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Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

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Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#21

Post by the_economist »

w1ntermute wrote: post #4

> Misconception: I need to raise a seed round before I apply to YC. > S16: False. 14.2% of accepted companies weren’t even incorporated when they applied. This didn't actually address the misconception - it sidestepped it. I would love to see data on what percent of YC companies raised a seed round prior to being accepted (or had a cofounder who had raised a round for a prior company), and how that's changed over tim…

In BuildZoom's batch (W13), only ~3 out of 50 companies had raised seed funding before YC.

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#22

Post by craigcannon »

cperciva wrote: post #14

Without knowing how many applications meet each criterion, advertising how many YC companies meet those criteria is more misleading than helpful. If 95% of applications are from pre-revenue companies, then the 50/50 split between acceptees which are with/without revenue would indicate that companies with revenue are 19x more likely to be accepted; if half of applications are solo-founder, the fact that only 8.5% of a…

Thanks for the feedback. With this post I was hoping to clarify misconceptions that might be used as reasons not to apply. I tried to avoid doing an analysis that could be interpreted as a playbook for getting into YC because it would result in the same issue: "If I'm not like X I shouldn't do YC."

Anyway, thanks for the feedback and it's cool to know there's interest around YC data.

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#23

Post by Houshalter »

cperciva wrote: post #14

Without knowing how many applications meet each criterion, advertising how many YC companies meet those criteria is more misleading than helpful. If 95% of applications are from pre-revenue companies, then the 50/50 split between acceptees which are with/without revenue would indicate that companies with revenue are 19x more likely to be accepted; if half of applications are solo-founder, the fact that only 8.5% of a…

Exactly. This is basically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_rate_fallacy I think. They are confusing P(accepted | criteria) with P(criteria | accepted).

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#24

Post by source99 »

KanyeBest wrote: post #11

> S16: 54.7% did not have a recommendation. This begs the question: How much weight does a recommendation carry? Or put in another way: Should you network with YC alumni in case you ever want to apply?

How does alumni make a recommendation? If I know a few and reach out, what would I ask them to do?

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#25

Post by the_watcher »

cperciva wrote: post #14

Without knowing how many applications meet each criterion, advertising how many YC companies meet those criteria is more misleading than helpful. If 95% of applications are from pre-revenue companies, then the 50/50 split between acceptees which are with/without revenue would indicate that companies with revenue are 19x more likely to be accepted; if half of applications are solo-founder, the fact that only 8.5% of a…

There's no evidence they're being actively deceptive.

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#26

Post by craigcannon »

yurisagalov wrote: post #20
wasd wrote: post #19

I found these statistics to be very helpful. I'll be honest, I have my own misconceptions about YC and it's put me at an impasse of wanting to apply. 1.) From what you read, it seems like everyone has a positive experience. At least in my network, that doesn't seem to be true. I'm not applying the logic that it sucked for X, therefore it must suck for everyone. I just want to know who YC works best for and who it doe…

> 2.) Following up on that point, I thought very few enterprise startups did YC and that YC would be weak in that category. From the stats, it seems like a majority of startups were enterprise focused! But, the standard YC terms kinda suck for enterprise startups. If your ACV is +$100k, why raise $120k for 7%? I believe the "enterprise" number in the article includes B2B startups, not just enterprise. That being said…

Yuri is right. The enterprise number contains B2B. I'll update the post.

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#27

Post by dsacco »

craigcannon wrote: post #9
w1ntermute wrote: post #4

> Misconception: I need to raise a seed round before I apply to YC. > S16: False. 14.2% of accepted companies weren’t even incorporated when they applied. This didn't actually address the misconception - it sidestepped it. I would love to see data on what percent of YC companies raised a seed round prior to being accepted (or had a cofounder who had raised a round for a prior company), and how that's changed over tim…

Sure. I'll update this post/thread once I pull together more seed info.

While you're at it, could you update with:

1. the respective percentages of companies that applied with and without prior seed funding, and

2. the respective percentages that were accepted from applicants with seed funding and applicants without seed funding.

As has been noted elsewhere in this thread, I think applicant vs. incumbent numbers would be a more honest reflection of the data if you want to dispel these myths.

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#28

Post by dsacco »

the_watcher wrote: post #25
cperciva wrote: post #14

Without knowing how many applications meet each criterion, advertising how many YC companies meet those criteria is more misleading than helpful. If 95% of applications are from pre-revenue companies, then the 50/50 split between acceptees which are with/without revenue would indicate that companies with revenue are 19x more likely to be accepted; if half of applications are solo-founder, the fact that only 8.5% of a…

There's no evidence they're being actively deceptive.

Perhaps passively so? Colin has a point that it is hard to interpret this data honestly without an idea of what pre-acceptance (applicant) numbers look like.

If the goal is to dispel myths about what's required to get into YC, then this is not the data to accomplish that. However, if the goal is to show that exceptional applicants that do not fit the myths can be accepted, then sure, this data shows that.

Re: Common Misconceptions About Applying to YC

#30

Post by dsacco »

KanyeBest wrote: post #11

> S16: 54.7% did not have a recommendation. This begs the question: How much weight does a recommendation carry? Or put in another way: Should you network with YC alumni in case you ever want to apply?

>>Or put in another way: Should you network with YC alumni in case you ever want to apply?

Absolutely, yes. It doesn't mean that you will certainly get in, but having a professional relationship with one or more influential YC alumni will be very helpful.

Like almost anywhere else in life, networking is an essential business skill to have and use.

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