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Applying to YC
- btrautsc 12y ago- didn't get in first time (check, different company though). - weren't sure if good fit for b2b/ saas company (wrong). - questioned how much value YC could provide us (many times more than expected). for us going through YC, working with the partners, and joining the YC network were the best things we could have possibly done. Thinking back to life pre-YC (Dec-13) to now the rate of change (progress/ growth/ knowledge) is unreal.
- gault8121 12y agoThat's great to see. How many YC companies apply multiple times and are accepted in a later batch?
- Kevin_S 12y agoI've read before that many YC companies were rejected multiple times before being accepted on their 3rd, 4th, 5th tries. Dropbox is one of those.
- maybeiambatman 12y agoDid they apply with the same idea/product? Or was it Dropbox each time?
- sama 12y agoa lot--i updated the post to reflect this.
- gault8121 12y agoCool thanks for the response. We're looking forward to getting in our nonprofit app.
- rdlecler1 12y agoRefreshing.
- wmf 12y agosama, I'm curious about how it works when YC invests in a company with "millions of dollars raised"; do you still take 7% and if so how do you avoid the appearance of a down round?
- sama 12y agowe do, but we buy common stock, and no one thinks of it as a normal investment, so it's almost never problematic.
- JoshTriplett 12y agoSomeone looking at the investment history of a company isn't going to blindly look at the number and say "down round"; they're going to look at the name "Y Combinator".
- tonysuper 12y agoAnd, presumably, get cartoon-style dollar signs in their eyes seconds afterwards.
- oretoz 12y agoSam's comments are encouraging but in the notes [1] about the application process they also mention how they look at a user's comments. I signed up on HN after being a passive reader for a long time and so haven't accumulated a lot of karma. I suppose lack of comments shouldn't be a deterrent as Sam suggested but may be the messaging needs to change a bit? Just my humble opinion. [1] https://www.ycombinator.com/howtoapply/ https://www.ycombinator.com/howtoapply/
- sama 12y agomost partners don't look at this very much.
- noahc 12y agoI suspect it is also true that comments are more of a liability than an asset. "He has no comments, he must have been busy doing something else interesting." vs "He has 500 comments, and shows he isn't interested in considering other approaches"
- oretoz 12y agoThat is great to know. I had mistakenly assumed that it is one of the key requirements. I am in my late 30s and will be soon starting on my startup journey. Having worked with a big telecom vendor for a large part of my career, I sometimes make the mistake of finding reasons why I cannot start a venture. I suppose it is time for a real change. Whether I go for YC or not this year (I live in the UK and cannot leave in the near future for personal reasons), I am surely going to give this whole startup thing a good kick in the coming days! Thanks all.
- georgemcbay 12y agoI have 12560 karma on HN and a very loose sense of ethics or morality, so feel free to make an offer on my account. Disclaimer: You may also need to change your name to George McBay for plausibility.
- StavrosK 12y ago
- genbit 12y agoThanks, I was going to apply, but had exactly these doubts, and you just gave me more motivation.
- vishalzone2002 12y agothanks for this! cleared so many clouds around applying.
- rdlecler1 12y agoI noticed that the application asks for age of the founders. How does this factor into the equation?
- tlb 12y agoWe ask founders what impressive things they've done: older founders have had more time to do things. I roughly take the quotient (amount of impressive achievements) / (age - 15).
- porter 12y agoso I guess 15 year olds get an unfair advantage regardless of what they've achieved.
- amirmc 12y agoIs it a negative signal if you're older but still only find one or two things you feel are 'impressive'? One of the things I noticed is that older founders I've met wouldn't bother with YC because it's for 'young folks'.
- rdlecler1 12y agoBite to self: find a 14 year old felon with a long rap sheet, and bring him on as a co-founder.
- outericky 12y agoI seem to answer the age question every application period....[1]. That said. We were 36 & 37. Not the oldest they'd ever seen, but one of the oldest in our batch. But there were a few of us over 35... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7342396 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7342396
- TheMakeA 12y agoGood post but I wish there was more transparency in what YC was looking for (though I understand this is difficult, otherwise people would game it). There are companies that are accepted with just an idea and companies with six figure revenues that are rejected. There are founders with bad ideas that are "funded for the pivot," and founders like Drew Houston who are rejected because their initial idea was bad. It just seems kind of random.
