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If you've applied early, will the (updated) application be checked again after the deadline, or are the chances that it's been looked at already and already evaluated?
We only read applications that have been fully submitted.
What's the best stage of startup for applying to YC - when you have a product in mind and still chalking out the plan, working on Product Market Fit (not building it yet)? when you have a working prototype? when you already have some traction? any of above?
At what stage would a company like Dropbox (or any other successful YC graduate) benefit the most from going through the YC program?
(And I realize this varies depending on the industry or the founders' backgrounds)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Similar to talking VC, there is no guarantee. But unless you have a truley secret sauce going on, ideas by themselves rarely matter. People have a tendency to overestimate ideas. They are remarkable easy to come up with. I have been in brainstorming session, where we would come up with at least 10-12 really good ideas within an hour. Usually it is execution that matters at the end, as you don't know what it works or…
I agree with the premise that ideas themselves are worthless. But what's questionable is whether YC acts in favour of the new applicants that share their insights honestly, or whether they are more prone to protect their investment in the already funded startup (by providing them with details/intel).
Which I am doing now haha. although i think it does change the link to an unregistered video so you may have to edit your application.
For the question "What will your company make?" do you recommend that startups focus on explaining what they've already built, or on what they will build out in the future? Thanks!
This may not be something you can answer, but I'm curious as to the scoring methodology and how teams get invited to interviews (or not) behind the scenes. Is there a rating system? A binary yes/no that needs to be seconded by enough reviewers?
The ones with enough passing votes then get reviewed by partners. We then vote on every application between 2-5 times, and stack rank the results. We invite the top ~450 to interviews.
Hi Aaron, I'm about to submit our application for cosum, a mobile marketplace that lets people use coworking spaces worldwide on demand per hour instead of months. So basically we're changing the unit from a month to an hour (AWS > Server > Minute) so people pay their actual usage. We lower the price for consumers, increase their flexibility and increase the revenue of spaces by using their resources smarter. I intro…
Hi again Aaron, can you tell us the proportion of YC-funded company that had at least 1 referral from other founders / yc partners? If you cannot state a number can you at least qualitatively tell us whether having a referral is a huge boost or a slight advantage?