8 ms·

Applications for YC S2015 Are Open

154 points by philip1209 12y ago

Killswitch 12y ago
I'd love to apply to YC, but I cannot under any circumstances move to the bay area. :(
- tptacek 12y ago
  Technically, you only need to be there from June-August. That said: speaking as a cofounder of a brand new company, and despite being corrosively skeptical of YC in the past, if it weren't for the SFBA prereq, we'd apply. You're right, it's annoying!
  - Killswitch 12y ago
    I currently live in Chicago, moved here for my job, but my girlfriend back home ended up getting pregnant, so now I got a daughter on the way and I'm moving back home next month, and since she's got a child from a previous relationship, she has agreements with the father to not move any farther than an hour away. Because I could never ask her to move, nor do I want to be that far away from my newborn (bad enough I can't be there through the pregnancy), I refuse to move anywhere else, not even for a job. I've just got higher priorities in my life.
    - AndrewGreen 12y ago
      "my girlfriend back home ended up getting pregnant"
      - Killswitch 12y ago
        With my child, aka we were in a long distance relationship.
        AndrewGreen 12y ago
        I'm sorry. That was a stupid comment on my part.
  - _sentient 12y ago
    YC isn't just about credentials. A significant part of the value is concentrated in the Tuesday dinners and in-person office hours. Even if YC did accept remote companies, the value of the program would be greatly diminished if you didn't move to the bay. And that's to say nothing of investors, over 70% of whom are concentrated in the valley. Plus, there's also probably some signal value here for YC. If you're not sufficiently committed to be willing to move somewhere else for 3-4 months, you may not be that serious about your startup. It's not the strongest signal, but its impact is probably non-trivial.
    - ryanSrich 12y ago
      I feel like it has less to do with moving somewhere and more todo with moving specifically to Silicon Valley. I'd much rather move somewhere like Austin or Denver and save $10k in living costs for my business than spend it on rent in the Valley for one summer. I agree that there's value in being face to face for mentoring like this, but I just don't see why it has to be in the most expensive place to live in the U.S., especially considering the fact that you want to be saving money when starting a business.
      - kanzure 12y ago
        > I'd much rather move somewhere like Austin or Denver and save $10k in living costs for my business Penny pinching about $10k is completely irrelevant if you are hitting the growth rates that ycombinator is looking for.
    - logn 12y ago
      > If you're not sufficiently committed to be willing to move somewhere else for 3-4 months, ... Then you might be older than 30. I don't blame YC at all; I'd do it the same way. However, lots of the industry's demands for evidence of passion/interest/excitement are things only applicable to young people.
      - mrkurt 12y ago
        A non-trivial number of YC founders are >30, married, have kids, and don't live in the Bay when they apply. It's not that big of a hurdle. Consider how many people with similar commitments (kids, marriages, mortgages) get deployed for military purposes every year for roughly the same amount of time. It's manageable for families.
- logicallee 12y ago
  why? out of the things people would do for $10 million, hopping on a plane after paying $600 for it seems high on the list. . .
  - Killswitch 12y ago
    See my response to tptacek
  - tootie 12y ago
    Some of us have families. Although it is summer break. Also, I don't have a company or an idea.
miguelrochefort 12y ago
Looks like my "universal communication UI" project will once again be rejected.
- loceng 12y ago
  Any prototype at all?
- super-serial 12y ago
  I'm making "the future of storytelling"... but it won't be ready until summer. I'll get traction/users first before getting rejected again.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- revorad 12y ago
  Anything "universal" will probably be rejected. Have you considered making a tiny hyperlocal version first?
zpatel 12y ago
If I have an alpha/beta version of a product, should i be working to launch it to build traction or rather apply for YC ? Also, I have a day job which pays well and i need the job but my passion is to build innovative/useful solutions. I wonder how i could be full time at YC or is it ok to be working part time?. I have also heard that investors would not even look at your proposal if they know you're working part time on it.
- perryh2 12y ago
  You should probably leave your job.
- Jihoon 12y ago
  I don't think it will hurt to apply regardless :) it will help you hash out some of your thoughts as well, if you are serious about doing a startup. Good luck!
gojomo 12y ago
