4 ms·

Ask HN: Which YC rejects have gone on to success?

6 points by joaomsa 12y ago

Also curious if there were many cases of rejections that after pivoting or further development managed to make it in another round.

byoung2 12y ago
Storenvy: Admitted to YC S10 and kicked out [1] but later raised $1.5 million. [2] Currently has $6.5 million in funding. [3] 1. http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/10/entrepreneur-y-combinator-kleiner-perkins/ 2. http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/storenvy-secures-15-million-funding-fuel-growth-its-social-online-store-shopping-community-1386691.htm 3. http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/storenvy
- tptacek 12y ago
  "Kicked out" is a bit dramatic for what actually happened. Storenvy was accepted, but then his cofounders balked before the program started. YC didn't allow him to proceed without those cofounders.
  - byoung2 12y ago
    Those were the founder's words, not mine.
anthony_franco 12y ago
SendGrid is the most popularly known "YC reject". They now employ 200 people and are one of the leading ESPs. It's not uncommon for YC companies to have been rejected from a previous batch. I think the mindset of the YC partners is that whenever they're iffy on a company, they'll by default reject them, and if they still come back to apply in the next round, then it proves their perseverance and they'll let them in. Total speculation on my part though :) In terms of the most-rejected YC company, last I heard it was PagerDuty that got in on their fourth try.