Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#31

Post by mkagenius » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 6:40 PM UTC

helloanand wrote: post #28

mkagenius wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1500+ customers How many of them are paying?

we don't disclose that publicly, but here a link to our pricing page - https://clevertap.com/pricing/

In general what ratio of free/paying customers should be considered good?

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#32

Post by nostrademons » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 6:42 PM UTC

mkagenius wrote: post #27

kordless wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We didn’t get into YC: Sam Altman told us they did not think we could ever inspire Bitcoin developers to build on top of us. Don't ever let anyone tell you what you can and can't do. Which is to say, make your own way in this world.

What's the use of mentoring then?

To provide another perspective to integrate into your decisions.

Listening to people doesn't mean doing what they say.

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#33

Post by mkagenius » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 6:44 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #32

mkagenius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the use of mentoring then?

To provide another perspective to integrate into your decisions. Listening to people doesn't mean doing what they say.

Sure, then what's wrong in Sam warning them about something?

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#34

Post by Animats » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 6:46 PM UTC

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #7

mkagenius wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Success is a journey that starts with a "?" (question mark) and end with "." (fullstop)

Can you give some examples of successful startups, funded by YC or not, that ended with a "." ?

Ann Taylor.

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#35

Post by helloanand » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 6:47 PM UTC

mkagenius wrote: post #31

helloanand wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we don't disclose that publicly, but here a link to our pricing page - https://clevertap.com/pricing/

In general what ratio of free/paying customers should be considered good?

Typically for a Saas offering, there's always a free trial, an entry level low-price point plan, or a forever free plan - so the percentage of paying customers could be any where from 10% to 25%. The hope/try is to get the free customers convert to the paid tier as they derive more value from the product over time.

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#36

Post by nostrademons » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 6:53 PM UTC

mkagenius wrote: post #33

nostrademons wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To provide another perspective to integrate into your decisions. Listening to people doesn't mean doing what they say.

Sure, then what's wrong in Sam warning them about something?

Nothing wrong with him warning them, but then there's also nothing wrong with them disregarding his warning. It sounds like they did pretty well regardless.

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#37

Post by k-mcgrady » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 7:10 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #20

rajacombinator wrote: post #13

PG offered a good proxy for this a while back. He said if you look at the top companies from other accelerators, most of them probably applied to YC also.

I wonder if investors consider it a negative to be a top company in another accelerator then. "Did you apply to and get rejected by YC?" must be a common question many investors now ask of companies that aren't YC alumni.

>> ""Did you apply to and get rejected by YC?" must be a common question many investors now ask of companies that aren't YC alumni."

Is this a guess or do you have anything to back it up? It seems really strange to me. An investor shouldn't be judging you based on the judgement of another investor.

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#38

Post by AnkhMorporkian » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 7:16 PM UTC

mkagenius wrote: post #5

quadrature wrote: post #4

How do you define successful ?.

Success is a journey that starts with a "?" (question mark) and end with "." (fullstop)

Can I get into ycombinator?

No.

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#39

Post by edoceo » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 7:16 PM UTC

mkagenius wrote: post #23

helloanand wrote: post #21

CleverTap - integrates app analytics and marketing. We were known as WizRocket back then. We now have 1500+ customers, and raised $9.6 M from Accel and Sequoia.

> 1500+ customers How many of them are paying?

Should be 100%. If not then there is fundamental confusion of what is a User vs Customer

Re: Ask HN: Which successful startups were rejected by YC?

#40

Post by w1ntermute » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 7:18 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #37

w1ntermute wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if investors consider it a negative to be a top company in another accelerator then. "Did you apply to and get rejected by YC?" must be a common question many investors now ask of companies that aren't YC alumni.

>> ""Did you apply to and get rejected by YC?" must be a common question many investors now ask of companies that aren't YC alumni." Is this a guess or do you have anything to back it up? It seems really strange to me. An investor shouldn't be judging you based on the judgement of another investor.

It's just a guess, which is why I said "must." But it doesn't seem strange to me at all - investors tend to move in herds. They tend to be much more interested in companies that other investors are also interested in. That's why communicating that there's great interest from other investors is key to raising money - it creates FOMO in the investors.