7 ms·

On Applying to Y Combinator

161 points by wheels 17y ago

pg 17y ago
I went back and looked at their applications for w2009 and s2009. They almost made it to interviews in w2009. Several things combined to push them over the threshold next time: 1. I recognized wheels's username as someone who made thoughtful comments on HN. 2. Their description of what they were doing was much more specific. 3. We added the video in s2009, and we could tell from their video that they were good.
- toisanji 17y ago
  Are there any publicly viewable videos from companies that made it into yc? I want to see what constitutes a good video.
  - pg 17y ago
    Not that I know of, but you could ask Scott and maybe they'd post theirs. (Actually it's still up, so all he'd have to do is make the page public.)
  - eswat 17y ago
    Here's one from Divvyshot (I assume it was sent with their application): http://vimeo.com/2044353 http://vimeo.com/2044353
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Hm. I don't know if that will help at all. I figure the best way to make those videos is to do what you yourself would do, and to be as natural as possible. If you don't do that then all that will happen is that YC will receive a bunch of cookie-cutter videos, and that's exactly what you do not want. You want your video to present you in a way that matches you, not to present you in a way that matched someone else.
  - wheels 17y ago
    Here's ours - as is pretty obvious, it was super informal and just us yacking at the camera. As noted in the (just updated) text there -- this is from 7 months ago, so doesn't correspond to our current plans in many ways, but gives you an idea for the sort of video that it was. http://scott-oviwe.posterous.com/private/wIYDQvTIRI http://scott-oviwe.posterous.com/private/wIYDQvTIRI
- hristov 17y ago
  Great, now I have to worry about making thoughtful comments on here.
  - dualogy 17y ago
    Um... Try again :D
    - hristov 17y ago
      :)
  - yumraj 17y ago
    All I'll say is don't try too hard to make "thoughtful comments", and just be yourself. Sometimes the best insights and comments are what you make instinctively.
  - diN0bot 17y ago
    you know, sometimes i wonder if my votes are being aggregated, too....it seems unlikely, but everysooften i feel the urge to look over my shoulder... (ok i admit it! i voted up hristov for being candid and having good intentions.)
    - thegoleffect 17y ago
      upvoted! yay
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      Your votes are being aggregated, that's what the karma counter is all about. But 'high karma' as such shouldn't be a factor, it can mean many things. Average karma per comment would be a much better way of judging peoples contributions.
- TrevorJ 17y ago
  These are helpful insights. To the video point, as a film/video professional I'm keenly aware of the differences in the sort of information you can gather from a moving image versus text. I'd be interested to ask you how much the addition of video closed the gap between your initial perceptions of a team based on the application versus when you met them in person.
lbrandy 17y ago
> Paul later told me that the big difference was that he recognized me from Hacker News and that I said smart things there. So if that was the critical difference, the question is, “Why was I saying smart things?” Another question might be, "How would you have faired had you been a mere lurker on HN?"
- MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
  Beware the temptation to post on HN in order to look smart for your YC application. Better to spend time working on your company and save your HN comments for when you actually have something to say.
  - jwhitlark 17y ago
    Beware the temptation to do anything just to look smart for your YC application, (or life). As beneficial as I think YC is, it's not magic pixie dust, and you're in just as bad of shape if you get in on false pretenses. The reason why some people succeed, even when everyone tells them they're wrong, is they do something they believe in. Everything else is secondary.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    HN is a great place to learn, there are tons and tons of people here that are a lot smarter than me and some debate helps to enlighten my sometimes dark and isolated viewpoints. I'm living in a fairly out of the way location as far as the IT world is concerned, HN is pretty much the only contact I have with fellow hackers working on a myriad of interesting stuff. There hasn't been an ask HN post that I put out that didn't come back with several insightful options, the sum of which was larger than the experience of any one live person that I know. It's a fantastic resource, and a place where you can make friends that are hackers too. That it's a factor in getting your YC application judged can safely be ignored, the very few edge cases where that's applicable do not make it worth the effort for those that might be inclined to try to game the system by flooding hn with 'insightful' comments. In fact it's probably statistically pretty easy to puncture that balloon.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
jlgosse 17y ago
Excellent post. As someone who is going to apply to YC this coming winter, this article contains some extremely valuable information. What I get from it mostly though, is that getting accepted is less about the application, and more about getting out there and getting things done. Essentially, I can see a number of common points between both wheels' post and pg's comment: 1. It's a great idea to have something started. Once you have something started, pitching your idea and refining your pitch will surely help you out when explaining what problem you're trying to solve. 2. Contributing to HN often will help build your reputation. Nothing can help grow your reputation online like writing does. I've been told time and time again that I am an excellent writer, and that people respect me for it. If you can write well, contribute to HN. 3. Sharing your product with other people on HN is a great way to get feedback. The more feedback you receive, the greater ability you have to improve your product and eventually succeed. 4. The new(er) feature that allows you to post a video of you and your co-founders may actually be invaluable to getting accepted into the program. I would agree with this in that it's hard to judge a person's qualities from their writing alone. A video will give you a deeper look at their personality, and maybe a glimpse of whether or not they could handle a program such as YC. With point four in mind, I was wondering if anyone has any advice on a little problem I am having. The problem is derived from the fact that my single co-founder is currently in NYC for the next few months. What would be the best way to create a video for our application, if we are both in different countries? Thanks, jlgosse