Free idea: "Our startup wants to change the world by reselling the free $500K in Azure services [1] to outsiders for half-off, then liquidating itself. This may not be a 'traditional YC play', or 'scalable', or even 'honest', but we'll give YC half the loot (approximately $100K) and don't even require the traditional investment/convertible note. Just tell Microsoft we're a YC company! Oh, and let us know whether you like the name 'Azurbatrage' or 'Arbitrazure' better. Stretch goal: resell all the unused Azure capacity of our classmate companies – 50X the profit opportunity." [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9023582 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9023582
- jameshk 12y ago
  Ha.
- AlwaysBCoding 12y ago
  Better idea, make a script that can spin up Azure instances and mine Bitcoins on them. Then build a web app on top of it that will liquidate Azure credits to cash as a service. When someone dumps their credentials into your site you spin up $500,000 of computing power on Azure to mine Bitcoins from and then liquidate the Bitcoins you mine into cash and take like 15% off the top. I'm not sure what the conversion rate of Azure computing dollar to mined Bitcoin would be, but this would work to some extent with $500,000 wouldn't it? What YC company wouldn't want a Azure -> cash liquidation web app.
  - taskstrike 12y ago
    Definitely a worse idea. The bitcoin you can mine with general instances is insanely low compared to market value because of customized bitcoin mining machines. I tried this from experience with AWS credit I got from a incubator.
  - gojomo 12y ago
    "At Arbitrazure, we are of course open to any idea for converting free Azure credit to cold hard cash. But our research indicates that without special mining chips, Bitcoin mining is not competitive, and $500K of Azure per month (15,000 'A1' VMs) would take 8-16 years ($48-$96 million) to earn one Bitcoin ($225). That's why we remain committed to resale, rather than direct exploitation."
zaguios 12y ago
As a solo founder, is it worth the time to apply if I don't already have a finished product and significant traction? P.S. I know many people would suggest to find a cofounder, but that hasn't worked well for me. In my area there aren't many experienced programmers with an entrepreneurial spirit. The few people I have tried to start something with usually fall through due to not being able to keep up. I'd rather stop wasting my time with the hunt and start just building something by myself.
- jameshk 12y ago
  I'd think so. Most companies that apply have neither a finished product or traction, and the application might just help you clear things up in your head.
  - zaguios 12y ago
    Filling out the application probably won't hurt, but I'm more curious if there is any chance of actually getting in. I'm not a stanford grad or an ex-googler so I would assume that combined with the fact that I'm solo founder would make my chances more or less 0. The only way I could see actually getting into YC at this point with my situation is to have an already successful company.
    - cyri 12y ago
      Same problem here ... at least my wife can act as CFO/HR ...
    - jameshk 12y ago
      Try it. You don't need to be an ex-googler or Stanford grad to be good at what you do. Be passionate, and convey your expertise and skills or lack of, in the application. Keep on working on your startup, although getting into YC would be helpful it does not come with instant success. If you want advice or someone to read over your application, I'd love to. My email is in my HN profile.
    - codingdave 12y ago
mpr3 12y ago
I wonder if pre-launch Slack would have got in to YC.
- 2arrs2ells 12y ago
  I bet they would have. Impressive team with big ambitions.
  - randall 12y ago
    Not to mention Grove / Convore was in a few years before Slack.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
peteretep 12y ago
An idea I would be interested in submitting requires rather a lot of explanation on what makes it sexy; let's call it 1,000 words. I realize it probably needs to be a little snappier than that, but the fundamental idea sounds a little tired and not particularly new without some explanation. There's an opportunity to split this out in the "Idea" section, but really several strands need to be tied together in a specific order. Will it look weird to stick 1,000 words in the "What is your company going to make?" field, rather than something short and pithy like "AirBNB for Bees"?
- mkramlich 12y ago
  or just go make that thing paying customers are the best, most direct validation. and if you keep the cash flow right you may never need investment. most good advice has already been distilled in free web pages and cheap books. build, sell, repeat, scale.
- michaelbuckbee 12y ago
  One potential way to make a snappy one liner (and you do need a snappy one liner) is to describe it in terms of who it helps instead of what exactly it does, even if it is just "A new approach to stopping the pain felt by the X Billion dollar a year industry of Y".
  - peteretep 12y ago
    That's a really good idea, actually, and I can see how to apply that. Thanks.
- revorad 12y ago
  Forget YC for a moment and think about how you will describe it to your users. If you need 1,000 words to get each user, then it's probably not going to work. It sounds like you're building a new version of something that already exists, so maybe just say what's new about it in as few words as possible.
