Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 116 posts

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#21

Post by manibatra »

karimdag wrote: post #18
manibatra wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that is awesome. I will start then. Our idea in a line would be "Codecademy meets Finance". So we are trying to bring financial education to the masses in an interactive fun way. With hoards of apps available to invest and save now we think that financial education will go a long way in helping people out. We made a quick ( and dirty, frankly a little embarrassing prototype) at : www.thefinac.tk . Do check it…

I've tried it and here's what I want to say : - I like that it was developed with mobile-first design. - In my opinion when you develop a prototype always go for minimal design, use as less colors as possible (use the white space to your advantage) - I like the interactive part of it, because it forces me to be engaged (in contrast with dead articles where I might skip whole passages). - Beside the interactivity part…

Thank you for checking it out. We totally agree with you. I think we should have spent more time getting the right market fit.

We want to make Finance as cool as programming. I think you pointed out the chief advantage yourself, books sometimes do get boring ( we love books but not everybody has the time or the inclination) . By making this platform we can have access to a much larger user base and just add a little bit of fun to sometimes not too exciting (but very essential) concepts of finance.

We have also thought about adding financial advisors ( WAY into the future), partnering with schools to bring this to teenagers who are about to leave for universities and guiding the audience to tools ( partnering with other companies that provide such tools ) or providing them with same tools.

But in the starting we want to stay focussed on just making educational content.The paradigm is shifting to learning stuff online and we hope to take advantage of that.

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#22

Post by manibatra »

andy_ppp wrote: post #19
manibatra wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that is awesome. I will start then. Our idea in a line would be "Codecademy meets Finance". So we are trying to bring financial education to the masses in an interactive fun way. With hoards of apps available to invest and save now we think that financial education will go a long way in helping people out. We made a quick ( and dirty, frankly a little embarrassing prototype) at : www.thefinac.tk . Do check it…

Don't be too embarrassed! You actually did something and I quite like it - I've 100% seen (and probably built) a lot worse! Good luck!

Awesome!! Thanks for your valuable time!! You just motivated us to work a lot lot harder. Do let us know if you have any tips/criticism about the idea too !

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#23

Post by tejasn »

manibatra wrote: post #17
tejasn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great idea but the website needs some work. But it's fine considering that it is a prototype :)

Thank you for taking out the time to check it out. I agree the prototype is subpar but we are working on the second iteration that will surely be a lot better. Would love to ask you a couple of questions if that's ok : 1. Would you be interested in an approach to learn which includes text and videos ( like Udacity.com) or something which is mostly interactive ( like Codecademy.com / what we planned to convey via prot…

1. I guess for learning finance stuff I would prefer an interactive website with a lot of simple as well as real world examples.

2. Mutual funds and SIP. People hear a lot about them but never grasp the concept. I personally was introduced to these terms a month ago.

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#24

Post by cnnrjcbsn »

manibatra wrote: post #13
_t94r wrote: post #11

Hey! Since we're all waiting for the emails why don't we do something productive? Like maybe sharing our ideas so that we could give each other feedback?.. Oh and guys if I may give you an advice : "Plan for the worst and hope for the best!"

I think that is awesome. I will start then. Our idea in a line would be "Codecademy meets Finance". So we are trying to bring financial education to the masses in an interactive fun way. With hoards of apps available to invest and save now we think that financial education will go a long way in helping people out. We made a quick ( and dirty, frankly a little embarrassing prototype) at : www.thefinac.tk . Do check it…

Why not say your idea in a line is: "We are trying to bring financial education to the masses in an interactive fun way" instead of the "Uber for X" style idiom? Its easier to understand for the lay person that way too.

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#25

Post by manibatra »

cnnrjcbsn wrote: post #24
manibatra wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that is awesome. I will start then. Our idea in a line would be "Codecademy meets Finance". So we are trying to bring financial education to the masses in an interactive fun way. With hoards of apps available to invest and save now we think that financial education will go a long way in helping people out. We made a quick ( and dirty, frankly a little embarrassing prototype) at : www.thefinac.tk . Do check it…

Why not say your idea in a line is: "We are trying to bring financial education to the masses in an interactive fun way" instead of the "Uber for X" style idiom? Its easier to understand for the lay person that way too.