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
  Yikes. I think your best bet would be to individually shoot some video and splice it together -- even though the app specifically discourages that sort of thing, it would probably be better than no video at all. That is, assuming the two of you can't somehow get together for a day or two.
  - arfrank 17y ago
    I would think what would be better would be to video conference and record that. It would include both of you and practically be the same as if you were just sitting next to each other minus the actual physical proximity.
joez 17y ago
Hey wheels, would you mind posting up your first YC application? I ask because I'd love to get something to contrast against dhouston's (Dropbox) amazing application. I think it would be really interesting if you had as good of an application and got rejected. This could be a good dose of reality for people looking to apply (myself included).
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
  I'd love to see their video too.
physcab 17y ago
I feel like anyone working in a startup needs to type out the phrase "You don't know shit" and tape it to their monitor. Then get back to work.
- yan 17y ago
  That's not very inspiring
  - physcab 17y ago
    What I meant is that you need to have the belief that you're never at your goal. You are constantly critiquing yourself and producing good work. "You don't know shit" is a constant reminder that you need to try harder--that you haven't figured everything out. You need to live in a state of paranoia that others are just about to release something greater.
    - pg 17y ago
      Maybe the best variant to tape to the monitor would be "You don't know users well enough."
      - jeromec 17y ago
        That certainly would be a reminder to get something out the door and solicit user feedback. However, I believe it helps to stay positive, so I would also tape up something motivational like "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." –Conrad Hilton
  - lsc 17y ago
    Really, it depends on your personality, and your ego. See, some people are irritated or shocked by my self-deprecation. The thing is, I would be absolutely insufferable if I let my ego out. I do it every now and then, you know. Most startups are populated by people who have egos that can rival mine, in part because having an ego that large makes you think you can do it better than everyone else, and in part because investors tend to prefer confident people. (I personally think investors are morons in this regard, but what do I know? Managers seem to agree with them. I have seen my more capable but less confident peers get passed over for me or someone like me more times than I can count.) For me, Yeah, I constantly need to remind myself I don't know everything, or else I end up doing something really stupid. You know I once got into a mailing list argument with Lee Felsenstein about how to run a computer club? Yeah, I looked pretty stupid. See, that's the sort of thing that happens if I don't keep my ego in check. I know many people who are more capable than I am in every respect who don't have that massive ego. Yeah, for one of those people (who I think would be excellent founders, some of them.) 'you don't know shit' would be a bad thing to remind them. Yes, for them, you'd probably want something positive and encouraging. But for someone like me? "You don't know shit" is quite appropriate.
rokhayakebe 17y ago
Why YC couldn't let startups apply yearlong instead of only twice per year?
- markbao 17y ago
  Well, the entire YC program is structured around the two three-month events of the year. YC isn't just a "congrats, you got accepted to one of the most prestigious seed groups ever—here's a bunch of cash at an insulting valuation" but it's also about the mentoring and demo days, which I would argue are worth more than the "live-on" money. Regular seed funding groups can work that way, sure. But they're for different purposes.
  - lsc 17y ago
    Insulting, really? so you have 3 guys, and a business plan. you get $20K for say, 6% of the company. Are you really saying a $300K valuation on a company that is 'just an idea' is insulting? Personally, I'd call that high. But yeah, you are right. it's not about the money. It would probably make economic sense for me to give 6% of my company to pg, even without getting any cash, just for the marketing effects.
    - markbao 17y ago
      I'm sorry, you're right. $20k is not a lot of money, but I did overlook the fact that most of the ideas are just that—ideas, versus an actual built business which seems to be in the minority. (Hey, at least it's better than Shark Tank.) I stand corrected, though it wasn't the main point.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    I'm of two minds about the amount and percentage. On the one hand it's seed stage, the very large majority of seed investments turns out to be wasted money, so there is a premium to be expected. On the other hand $20K means that the startup will be looking for money again in the very near future, and getting follow up investments is a very time consuming job. Then there is the fact that YC makes a bunch of very invasive requirements of the 'founders', they have to basically give up their life and family for this chance to be a player. That's a decision everybody makes for themselves of course, but you have to balance what YC can give you (a one time shot at the jackpot) to what you've already got. I think this is why YC skews to younger people, the price to pay for a chance like this is a lot smaller when you're younger. Also, older people tend to be unimpressed by $20K, especially if it is for multiple founders.