curiously 12y ago
So...here's my question to everyone applying: What is the single motivation or incentive for you to get in? Does YC offer something that you are unable to find or obtain on your own?
nrpalao 12y ago
Good luck!
arjunnarayan 12y ago
How do you guys deal with conflicts of interest? For instance, suppose hypothetically someone is building a startup who's goal is to eat the company who's CEO is in your list of YC partners... How's that going to work?
- shin_lao 12y ago
  Don't know about YC, but most funds don't invest in competing companies, and sometimes the strategy can even be broader: "don't invest twice in the same area". For example if you already have an investment in email application, you will opt-out from similar investments in the future.
- haky_nash 12y ago
  From the FAQ: Will you fund multiple startups working on the same idea? Yes. If you fund as many companies as we do it's unavoidable you'll end up with some overlap. Even if you tried not to accept competing companies, you'd still get overlap because startups' ideas morph so much. The way we deal with it is that when two startups are working on related stuff, we don't talk to one about what the other's doing. In practice it has not turned out to be a problem, because most big markets have room for several slightly different solutions, and it's unlikely that two startups would do precisely the same thing.
  - aptwebapps 12y ago
    That's a start but the GP wasn't asking about competing entrants in the same batch but about a theoretical entrant that would compete with an established YC partner.
    - haky_nash 12y ago
      Umm I think that was a more general comment. And the reason that makes up the later part of the answer sounds very general and applies to the GP's question.
      - 12y ago
pskittle 12y ago
i'm constantly amazed by how quickly yc moves. thanks for working towards a better future and inspiring some along the way.
haky_nash 12y ago
Just asking. Does YC value the IITs(Indian Institute of Technology) as much as they value Harv, Stan, etc. Lots of other people do value it quite a lot. How does YC see them?
tonysuper 12y ago
Well. Now I'm completely terrified. I've been working on a project for about 8 months, with about 3 months on-going after a decision to re-write and reign in focus, with YC as a major end goal the entire time. Now that it's actually time to apply I'm extremely nervous—especially since I'm an 18-year-old kid who hasn't even finished high school yet (1 semester left) and I'm competing with people twice my age and with several hundred times more experience. We're quite close to a major beta release so that should help the process along. Is there anything somebody in my (and my co-founders) circumstances should seek to convey in order to increase our chances of getting accepted? I've read quite a few articles on the best application type, but none of them had a "What to do when you're completely unproven and also extremely young" section.
- jameshk 12y ago
  I'm in a similar position as you, still in high school. I've applied before and did not need to convey anything special to be taken seriously. Would love to talk sometime. Email is in my HN profile.
- dlu 12y ago
  I'm not twice as old as you, but I've been feeling old for a while now, so I'll give this a shot. I'm going to start by pretty much channeling Paul Graham. If you're close to a major beta release, make sure that happens on time and as smoothly as possible. Then, as Paul Graham says, know your users. Talk to them, email them, Skype them late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. That's where expertise matters the most and where you're on equal ground with everyone else. I don't know anything about your users yet either. Well, I might know a tiny bit by accident because I worked on something similar. So go learn more than me. To quote PG: "This class can teach you about startups, but that is not what you need to know. What you need to know to succeed in a startup is not expertise in startups, what you need is expertise in your own users. Mark Zuckerberg did not succeed at Facebook because he was an expert in startups, he succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups; I mean Facebook was first incorporated as a Florida LLC. Even you guys know better than that. He succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups because he understood his users very well." Beyond that, I would say expect there to be what feels like near-death business/startup experiences. If you run into trouble, great! That means you're doing something right. It isn't like school where if you prep enough, everything should be smooth sailing. You're not going to be able to ever prep enough and everything should feel chaotic. If it all goes really well, it is possible that you're super oblivious. It is ok if things aren't going that well. Treat all the lows like team bonding. If you're lucky this won't be the last or worst of it all and nothing kills a startup like a cofounder who is only in it for the good times.