Hmm intersting point! The reason we did that was sometime back YC released a list of its graduating startups and each company was described as something like "Uber of dog walking" and that is the reason we stuck with it! Point noted though!

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#26

Post by karimdag »

manibatra wrote: post #21
karimdag wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried it and here's what I want to say : - I like that it was developed with mobile-first design. - In my opinion when you develop a prototype always go for minimal design, use as less colors as possible (use the white space to your advantage) - I like the interactive part of it, because it forces me to be engaged (in contrast with dead articles where I might skip whole passages). - Beside the interactivity part…

Thank you for checking it out. We totally agree with you. I think we should have spent more time getting the right market fit. We want to make Finance as cool as programming. I think you pointed out the chief advantage yourself, books sometimes do get boring ( we love books but not everybody has the time or the inclination) . By making this platform we can have access to a much larger user base and just add a little…

Got it. Now I have a harder question for you. I was just warming you up so prepare yourself mouhahahahaha (yeah.. That's my evil laugh) : How will you monetize it ? How will you fight the new trend: "Education should be free" ?

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#27

Post by tim333 »

_t94r wrote: post #11

Hey! Since we're all waiting for the emails why don't we do something productive? Like maybe sharing our ideas so that we could give each other feedback?.. Oh and guys if I may give you an advice : "Plan for the worst and hope for the best!"

My thing's a bit like airbnb but where you can buy the place if you like it. Fairly confident I'm not getting an interview this time round - no views on my vid. I don't fit the YC pattern very well.

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#28

Post by hellomaggiema1 »

tejasn wrote: post #23
manibatra wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for taking out the time to check it out. I agree the prototype is subpar but we are working on the second iteration that will surely be a lot better. Would love to ask you a couple of questions if that's ok : 1. Would you be interested in an approach to learn which includes text and videos ( like Udacity.com) or something which is mostly interactive ( like Codecademy.com / what we planned to convey via prot…

1. I guess for learning finance stuff I would prefer an interactive website with a lot of simple as well as real world examples. 2. Mutual funds and SIP. People hear a lot about them but never grasp the concept. I personally was introduced to these terms a month ago.

Hey I'm the other founder of Finac :) I love your suggestions!

We agree that incorporating real world examples would really make learning finance a lot more relatable and easier to understand.

Regarding the second point, we ourselves got heavily into Finance over a year ago and the on boarding process was very time consuming for someone who hasn't had a formal education in finance. We were really frustrated that despite financial education being so essential, a lot of it is very convoluted.

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#29

Post by manibatra »

tim333 wrote: post #27
_t94r wrote: post #11

Hey! Since we're all waiting for the emails why don't we do something productive? Like maybe sharing our ideas so that we could give each other feedback?.. Oh and guys if I may give you an advice : "Plan for the worst and hope for the best!"

My thing's a bit like airbnb but where you can buy the place if you like it. Fairly confident I'm not getting an interview this time round - no views on my vid. I don't fit the YC pattern very well.

Would love to know more about it. At the moment is sounds like a platform for selling real estate?

Re: At what time will be the YC S16 invites/rejection emails sent?

#30

Post by tim333 »

manibatra wrote: post #29
tim333 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thing's a bit like airbnb but where you can buy the place if you like it. Fairly confident I'm not getting an interview this time round - no views on my vid. I don't fit the YC pattern very well.

Would love to know more about it. At the moment is sounds like a platform for selling real estate?

Yeah basically - kind of rent with an option to buy. Still a bit at the early stage - not quite sorted the details.

If someone's interested in getting involved drop me an email 0707tim at gmail. I'm in London now and may be in LA/SF shortly. One of my problems applying to YC is I'm solo presently.

Post reply on HN