juvenn 17y ago
I will read the bits again, and again.
yosho 17y ago
It seems from the post that the primary reason you got into YC the second time around was because Paul recognized your username. Obviously there were other reasons involved, which PG has stated above. However, the overall feel is that getting into YC has a lot to do with PG's initial impression of who you are and how active you are on hacker news than the actual idea itself, considering that you said the idea remained unchanged, it was just the pitch that was different. Basically, I feel like I have to contribute something worthy on this site now in order to be considered for YC. While I feel that being an active community member is important, I don't think it should be given the weight that it seems to carry for YC applications.
- drusenko 17y ago
  You don't. Consider this: In W07, there were ~12 teams accepted IIRC. We didn't have videos or HN. There are now > 20 teams selected. Without being active on HN, you still have the same chance as before, but those that are posting intelligently to HN are getting a boost.
- jwhitlark 17y ago
  From what I can infer, PG is much more interested in the person/team than the idea; the implementation is the hard part. Given that PG has implied in the past that Hacker News was written to help YC, this doesn't seem an unreasonable approach since they're honest about the matter.
- MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
  Do not do this. I tried this route and still got rejected. All it resulted in was me wasting time trying to find articles to submit and/or comment on. Better to just work on your idea and assume you'll get rejected either way. Absolutely do not waste time in order to support your YC application. Work on your startup instead.
  - TrevorJ 17y ago
    I think in a microcosm, 'username' is just shorthand for how active and aware you are in the startup community as a whole. It's the same as everything else, if other people in the industry remember you, whether from a mixer you attended, or an article you published or what have you, you are much more likely to have an 'in' with them. Is it a means to an end? No, but it is a useful and helpful artifact of being interested and active in the field you want to go into.
chrischen 17y ago
I think they make a great point on not starting a startup for the sake of Y Combinator. To be honest I almost fell into that pitfall. But from my perspective it's also hard to not focus on the application so much. Because I'm a college student, I haven't had a job, I don't have much money, and I'll be forced to balance school with the project if I don't get into something like Y Combinator. So putting effort into the application now can mean more time to focus on the product later if I'm accepted. So while Y Combinator can be an accelerator, I think it can also be a great initiator too in that it can give someone like me the first opportunity in my life to work full time on a passionate project without any other priorities.
- jnovek 17y ago
  In my opinion, if you aren't ready to balance school/work and your startup until your startup is self-sufficient, you aren't serious enough about your startup.
  - chrischen 17y ago
    It's not that I'm not ready. It's the fact that I even have to balance it. Also the startup is much more interesting. School is just an unnecessary impedance to the startup and if I am serious about it I wouldn't even care about school (which I don't). The problem is my parent's aren't going to pay for me to relocate to silicon valley or fund a risky project. They'd rather fund college. So my options are to find a way to fund myself so I have a legitimate reason to focus full time on the startup, or balance school and startup. The problem is I have a hard time enforcing a balance and the startup gets more of the attention. So ideally I want to be in a position where I need no balance and focus solely on the startup.
    - launic 17y ago
      You should know that a startup does not mean you do all the time only the things you like. Besides writing code (which is the best part :) ) sometimes you need to do customer support, boring paper-work, leave the best party to restart your servers, even clean your office by yourself. And may other things I can not remember right know...
leif 17y ago
Europe and I miss you, Scott. :-)
- mahmud 17y ago
  I think Germany is better off with one less Texan. :-D
tlb 17y ago
The single most important thing that you can do to increase your chances of getting into Y-Combinator is to do what you should be doing anyway: going full-speed ahead on your startup Exactly. We're impressed by teams that get things done, and unimpressed by teams haven't even started to build something. I've often found myself thinking, "If you think this is so great an idea, why haven't you spent some weekends building a version 0 prototype?"
isamuel 17y ago
It's ironic but probably inevitable that the central advice of this article (basically: "work like crazy on your startup, stop obsesssing on the app") has been greeted with cries to see their first app, second app, video accompanying the app...
matthodan 17y ago
Great article-- When will we see a Myers-Briggs assessment on the application? Our video will probably have the following flow: * 5 seconds to introduce our co-founders * 10 seconds on what we're going to create * 10 seconds on how our product solves a major problem * 10 seconds on why we're the right team for the job * 10 seconds to demo our prototype * 10 seconds on why we would be a good candidate for YC * 5 seconds of witty banter mixed throughout just because Thoughts?