154 points by philip1209 12y ago

Killswitch 12y ago

I'd love to apply to YC, but I cannot under any circumstances move to the bay area. :(

tptacek 12y ago
Technically, you only need to be there from June-August. That said: speaking as a cofounder of a brand new company, and despite being corrosively skeptical of YC in the past, if it weren't for the SFBA prereq, we'd apply. You're right, it's annoying!
- Killswitch 12y ago
  I currently live in Chicago, moved here for my job, but my girlfriend back home ended up getting pregnant, so now I got a daughter on the way and I'm moving back home next month, and since she's got a child from a previous relationship, she has agreements with the father to not move any farther than an hour away. Because I could never ask her to move, nor do I want to be that far away from my newborn (bad enough I can't be there through the pregnancy), I refuse to move anywhere else, not even for a job. I've just got higher priorities in my life.
  - AndrewGreen 12y ago
    "my girlfriend back home ended up getting pregnant"
    - Killswitch 12y ago
      With my child, aka we were in a long distance relationship.
      - AndrewGreen 12y ago
        I'm sorry. That was a stupid comment on my part.
- _sentient 12y ago
  YC isn't just about credentials. A significant part of the value is concentrated in the Tuesday dinners and in-person office hours. Even if YC did accept remote companies, the value of the program would be greatly diminished if you didn't move to the bay. And that's to say nothing of investors, over 70% of whom are concentrated in the valley. Plus, there's also probably some signal value here for YC. If you're not sufficiently committed to be willing to move somewhere else for 3-4 months, you may not be that serious about your startup. It's not the strongest signal, but its impact is probably non-trivial.
  - ryanSrich 12y ago
    I feel like it has less to do with moving somewhere and more todo with moving specifically to Silicon Valley. I'd much rather move somewhere like Austin or Denver and save $10k in living costs for my business than spend it on rent in the Valley for one summer. I agree that there's value in being face to face for mentoring like this, but I just don't see why it has to be in the most expensive place to live in the U.S., especially considering the fact that you want to be saving money when starting a business.
    - kanzure 12y ago
      > I'd much rather move somewhere like Austin or Denver and save $10k in living costs for my business Penny pinching about $10k is completely irrelevant if you are hitting the growth rates that ycombinator is looking for.
  - logn 12y ago
    > If you're not sufficiently committed to be willing to move somewhere else for 3-4 months, ... Then you might be older than 30. I don't blame YC at all; I'd do it the same way. However, lots of the industry's demands for evidence of passion/interest/excitement are things only applicable to young people.
    - mrkurt 12y ago
      A non-trivial number of YC founders are >30, married, have kids, and don't live in the Bay when they apply. It's not that big of a hurdle. Consider how many people with similar commitments (kids, marriages, mortgages) get deployed for military purposes every year for roughly the same amount of time. It's manageable for families.
logicallee 12y ago
why? out of the things people would do for $10 million, hopping on a plane after paying $600 for it seems high on the list. . .
- Killswitch 12y ago
  See my response to tptacek
- tootie 12y ago
  Some of us have families. Although it is summer break. Also, I don't have a company or an idea.

miguelrochefort 12y ago

Looks like my "universal communication UI" project will once again be rejected.

loceng 12y ago
Any prototype at all?
super-serial 12y ago
I'm making "the future of storytelling"... but it won't be ready until summer. I'll get traction/users first before getting rejected again.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
revorad 12y ago
Anything "universal" will probably be rejected. Have you considered making a tiny hyperlocal version first?

zpatel 12y ago

If I have an alpha/beta version of a product, should i be working to launch it to build traction or rather apply for YC ? Also, I have a day job which pays well and i need the job but my passion is to build innovative/useful solutions. I wonder how i could be full time at YC or is it ok to be working part time?. I have also heard that investors would not even look at your proposal if they know you're working part time on it.

perryh2 12y ago
You should probably leave your job.
Jihoon 12y ago
I don't think it will hurt to apply regardless :) it will help you hash out some of your thoughts as well, if you are serious about doing a startup. Good luck!

