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Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#21

Post by vthallam »

mazumdar wrote: post #19

I applied to YC six times over the last 2.5 years with the same idea - https://yathletics.com . Got rejected every time but interviewed with them twice. The first time I applied was before I launched our first product and had $0 in revenue. The last time I applied, our yearly revenue was almost $1M, and we're still just getting started. The reason for rejection was same at both times - I didn't have a clear strategy…

Your journey sounds great and more power to you! I too kinda believe that you should build a great product first and figure out everything later, but this attitude wouldn't work if you are planning on to get funding, because that's the first question people ask :|

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#22

Post by josh_carterPDX »

I guess it would be good to understand what you consider "successful." If it's a company that was acquired or had a successful IPO, I would be really interested to see that list as well. I don't know that having been rejected and still being in business would classify as a success in my mind.

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#23

Post by mathattack »

thecolorblue wrote: post #16
mathattack wrote: post #5

Good founders use rejection for information and motivation. I'm pretty sure the list will be large.

This might not be the best place complain about this, but unless you get an interview with YC, its not a great way to get information or motivation.

Some people use any failure as a way to prove doubters wrong. If a weak football team loses, it breaks them. If a strong one loses, they find motivation to improve.

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#24

Post by [deleted] »

thecolorblue wrote: post #16
mathattack wrote: post #5

Good founders use rejection for information and motivation. I'm pretty sure the list will be large.

This might not be the best place complain about this, but unless you get an interview with YC, its not a great way to get information or motivation.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#25

Post by DenisM »

nl wrote: post #9

SendGrid and Buffer are the two biggest I have heard of. Surely there must be more? Otherwise either their success picking good companies is amazing or the program itself is a huge advantage?

I'm sure there is a lot of King-making going on. There are many talented engineers and getting funded without hassle is a huge boost that will increase chances of success considerably.

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#26

Post by siruva07 »

We also don't hear much about the people that YC rejects which is, in my humble opinion, equally if not more indicative. Because often times founders during YC's program change their idea (I think Ark.com was an example IIRC).

I was rejected by YC in Nov '12 on an idea. I actually applied as a result of the application extension granted due to Hurricane Sandy. A week after applying, I wish I applied with the idea of my current company, MakeSpace.com, which Mark Suster from Upfront Ventures funded less than a week after I received my rejection letter from YC.

I wouldn't change anything because I'm very happy where we are today. But there is hope if you get rejected from YC. What other founders (same or different idea) were rejected from YC but went on to start growing startups?

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#27

Post by aestetix »

plehoux wrote: post #6

We've been turned down twice with ConferenceBadge.com, once at the interview. It's now projected to make around $750 000/year. We were rejected for good reasons, it's definitely not a billion dollars business. More recently we've been rejected three times with Missive, ( https://missiveapp.com ), still not financially successful, but starting to receive a pretty good vibe from early users + big potential. I wrote abo…

"We may share generic aggregated demographic information not linked to any personal identification information regarding visitors and users with our business partners, trusted affiliates and advertisers for the purposes outlined above. We may use third party service providers to help us operate our business and the Site or administer activities on our behalf, such as sending out newsletters or surveys. We may share your information with these third parties for those limited purposes provided that you have given us your permission."

If I am an attendee at a conference that uses your software, is the conference required to notify me? If so, do I have any ability to opt out of this?

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#28

Post by EToS »

mazumdar wrote: post #19

I applied to YC six times over the last 2.5 years with the same idea - https://yathletics.com . Got rejected every time but interviewed with them twice. The first time I applied was before I launched our first product and had $0 in revenue. The last time I applied, our yearly revenue was almost $1M, and we're still just getting started. The reason for rejection was same at both times - I didn't have a clear strategy…

A lot of companies with up to $30m potential are unlikely to get funding from what i've seen. Its not that their not worthy or bad ideas, its just VC's are gonna looking for a pie big enough to take their slice from, and to do that your ultimately looking out for the next company which will significantly shift the needle within a particular area.

Re: Ask HN: What are some examples of successful companies rejected by YC?

#29

Post by jamiesonbecker »

We didn't even make it to an YCF interview for https://Userify.com (cloud and on-site user/sudo/SSH key management), but we're now profitable with about 800 companies on six continents. (SSH is used on nearly every Linux server in the world for remote management, so it's a pretty huge market; our tool really comes into its own in a more complex cloud environment, since until you get to a certain size you can get along fairly well with just automating user accounts w/ chef or puppet or by hand.)

We're just getting warmed up. We're increasing investment in our agent (for example, we're developing a Windows Powershell version for when Microsoft releases SSH for Windows later this year, so we'll be cross platform.) We're also announcing our first six enterprise customers as soon as we get approval from their legal departments. Some of our new innovations we're still in the process of filing patents on, so can't discuss, but they're awesome :)

We've decided to not take any seed money at all and just self-fund. We've reached 'ramen profitability', as YC recommends, and now we control our own destiny (although we might pursue a growth round later.)

We were rejected in the very first stage (via email) with no reason given. Even if you get rejected: if you believe in your idea, keep going! Success is driven more by determination and persistence than anything else. Something the size of YC is driven by numbers and just one small issue can tip the balance away from you, so by definition they have to pass on a lot of good ideas. Just go for it.

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