161 points by wheels 17y ago

pg 17y ago

I went back and looked at their applications for w2009 and s2009. They almost made it to interviews in w2009. Several things combined to push them over the threshold next time: 1. I recognized wheels's username as someone who made thoughtful comments on HN. 2. Their description of what they were doing was much more specific. 3. We added the video in s2009, and we could tell from their video that they were good.

toisanji 17y ago
Are there any publicly viewable videos from companies that made it into yc? I want to see what constitutes a good video.
- pg 17y ago
  Not that I know of, but you could ask Scott and maybe they'd post theirs. (Actually it's still up, so all he'd have to do is make the page public.)
- eswat 17y ago
  Here's one from Divvyshot (I assume it was sent with their application): http://vimeo.com/2044353 http://vimeo.com/2044353
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Hm. I don't know if that will help at all. I figure the best way to make those videos is to do what you yourself would do, and to be as natural as possible. If you don't do that then all that will happen is that YC will receive a bunch of cookie-cutter videos, and that's exactly what you do not want. You want your video to present you in a way that matches you, not to present you in a way that matched someone else.
- wheels 17y ago
  Here's ours - as is pretty obvious, it was super informal and just us yacking at the camera. As noted in the (just updated) text there -- this is from 7 months ago, so doesn't correspond to our current plans in many ways, but gives you an idea for the sort of video that it was. http://scott-oviwe.posterous.com/private/wIYDQvTIRI http://scott-oviwe.posterous.com/private/wIYDQvTIRI
hristov 17y ago
Great, now I have to worry about making thoughtful comments on here.
- dualogy 17y ago
  Um... Try again :D
  - hristov 17y ago
    :)
- yumraj 17y ago
  All I'll say is don't try too hard to make "thoughtful comments", and just be yourself. Sometimes the best insights and comments are what you make instinctively.
- diN0bot 17y ago
  you know, sometimes i wonder if my votes are being aggregated, too....it seems unlikely, but everysooften i feel the urge to look over my shoulder... (ok i admit it! i voted up hristov for being candid and having good intentions.)
  - thegoleffect 17y ago
    upvoted! yay
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Your votes are being aggregated, that's what the karma counter is all about. But 'high karma' as such shouldn't be a factor, it can mean many things. Average karma per comment would be a much better way of judging peoples contributions.
TrevorJ 17y ago
These are helpful insights. To the video point, as a film/video professional I'm keenly aware of the differences in the sort of information you can gather from a moving image versus text. I'd be interested to ask you how much the addition of video closed the gap between your initial perceptions of a team based on the application versus when you met them in person.