gojomo 12y ago

Free idea: "Our startup wants to change the world by reselling the free $500K in Azure services [1] to outsiders for half-off, then liquidating itself. This may not be a 'traditional YC play', or 'scalable', or even 'honest', but we'll give YC half the loot (approximately $100K) and don't even require the traditional investment/convertible note. Just tell Microsoft we're a YC company! Oh, and let us know whether you like the name 'Azurbatrage' or 'Arbitrazure' better. Stretch goal: resell all the unused Azure capacity of our classmate companies – 50X the profit opportunity." [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9023582 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9023582

jameshk 12y ago
Ha.
AlwaysBCoding 12y ago
Better idea, make a script that can spin up Azure instances and mine Bitcoins on them. Then build a web app on top of it that will liquidate Azure credits to cash as a service. When someone dumps their credentials into your site you spin up $500,000 of computing power on Azure to mine Bitcoins from and then liquidate the Bitcoins you mine into cash and take like 15% off the top. I'm not sure what the conversion rate of Azure computing dollar to mined Bitcoin would be, but this would work to some extent with $500,000 wouldn't it? What YC company wouldn't want a Azure -> cash liquidation web app.
- taskstrike 12y ago
  Definitely a worse idea. The bitcoin you can mine with general instances is insanely low compared to market value because of customized bitcoin mining machines. I tried this from experience with AWS credit I got from a incubator.
- gojomo 12y ago
  "At Arbitrazure, we are of course open to any idea for converting free Azure credit to cold hard cash. But our research indicates that without special mining chips, Bitcoin mining is not competitive, and $500K of Azure per month (15,000 'A1' VMs) would take 8-16 years ($48-$96 million) to earn one Bitcoin ($225). That's why we remain committed to resale, rather than direct exploitation."

zaguios 12y ago

As a solo founder, is it worth the time to apply if I don't already have a finished product and significant traction? P.S. I know many people would suggest to find a cofounder, but that hasn't worked well for me. In my area there aren't many experienced programmers with an entrepreneurial spirit. The few people I have tried to start something with usually fall through due to not being able to keep up. I'd rather stop wasting my time with the hunt and start just building something by myself.

jameshk 12y ago
I'd think so. Most companies that apply have neither a finished product or traction, and the application might just help you clear things up in your head.
- zaguios 12y ago
  Filling out the application probably won't hurt, but I'm more curious if there is any chance of actually getting in. I'm not a stanford grad or an ex-googler so I would assume that combined with the fact that I'm solo founder would make my chances more or less 0. The only way I could see actually getting into YC at this point with my situation is to have an already successful company.
  - cyri 12y ago
    Same problem here ... at least my wife can act as CFO/HR ...
  - jameshk 12y ago
    Try it. You don't need to be an ex-googler or Stanford grad to be good at what you do. Be passionate, and convey your expertise and skills or lack of, in the application. Keep on working on your startup, although getting into YC would be helpful it does not come with instant success. If you want advice or someone to read over your application, I'd love to. My email is in my HN profile.
  - codingdave 12y ago

mpr3 12y ago

I wonder if pre-launch Slack would have got in to YC.

2arrs2ells 12y ago
I bet they would have. Impressive team with big ambitions.
- randall 12y ago
  Not to mention Grove / Convore was in a few years before Slack.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

peteretep 12y ago

An idea I would be interested in submitting requires rather a lot of explanation on what makes it sexy; let's call it 1,000 words. I realize it probably needs to be a little snappier than that, but the fundamental idea sounds a little tired and not particularly new without some explanation. There's an opportunity to split this out in the "Idea" section, but really several strands need to be tied together in a specific order. Will it look weird to stick 1,000 words in the "What is your company going to make?" field, rather than something short and pithy like "AirBNB for Bees"?

mkramlich 12y ago
or just go make that thing paying customers are the best, most direct validation. and if you keep the cash flow right you may never need investment. most good advice has already been distilled in free web pages and cheap books. build, sell, repeat, scale.
michaelbuckbee 12y ago
One potential way to make a snappy one liner (and you do need a snappy one liner) is to describe it in terms of who it helps instead of what exactly it does, even if it is just "A new approach to stopping the pain felt by the X Billion dollar a year industry of Y".
- peteretep 12y ago
  That's a really good idea, actually, and I can see how to apply that. Thanks.
revorad 12y ago
Forget YC for a moment and think about how you will describe it to your users. If you need 1,000 words to get each user, then it's probably not going to work. It sounds like you're building a new version of something that already exists, so maybe just say what's new about it in as few words as possible.