- ryanSrich 12y agoI think a lot of it has to do with who you are and then what you have coming in (in terms of a product). So for example. If you're a Stanford grad, have already started and exited a company and now are a part-time VC, you can probably get into YC with just an idea. (similar to Standard Treasury). Alternatively if you've not made a name for yourself yet it's likely YC would look for something already built, with users, and possibly revenue. This is obviously pure speculation.
- sama 12y agoif you are a part-time VC, we are very unlikely to fund you unless you agree to quit in the interview. it's hard to start a startup no matter what, but much more so with a part-time job on the side.
- zt 12y ago(1) Neither Dan or I went to Stanford. (2) Dan and I are part-time angels really, with very small checks given to a very small number of companies. Also, as sama mentioned, we basically stopped investing at all once we got into YC. We still make an investment from time-to-time but mostly in people we know already. We don't have meetings, way too busy on Standard Treasury. (3) We felt like an underdog when we applied to YC. I think we were underdogs when we applied! We didn't know them and certainly didn't have much of a reputation outside of financial technology (still don't?). We felt very fortunate when we got in. YC was amazing for us and has always been supportive of our mild madness.
- 12y ago
- rmena123 12y agoWhat about the single founder? I know the answer, but I guess I shouldn't apply til I find a co-founder?
- ryanSrich 12y agoIt's obviously very rare. However it has been done before [1]. 1. http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/03/12/how-solo-founders-beat-the-odds-and-get-into-top-accelerators/ http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2013/03/12/how-solo-foun...
- ginter 12y agothe latest batch had several solo founders
- paul 12y agoWe have some very successful single-founder companies, such as Instacart. We suggest finding a cofounder not for our benefit, but for your own. Startups are hard, and doing it alone makes it even harder.
- pbreit 12y agoSingle founder can work but it's usually not ideal. For one thing, it demonstrates that you can't find or persuade even a single other person interested enough in you and your idea to join up.
- rmena123 12y agoCorrect me if I am wrong, but isn't YC for the Ivy League class type? The "I dropped out cause I am smart" type? The "I wrote a book on _____" type? "I worked at Google or Facebook" type? What about the regular type that doesn't have much to show, but wants to do great things? Basically, I feel like the YC application is a pissing match of who can piss the farthest shown on paper not outside. haha :) I have realized I don't fit the YC type.. so I won't apply.
- amirmc 12y agoWhat gives you this impression? From what I can tell (from the outside) YC is a pretty diverse crowd and I believe PG once said that academic background doesn't much matter. Grit (aka resilience, determination, relentlessness, etc) is more important. In fact, there's nothing in the application form that even asks about education (there used to be but maybe it moved to the additional founder info - i.e it doesn't seem important at all).
- rmena123 12y agoI am not just talking about education. Trust me, look up the founders, its the same type. If I walked into a YC dinner I would probably stand out, not for lack of education, but something would not be mixed up right.
- amirmc 12y agoIf you're ruling yourself out before you've even begun, then I find it difficult to have any sympathy. If the 'type' you're referring to is 'young, white male' then there are many aspects of life where you might be in the minority (I say that as someone who fails to tick two of those boxes). YC could do more to highlight its existing diversity but I'm not simply going to take your word for it (you still haven't explained what you mean).
- rattray 12y agoLack of confidence would certainly make someone stick out like a sore thumb =)
- yousifa 12y agoSam/Paul, what is the most important thing you look for in a hardware startup (that is not also shared with software startups)?
- paul 12y agoIn general, there aren't any differences. We're looking for people who can create something that people will want. For hardware companies, that will likely require some hardware skills, so show us that you have what it takes to ship whatever it is that you are building. You should also have a good understanding of how much capital will be required to ship your v1, as that will often be an issue if you're actually manufacturing something.
- skizm 12y agoI think people say they are "too early" because they feel that don't have the resume to get accepted. They feel like if they could only get user traction before applying you might over look our mediocre grades, work history, and personal projects. We've evaluated our own YC resumes and found they come up short. I don't think there are too many people out there who have a killer project and/or super smart founders that are hesitant to apply because they genuinely think their company is in too early of a stage.