lbrandy 17y ago

> Paul later told me that the big difference was that he recognized me from Hacker News and that I said smart things there. So if that was the critical difference, the question is, “Why was I saying smart things?” Another question might be, "How would you have faired had you been a mere lurker on HN?"

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
Beware the temptation to post on HN in order to look smart for your YC application. Better to spend time working on your company and save your HN comments for when you actually have something to say.
- jwhitlark 17y ago
  Beware the temptation to do anything just to look smart for your YC application, (or life). As beneficial as I think YC is, it's not magic pixie dust, and you're in just as bad of shape if you get in on false pretenses. The reason why some people succeed, even when everyone tells them they're wrong, is they do something they believe in. Everything else is secondary.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  HN is a great place to learn, there are tons and tons of people here that are a lot smarter than me and some debate helps to enlighten my sometimes dark and isolated viewpoints. I'm living in a fairly out of the way location as far as the IT world is concerned, HN is pretty much the only contact I have with fellow hackers working on a myriad of interesting stuff. There hasn't been an ask HN post that I put out that didn't come back with several insightful options, the sum of which was larger than the experience of any one live person that I know. It's a fantastic resource, and a place where you can make friends that are hackers too. That it's a factor in getting your YC application judged can safely be ignored, the very few edge cases where that's applicable do not make it worth the effort for those that might be inclined to try to game the system by flooding hn with 'insightful' comments. In fact it's probably statistically pretty easy to puncture that balloon.
jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

jlgosse 17y ago

Excellent post. As someone who is going to apply to YC this coming winter, this article contains some extremely valuable information. What I get from it mostly though, is that getting accepted is less about the application, and more about getting out there and getting things done. Essentially, I can see a number of common points between both wheels' post and pg's comment: 1. It's a great idea to have something started. Once you have something started, pitching your idea and refining your pitch will surely help you out when explaining what problem you're trying to solve. 2. Contributing to HN often will help build your reputation. Nothing can help grow your reputation online like writing does. I've been told time and time again that I am an excellent writer, and that people respect me for it. If you can write well, contribute to HN. 3. Sharing your product with other people on HN is a great way to get feedback. The more feedback you receive, the greater ability you have to improve your product and eventually succeed. 4. The new(er) feature that allows you to post a video of you and your co-founders may actually be invaluable to getting accepted into the program. I would agree with this in that it's hard to judge a person's qualities from their writing alone. A video will give you a deeper look at their personality, and maybe a glimpse of whether or not they could handle a program such as YC. With point four in mind, I was wondering if anyone has any advice on a little problem I am having. The problem is derived from the fact that my single co-founder is currently in NYC for the next few months. What would be the best way to create a video for our application, if we are both in different countries? Thanks, jlgosse

thaumaturgy 17y ago
Yikes. I think your best bet would be to individually shoot some video and splice it together -- even though the app specifically discourages that sort of thing, it would probably be better than no video at all. That is, assuming the two of you can't somehow get together for a day or two.
- arfrank 17y ago
  I would think what would be better would be to video conference and record that. It would include both of you and practically be the same as if you were just sitting next to each other minus the actual physical proximity.

joez 17y ago

Hey wheels, would you mind posting up your first YC application? I ask because I'd love to get something to contrast against dhouston's (Dropbox) amazing application. I think it would be really interesting if you had as good of an application and got rejected. This could be a good dose of reality for people looking to apply (myself included).

