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Tell HN: YC Summer 2015 rejections (and presumably invitations) have been sent
A couple things to remember if you're in the rejected camp like us:
1. YC is just a means to an end. It's cliche but getting rejected to YC should not deter your startups path. If it does, it's a bad sign.
2. My team and I were excited about the opportunity as usual but we made sure we kept our expectations realistic and didn't get our hopes up. There are too many ups and downs in a startup to let this have a big impact on you. We didn't get in last time either, but I'm thankful because we wouldn't have been ready and it would've been a wasted opportunity.
Focus on growth and executing toward your goal above all else, that's the tl;dr of the YC experience anyway. Keep fighting the good fight. If anyone wants to chat or needs encouragement, you can email me at josh@dirtjockey.com.
Edit: For those curious, we are doing a CRM and inventory management tool for heavy equipment dealers. You can check out our website here, http://dirtjockey.com and demo here: http://demo.dirtjockey.com. We just launched with a small group of customers and are almost cash flow positive already.
- humanarity 12y agoThanks for sharing this. Well done for making an application, and you attitude toward creating your business sounds like it works.
- hamhamed 12y agoRejected with http://www.stay22.com/ http://www.stay22.com/ (hotels and rentals for events) Though we've only been working on it for 2 weeks
- golubevpavel 12y agoRejected with http://www.appodeal.com/ http://www.appodeal.com/ (squeeze more revenues from mobile ad networks) Have been working on it for almost a year now and really close to break even. Probably, because I am the only founder.
- ashbrahma 12y agoInteresting project. Could we chat? My email is on my profile page.
- golubevpavel 12y agoThank you. Just sent you an e-mail. Would love to chat.
- therealwill 12y agoAwesome site! Really really well done.
- golubevpavel 12y agoApparently, not well enough, haha. Anyway, it might be a good thing after all.
- joshmlewis 12y agoOne of the last things YC cares about is your landing page. Yours is pretty good, don't sweat it. Edit: To clarify, a good landing page is important but the other things like team, demo, video, and well written answers are more important IMO.
- golubevpavel 12y agoWell, it took like 3 months to make it look like this. First version was much worse. Luckily we had enough time to polish it up before public launch.
- zdarwazeh92 12y agoHey i really like what your working on, lets chat.
- golubevpavel 12y agoThank you, really glad to hear that. Inboxed.
- csense 12y agoIf you're "close to break even" that implies you're getting revenue somewhere. But your site says your product is free. So where is the money coming from?
- golubevpavel 12y agoWe don't charge publishers. Appodeal makes money by selling to direct advertisers in bulk at a higher rate. Basically we charge advertisers, rather than publishers.
- yc_smith 12y agoThis is very similar to the mediation tool Heyzap (YC W09) https://www.heyzap.com https://www.heyzap.com has.
- golubevpavel 12y agoTrue. Hard to object. Just to double check, are you from YC?
- golubevpavel 12y agoHere's my video that I submitted to YC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdR_2AODciE&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdR_2AODciE&feature=youtu.be Might be useful for someone in the future.
- braindead_in 12y agorejected with https://scribie.com https://scribie.com - Mturk for audio/video transcription. Have been working on it for 5 years now, 3 of which were a side project.
- neoveller 12y agoDo late applications get late rejection email?
- joshmlewis 12y agoI'm fairly certain they all get sent together. It would give late applications an advantage if they spent more time reviewing them.
- neoveller 12y agoNothing here so far. Wonder if YC forgetting/glitching about me is worse than a rejection email or not?
- calbear81 12y agoI didn't get an email but my co-founder who submitted the application did.
- humanarity 12y agoI think only the application (not all the listed co-founders) gets the mail. :)
- hyujgffthh 12y agoSame in here. Submitted a late application btw
- hyujgffthh 12y agoStill nothing... What about you ?
- efbaum 12y agoSame here.
