing to explain why someone would use your product, or having no remote plan to profitability--are more troublesome. They indicate a lack of business acumen or even common sense that will make success incredibly unlikely. As with execution mistakes, you can learn these things through experience, too. However, I would not want to invest my time and money teaching them to someone unwilling or unable to learn those lessons on their own. Which gets back to my original point... Who wants to hear, "You seem to lack common sense"?
ProblemFactory 13y ago
"You need to narrow your focus" seems like something that would not be the main reason for rejection, and instead something that the mentors advise to fix after getting in. If there really was a serious reason for rejection (instead of being close but barely not good enough), then I think it's most likely related to the team: * "Your fourth co-founder is dragging you down. You need to fire him." * "You seem to have different life priorities and dedication. I predict an angry team breakup in 6 months." * "You gave away 50% of the company for an investment from your uncle. No VC will be interested to follow up." * "None of you have good enough technical skills to get to the point where you can fundraise and hire engineers instead." ... and so on. This kind of honest feedback would not go down well with most the founders, even if they say that they want honest and harsh feedback. It's one thing to suggest improvements to the business plan, but nobody wants to hear that they personally might not be good enough. And the feedback would open YC to all sorts of criticism. Remember the brouhaha about the comment on founders' accents? The message was "There should be at least one founder who speaks English well to interact with the media, investors and public." But it was immediately taken out of context to accuse YC of discriminating against foreigners.

BrandonM 13y ago

I imagine that the types of feedback you're suggesting, such as "market already saturated", would only be half of the story. A founder who is making such a mistake is automatically making a second mistake: not being good enough to realize the mistake in the first place. A founder who fixes the one mistake pointed out by YC would be missing the big picture, likely making numerous other mistakes. I don't think that most applicants want to hear the truth, which is effectively, "Based on problems X, Y, and Z that we can see after a cursory analysis, we can only assume that you're not smart enough for other program, else you would have realized those problems yourself."

tvo 13y ago
My entrepreneurial experience so far has been about making a lot of mistakes and learning from them. I think for a lot (but not all) of issues in startups and in life, "not being good enough" or "not smart enough" really just means "not having enough exposure or practice". Based on this view, constructive, specific feedback goes a long way in helping dedicated founders improve so that they too, can add value to society via their startup. I realize it is unfair to expect this from YC, considering they also have finite bandwidth. I wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee for this type of feedback from YC and I suspect a lot of founders wouldn't either.
- BrandonM 12y ago
  I agree that entrepreneurship is a great opportunity to make and learn from mistakes in execution. It's also an opportunity to try completely new things that may or may not work. Other sorts of mistakes, though--like being ignorant of existing players, failing to explain why someone would use your product, or having no remote plan to profitability--are more troublesome. They indicate a lack of business acumen or even common sense that will make success incredibly unlikely. As with execution mistakes, you can learn these things through experience, too. However, I would not want to invest my time and money teaching them to someone unwilling or unable to learn those lessons on their own. Which gets back to my original point... Who wants to hear, "You seem to lack common sense"?

ProblemFactory 13y ago

"You need to narrow your focus" seems like something that would not be the main reason for rejection, and instead something that the mentors advise to fix after getting in. If there really was a serious reason for rejection (instead of being close but barely not good enough), then I think it's most likely related to the team: * "Your fourth co-founder is dragging you down. You need to fire him." * "You seem to have different life priorities and dedication. I predict an angry team breakup in 6 months." * "You gave away 50% of the company for an investment from your uncle. No VC will be interested to follow up." * "None of you have good enough technical skills to get to the point where you can fundraise and hire engineers instead." ... and so on. This kind of honest feedback would not go down well with most the founders, even if they say that they want honest and harsh feedback. It's one thing to suggest improvements to the business plan, but nobody wants to hear that they personally might not be good enough. And the feedback would open YC to all sorts of criticism. Remember the brouhaha about the comment on founders' accents? The message was "There should be at least one founder who speaks English well to interact with the media, investors and public." But it was immediately taken out of context to accuse YC of discriminating against foreigners.