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Ask HN: How Do I Get into YC with Just an Idea?
It seems to me that most people go into YC with a startup, the more users the better, and have documented growth already, which warrants the accelerator's investment.
But some people suggest that with a good idea and the right abilities you can get into YC. My question is, what in particular are these "requirements" that would compensate for the fact that I only have an idea?
- valarauca1 12y agoThey likely wouldn't. Your asking people to bet a lot of money on the fact that somebody you'll be running a successful business they can profit off of. Selling dreams is significantly harder then selling snake oil. And you don't even have snake oil yet.
- byoung2 12y agohttp://www.ycombinator.com/apply/#whowefund http://www.ycombinator.com/apply/#whowefund How do we choose who to fund? The people in your group are what matter most to us. We look for brains, motivation, and a sense of design. Experience is helpful but not critical. Your idea is important too, but mainly as evidence that you can have good ideas. Most successful startups change their idea substantially. After reading through PG's essays and watching all of the Startup School videos, you'll find the same thing repeated there. YC looks for smart people with a history of building cool stuff. You probably have a better chance if your team has known each other and worked together on projects outside of school or work. If you can show examples where you can see and implement creative solutions to problems (hacking a non-computer system...), you have most of what it takes to be successful at YC, regardless of the startup idea you put on your application. It was possible at one point to apply with no idea at all, so that is some indication of the importance of everything else on the application. PG said in a fireside chat once that the reason there was a 3 week gap between invitation and interview was twofold: to allow people enough time to get cheap airfare, and to see what progress they make on the idea. 3 weeks, he said, is enough time to build a rough prototype (software, at least) and start getting traction of some kind.