curiously 12y ago

So...here's my question to everyone applying: What is the single motivation or incentive for you to get in? Does YC offer something that you are unable to find or obtain on your own?

nrpalao 12y ago

Good luck!

arjunnarayan 12y ago

How do you guys deal with conflicts of interest? For instance, suppose hypothetically someone is building a startup who's goal is to eat the company who's CEO is in your list of YC partners... How's that going to work?

shin_lao 12y ago
Don't know about YC, but most funds don't invest in competing companies, and sometimes the strategy can even be broader: "don't invest twice in the same area". For example if you already have an investment in email application, you will opt-out from similar investments in the future.
haky_nash 12y ago
From the FAQ: Will you fund multiple startups working on the same idea? Yes. If you fund as many companies as we do it's unavoidable you'll end up with some overlap. Even if you tried not to accept competing companies, you'd still get overlap because startups' ideas morph so much. The way we deal with it is that when two startups are working on related stuff, we don't talk to one about what the other's doing. In practice it has not turned out to be a problem, because most big markets have room for several slightly different solutions, and it's unlikely that two startups would do precisely the same thing.
- aptwebapps 12y ago
  That's a start but the GP wasn't asking about competing entrants in the same batch but about a theoretical entrant that would compete with an established YC partner.
  - haky_nash 12y ago
    Umm I think that was a more general comment. And the reason that makes up the later part of the answer sounds very general and applies to the GP's question.
    - 12y ago

pskittle 12y ago

i'm constantly amazed by how quickly yc moves. thanks for working towards a better future and inspiring some along the way.

haky_nash 12y ago

Just asking. Does YC value the IITs(Indian Institute of Technology) as much as they value Harv, Stan, etc. Lots of other people do value it quite a lot. How does YC see them?

tonysuper 12y ago

Well. Now I'm completely terrified. I've been working on a project for about 8 months, with about 3 months on-going after a decision to re-write and reign in focus, with YC as a major end goal the entire time. Now that it's actually time to apply I'm extremely nervous—especially since I'm an 18-year-old kid who hasn't even finished high school yet (1 semester left) and I'm competing with people twice my age and with several hundred times more experience. We're quite close to a major beta release so that should help the process along. Is there anything somebody in my (and my co-founders) circumstances should seek to convey in order to increase our chances of getting accepted? I've read quite a few articles on the best application type, but none of them had a "What to do when you're completely unproven and also extremely young" section.

jameshk 12y ago
I'm in a similar position as you, still in high school. I've applied before and did not need to convey anything special to be taken seriously. Would love to talk sometime. Email is in my HN profile.
dlu 12y ago
I'm not twice as old as you, but I've been feeling old for a while now, so I'll give this a shot. I'm going to start by pretty much channeling Paul Graham. If you're close to a major beta release, make sure that happens on time and as smoothly as possible. Then, as Paul Graham says, know your users. Talk to them, email them, Skype them late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. That's where expertise matters the most and where you're on equal ground with everyone else. I don't know anything about your users yet either. Well, I might know a tiny bit by accident because I worked on something similar. So go learn more than me. To quote PG: "This class can teach you about startups, but that is not what you need to know. What you need to know to succeed in a startup is not expertise in startups, what you need is expertise in your own users. Mark Zuckerberg did not succeed at Facebook because he was an expert in startups, he succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups; I mean Facebook was first incorporated as a Florida LLC. Even you guys know better than that. He succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups because he understood his users very well." Beyond that, I would say expect there to be what feels like near-death business/startup experiences. If you run into trouble, great! That means you're doing something right. It isn't like school where if you prep enough, everything should be smooth sailing. You're not going to be able to ever prep enough and everything should feel chaotic. If it all goes really well, it is possible that you're super oblivious. It is ok if things aren't going that well. Treat all the lows like team bonding. If you're lucky this won't be the last or worst of it all and nothing kills a startup like a cofounder who is only in it for the good times.