- 12y ago
- acallwood 12y agoRejected folks: when you go to https://apply.ycombinator.com/ https://apply.ycombinator.com/ does it say anything?
- golubevpavel 12y agoNo, nothing.
- acallwood 12y agoJust the standard: You created a startup application. You submitted your application. with no additional information (just to clarify) or nothing at all? ?
- golubevpavel 12y agoStandard. Nothing changed.
- acallwood 12y agoThanks!
- techwizrd 12y agoRejected with https://brotherportal.org/ https://brotherportal.org/ - a fraternity/sorority/collegiate organization management software and social network
- suchow 12y agoIt wasn't until I saw the faux comments in the screenshot on the about page that I realized this was software for organizing college frats. Between the image of a cloud and the word "Brother", I thought it might be software for organizing groups of men committed to Christ. How about "We handle the logistics of organizing your fraternity and connecting its members."
- cryptoz 12y agoI got the rejection email for PressureNet. http://pressurenet.io http://pressurenet.io 5th attempt. No problem, we'll keep going.
- HorizonXP 12y agoI've always loved your project. When I'm back in Toronto, we'll catch up if you're still at MaRS.
- happyartist22 12y agoAwesome platform! I'm impressed:) I didn't see how you get sensor information from phones. I worked on a messaging system for an aviation weather observation system for a North American government agency that was written in Java, and the sensors we used were not the kind you find in phones. Have you looked for investment anywhere else?
- Backlash85 12y agoThe worlds first Social Operating System rejected.. We know not everyone will understand it, frankly we don't care about rejection (not different then the hot blonde bombshell telling you no at the dance ;). Break it down add the fuel to the fire, burn the whole forest down! Power to the believers who will still keep grinding because of their visions to change the world! www.notospy.com
- thomasfoster96 12y agoJust wondering, is this an operating system or a social network? Your landing page calls it an OS and then describes it as a social network - I haven't got a clue if I can use it as an operating system.
- forthwall 12y agoRejected with http://datastack.co/ http://datastack.co/ - a analytics and visualization tool that can be integrated with any REST api.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- humanarity 12y agoMy mail and response: Your Y Combinator Application Y Combinator to me 1 hour ago Thank you for applying to Y Combinator; however, your startup was not selected to interview for the upcoming Y Combinator batch. We carefully reviewed thousands of applications and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot of promising groups. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the interview threshold ends up getting accepted to YC. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold. Unfortunately we can't give you individual feedback about your application. This page explains why: http://ycombinator.com/whynot/ http://ycombinator.com/whynot/ We sincerely hope and encourage you to reapply for the next batch. Applying multiple times in no way counts against you and a surprisingly large number of companies are funded after applying more than once. We're trying to get better at this, but it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes. -- YC Cris S to Y 3 minutes ago Thanks for the consideration. It's a shame we are not working together at this time. Maybe in another format in the future. If you feel like investing again later, I encourage you to reach out. I wouldn't worry too much about the ones you missed, there's so much talent you've already curated that their potential works and advice buffer whatever inefficiencies exist in the process, whether from gaps in your assessments or from founder applications, and at an increasing rate each year. You're in the business of investing in the future. I'd say you're doing pretty well so far!
- thomasfoster96 12y agoRejected, although to be fair my startup was about 6 weeks behind where it needed to be to be in YC S15.
- kjcharles 12y agoHey for those who got an email did they send it to each co-founder's email address or just the one listed on your account?
- mkagenius 12y agoOnly to the applicant not each co-founder.
- kjcharles 12y agodamn...still no response and just noticed our email server was having issues...
- shantasukhoo 12y agoDid you mean the email of the person who applied or the email listed on the application?
- abpai 12y agoGuess we'll be building Levered Returns (leveredreturns.com) into a billion dollar business without YC. I really think the application process was exactly what we needed to vet out the idea. It's like getting some great advice and keeping the 7%! More excited than ever!
- happyartist22 12y agoI liked your site, but I wasn't certain what you offer that other money sites don't. I'm sure you have some market changing technology, but I didn't know what it was. Can you clarify?