thaumaturgy 17y ago
I'd love to see their video too.

physcab 17y ago

I feel like anyone working in a startup needs to type out the phrase "You don't know shit" and tape it to their monitor. Then get back to work.

yan 17y ago
That's not very inspiring
- physcab 17y ago
  What I meant is that you need to have the belief that you're never at your goal. You are constantly critiquing yourself and producing good work. "You don't know shit" is a constant reminder that you need to try harder--that you haven't figured everything out. You need to live in a state of paranoia that others are just about to release something greater.
  - pg 17y ago
    Maybe the best variant to tape to the monitor would be "You don't know users well enough."
    - jeromec 17y ago
      That certainly would be a reminder to get something out the door and solicit user feedback. However, I believe it helps to stay positive, so I would also tape up something motivational like "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." –Conrad Hilton
- lsc 17y ago
  Really, it depends on your personality, and your ego. See, some people are irritated or shocked by my self-deprecation. The thing is, I would be absolutely insufferable if I let my ego out. I do it every now and then, you know. Most startups are populated by people who have egos that can rival mine, in part because having an ego that large makes you think you can do it better than everyone else, and in part because investors tend to prefer confident people. (I personally think investors are morons in this regard, but what do I know? Managers seem to agree with them. I have seen my more capable but less confident peers get passed over for me or someone like me more times than I can count.) For me, Yeah, I constantly need to remind myself I don't know everything, or else I end up doing something really stupid. You know I once got into a mailing list argument with Lee Felsenstein about how to run a computer club? Yeah, I looked pretty stupid. See, that's the sort of thing that happens if I don't keep my ego in check. I know many people who are more capable than I am in every respect who don't have that massive ego. Yeah, for one of those people (who I think would be excellent founders, some of them.) 'you don't know shit' would be a bad thing to remind them. Yes, for them, you'd probably want something positive and encouraging. But for someone like me? "You don't know shit" is quite appropriate.

rokhayakebe 17y ago

Why YC couldn't let startups apply yearlong instead of only twice per year?

markbao 17y ago
Well, the entire YC program is structured around the two three-month events of the year. YC isn't just a "congrats, you got accepted to one of the most prestigious seed groups ever—here's a bunch of cash at an insulting valuation" but it's also about the mentoring and demo days, which I would argue are worth more than the "live-on" money. Regular seed funding groups can work that way, sure. But they're for different purposes.
- lsc 17y ago
  Insulting, really? so you have 3 guys, and a business plan. you get $20K for say, 6% of the company. Are you really saying a $300K valuation on a company that is 'just an idea' is insulting? Personally, I'd call that high. But yeah, you are right. it's not about the money. It would probably make economic sense for me to give 6% of my company to pg, even without getting any cash, just for the marketing effects.
  - markbao 17y ago
    I'm sorry, you're right. $20k is not a lot of money, but I did overlook the fact that most of the ideas are just that—ideas, versus an actual built business which seems to be in the minority. (Hey, at least it's better than Shark Tank.) I stand corrected, though it wasn't the main point.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  I'm of two minds about the amount and percentage. On the one hand it's seed stage, the very large majority of seed investments turns out to be wasted money, so there is a premium to be expected. On the other hand $20K means that the startup will be looking for money again in the very near future, and getting follow up investments is a very time consuming job. Then there is the fact that YC makes a bunch of very invasive requirements of the 'founders', they have to basically give up their life and family for this chance to be a player. That's a decision everybody makes for themselves of course, but you have to balance what YC can give you (a one time shot at the jackpot) to what you've already got. I think this is why YC skews to younger people, the price to pay for a chance like this is a lot smaller when you're younger. Also, older people tend to be unimpressed by $20K, especially if it is for multiple founders.

juvenn 17y ago

I will read the bits again, and again.

yosho 17y ago

It seems from the post that the primary reason you got into YC the second time around was because Paul recognized your username. Obviously there were other reasons involved, which PG has stated above. However, the overall feel is that getting into YC has a lot to do with PG's initial impression of who you are and how active you are on hacker news than the actual idea itself, considering that you said the idea remained unchanged, it was just the pitch that was different. Basically, I feel like I have to contribute something worthy on this site now in order to be considered for YC. While I feel that being an active community member is important, I don't think it should be given the weight that it seems to carry for YC applications.