- wellboy 12y agoI think the post tries to encourage more people to start startups and to apply to YC, however, I think the way this post is formulated, it gives the impression that if you have a good idea you can simply apply, which I don't think is true at all. I think it would be really helpful to write that people should only apply to YC if they either have a track record or traction. Criterion 1 is Track record consists of these three things 1. Built/sold something impressive before 2. Worked at Facebook or Google 3. Graduated from Stanford Criterion 2 is traction, which is either 10.000 users for consumer or $5.000 revenue for B2B after 6 months. In summary, if the founder does not have a track record as described above or strong traction, she/he is very unlikely to get into YC. Explaining this will prevent people without a track record from thinking that they only have to have a good idea, because if you don't have a track record you need a really good idea with a huge market and traction to get in. I don't think many founders realise that. I might be wrong, so I would love for others to critizise or add to my comment. I would love to hear about examples for instance, of a recent startup where the founders neither had a track record, nor traction.
- atom-morgan 12y agoIn terms of meeting your requirements, Ryan Hoover is a perfect example. I don't believe he'd sold a startup before, he isn't an ex-Facebook or Google employee, and he didn't go to Stanford. I'd randomly found him on Twitter roughly a year ago and suddenly I read a TechCrunch article about how a product he'd made is in YC. He came out of nowhere, so to speak.
- wellboy 12y agoHe is hitting hard the second criterion with hundreds of thousands of visitors. It is either track record, or traction. Traction trumps everything :)
- yeukhon 12y agoWhich to me, is the most fairest way to sell your idea to YC. If you have an idea people actually want and you have some work done, sell it. But the other two are certainly true. You are from Stanford, you probably can leverage some connections outside of YC.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- genbit 12y agoAlmost in every YC related article mentioned about at least 2 founders. What about startups with 1 founder, what chances are, any advices?
- eru 12y agoFrom what I've read, single founder can get in, but you better be impressive.
- penfold26 12y agoIMHO I think the chances are perhaps based on how competitive the batch is. Also are you a technical or non-technical founder. Also is it a sole founder + CTO/hires or just only 1 founder. From their point of view, they probably can consider the merits of your skill but the likelyhood is if you desire to scale (which YC can help with) it will require more than 1 person. It can be done by one person but im sure it can certainly can be overwhelming for one person and scaling a business as it can require sometimes more than only 1 person.
- cj 12y agoPaul Buchheit: "We definitely fund [solo founders], but you have to be about 4 times as good. I think Instacart was a solo founder, and that's a great company. We're very happy to fund single founders; it's really more for your benefit. If you can possibly find someone, it really does help." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTv4iO7e8bQ#t=15m16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTv4iO7e8bQ#t=15m16
- randall 12y agoAs a solo founder from the w14 batch: I can tell you it feels more difficult to do everything yourself. I'd recommend if you can organically find someone to work with on the company, you should. Happy to answer any solo founder related questions, if you have them.
- genbit 12y agoYea, I know that it's much better if you have cofounder (there are so many tasks to do), but I believe it should be the right person, and wrong person can make much more damage then help. As a solo founder, how did you improve your productivity on early stage: what kind of tasks you usually delegated to someone else (like freelancer) if you did.
- penfold26 12y agoI did think of applying at some point but I actually thought of i may be too late since i already have a product and growing revenue. I was under the impression YC was just a seed accelerator. Thanks for clearing that up and encouraging us to take a look again.
- shr42 12y agoThe application process (like the thiel fellowship) itself teaches you a ton about yourself and your business. Although we weren't accepted to either, I came out a more insightful person (let's go round 2!).
- lordnacho1980 12y agoI've got a startup with an almost ready product, a team that has started businesses before, and is bootstrapped with our own money. I'd love to give a presentation, but I'm based in Europe. Does YC do Europe? (I'm more than happy to fly. Question is whether you care where a firm is based.)
- dirktheman 12y agoThere's a FAQ-section you might want to read, as it specifically mentions location. They don't care where you're based, but you do have to follow the YC program in the US. After YC, you could return to Europe, but it's probably a good idea to stick around. Provided you get a suitable visa, of course... http://www.ycombinator.com/faq/ http://www.ycombinator.com/faq/
- amitaujla 12y agoI think it takes a certain degree of courageousness to pursue entrepreneurship in the first place, and that shouldn't get dwindled down when applying to YC as you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
- amitaujla 12y agoI think it takes a certain degree of courageousness to pursue entrepreneurship in the first place, and that shouldn't get dwindled down when applying to YC as you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.