- ghobs91 12y agoRejected with https://www.denarri.com/ https://www.denarri.com/ - The shopping app that helps users get the best price on the products they love in 3 clicks by learning their shopping habits. 3rd rejection so far. Probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm a solo founder. Oh well, gotta keep pushing through and making the best user experience possible. Best of luck to everyone, we go this!
- zdarwazeh92 12y agoHey, lets chat, send me an email.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- m0dE 12y agoGot rejected 3rd time for http://www.innGrid.net http://www.innGrid.net despite the real revenue & growth. Perhaps it's beacuse I'm a sole founder. Anyways, I am going to continue this journey with YC on board or not. Here's the vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6OGHW9rrLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6OGHW9rrLY
- happyartist22 12y agoYou have a good site, and it looks like a good product from first impression, however, the demo was a bit confusing to me. The easy to use UI, looked complicated with all the colors, and charts, and sections. I assume this is something that could be fixed with additional time. Just wanted to share feedback. Thanks for sharing! It looks like a product you can make money selling.
- margad 12y agoWe applied with http://ymoment.com http://ymoment.com for the first time this year. Unfortunately we got rejected but this doesn't mean the end for us we already have a decided what to do next.And btw what we are trying to do is to make a change in video consumption experience by letting users make micro videos out of youtube videos.
- dejv 12y agoSecond rejection here: solo founder from weird country in the middle of Europe, HW startup in agtech (actually just small niche of wine analysis) is probably not great fit for YC. It is great thing to just fill the application to summarise what I learned about the business in past six months.
- tarkanvp 12y agoI got the rejection email for Vidpanel.com First try first rejection gonna start trying harder :)
- happyartist22 12y agoYour rejections are proof positive to me that Y!Combinator has to many good startups applying for their program. Cheer up, and celebrate your hard work. God has a special plan for you. In the morning its back to work:) You may not be partnering with Y!Combinator, but you are walking away with a 7% stake in your company that gives you 100% control over your own destiny, and potentially millions, or even billions of dollars in wealth you would of given away had you been selected. Who am I kidding, we all wanted the support of Y!Combinator. The good people of Y!Combinator are some of the of the best in Silicon Valley. I personally would love to have a board that could show my team the ropes. Lets face it. Hackers are pros at learning the ropes through trial and error. Persistence will get us through. I fantasized about a little more rest than my current environment of working a full time job that pays the bills, and another full time job developing new technology that doesn't yet pay any bills. Having to focus on multiple things at once, instead of focusing on one with pinpoint accuracy is painful. You do what you gotta do, and you will get there. Our company has built a foundation for Strong AI, and an autonomous robotic framework that connects Robotics to third party AI. Google has spent over a billion dollars the last couple years buying companies in these two areas, and we are going to beat them connecting AI to Robotics by months, and we have been developing our technology for 3 years. AI, and Robotics were Y!Combinator's top 2 desired business categories, and we didn't even get an interview. In summary don't stop, but do look for alternative options to getting to your next milestone in regards to funding. Most of the sites I've looked at in rejected Y!Combinator posts, I would of been interested in if I were an investor. I think each of you is onto something (Except the dude who submitted a swinger ad. He did get a good chuckle out of me though:).
- johannesrott 12y agoDid everybody of you guys got an email from YC already? We did not get one yet, still waiting...
- happyartist22 12y agoCheck your spam folder.
- wdmytriy 12y agoGot a rejection for our project http://preply.com/en/ http://preply.com/en/ We reached break-even point, have impressive revenue stream, excellent cofounders. Probably, our current focus on local(Eastern-European) market which generates revenue for us was the main problem. Will keep going!
- decadent 12y agoHey, guys! We still don't have any answer. Is that suppose to mean refuse? We are barbudo.net and we are developing easy-to-use SaaS platform for making web sites more secured, we focus on startups and SMBs.