drusenko 17y ago
You don't. Consider this: In W07, there were ~12 teams accepted IIRC. We didn't have videos or HN. There are now > 20 teams selected. Without being active on HN, you still have the same chance as before, but those that are posting intelligently to HN are getting a boost.
jwhitlark 17y ago
From what I can infer, PG is much more interested in the person/team than the idea; the implementation is the hard part. Given that PG has implied in the past that Hacker News was written to help YC, this doesn't seem an unreasonable approach since they're honest about the matter.
MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
Do not do this. I tried this route and still got rejected. All it resulted in was me wasting time trying to find articles to submit and/or comment on. Better to just work on your idea and assume you'll get rejected either way. Absolutely do not waste time in order to support your YC application. Work on your startup instead.
- TrevorJ 17y ago
  I think in a microcosm, 'username' is just shorthand for how active and aware you are in the startup community as a whole. It's the same as everything else, if other people in the industry remember you, whether from a mixer you attended, or an article you published or what have you, you are much more likely to have an 'in' with them. Is it a means to an end? No, but it is a useful and helpful artifact of being interested and active in the field you want to go into.

chrischen 17y ago

I think they make a great point on not starting a startup for the sake of Y Combinator. To be honest I almost fell into that pitfall. But from my perspective it's also hard to not focus on the application so much. Because I'm a college student, I haven't had a job, I don't have much money, and I'll be forced to balance school with the project if I don't get into something like Y Combinator. So putting effort into the application now can mean more time to focus on the product later if I'm accepted. So while Y Combinator can be an accelerator, I think it can also be a great initiator too in that it can give someone like me the first opportunity in my life to work full time on a passionate project without any other priorities.

jnovek 17y ago
In my opinion, if you aren't ready to balance school/work and your startup until your startup is self-sufficient, you aren't serious enough about your startup.
- chrischen 17y ago
  It's not that I'm not ready. It's the fact that I even have to balance it. Also the startup is much more interesting. School is just an unnecessary impedance to the startup and if I am serious about it I wouldn't even care about school (which I don't). The problem is my parent's aren't going to pay for me to relocate to silicon valley or fund a risky project. They'd rather fund college. So my options are to find a way to fund myself so I have a legitimate reason to focus full time on the startup, or balance school and startup. The problem is I have a hard time enforcing a balance and the startup gets more of the attention. So ideally I want to be in a position where I need no balance and focus solely on the startup.
  - launic 17y ago
    You should know that a startup does not mean you do all the time only the things you like. Besides writing code (which is the best part :) ) sometimes you need to do customer support, boring paper-work, leave the best party to restart your servers, even clean your office by yourself. And may other things I can not remember right know...

leif 17y ago

Europe and I miss you, Scott. :-)

mahmud 17y ago
I think Germany is better off with one less Texan. :-D

tlb 17y ago

The single most important thing that you can do to increase your chances of getting into Y-Combinator is to do what you should be doing anyway: going full-speed ahead on your startup Exactly. We're impressed by teams that get things done, and unimpressed by teams haven't even started to build something. I've often found myself thinking, "If you think this is so great an idea, why haven't you spent some weekends building a version 0 prototype?"

isamuel 17y ago

It's ironic but probably inevitable that the central advice of this article (basically: "work like crazy on your startup, stop obsesssing on the app") has been greeted with cries to see their first app, second app, video accompanying the app...

matthodan 17y ago

Great article-- When will we see a Myers-Briggs assessment on the application? Our video will probably have the following flow: * 5 seconds to introduce our co-founders * 10 seconds on what we're going to create * 10 seconds on how our product solves a major problem * 10 seconds on why we're the right team for the job * 10 seconds to demo our prototype * 10 seconds on why we would be a good candidate for YC * 5 seconds of witty banter mixed throughout just because Thoughts?