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YC Summer 2017 Invites/Rejections

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC Summer 2017 Invites/Rejections

#312

Post by apsec112 »

xyzqwerty wrote: post #304
apsec112 wrote: post #302

I was turned down after an interview last batch. I think I probably won't apply again. YC's standards now seem so high that, by the time I expect to meet them, there won't be much point in YC anymore. If I have 2,000 users, which is pretty tiny, that's $40K a month at $20 per person. If I get 50 signups a week, that's a 10% per month growth rate. If I have $40K in high-margin monthly revenue with a 10% per month grow…

Are those your actual numbers?

No, that's based off https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VCfpzLhSSxM/V0tbZAPvRTI/AAAAAAAAA... by venture capitalist Christoph Janz, plus a guesstimate (based on conversations with many YC applicants, both successful and not, and on the fundraising track records of YC cos) that the YC admission bar is about equal to the bar for a large seed round.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Invites/Rejections

#316

Post by bsvalley »

apsec112 wrote: post #302

I was turned down after an interview last batch. I think I probably won't apply again. YC's standards now seem so high that, by the time I expect to meet them, there won't be much point in YC anymore. If I have 2,000 users, which is pretty tiny, that's $40K a month at $20 per person. If I get 50 signups a week, that's a 10% per month growth rate. If I have $40K in high-margin monthly revenue with a 10% per month grow…

Yep. The thing though is that they can leverage their network to get the ball rolling for any companies they sign. That means it doesn't really matter if it's awesome or bad, as long as they decide to promote a company, people will buy it. Pretty much like apple products... so it's not rational anymore to go through YC. Do you think airbnb would have worked without YC? No. Would dropbox be dropbox today without YC? No. They are cool ideas because a large amount of people are using these products. And there were other alternatives prior to these companies. It's just that no one ever promoted them like yc did with their own companies. Otherwise they would be like any other products out there. There was an airbnb before airbnb I think it was an australian company. I came accross their website one day (pre-airbnb era) and was like WTF is that. So again, if a large amount of people buy, you'd most likely buy. YC has that marketing power. I think if you become a billion dollar company without going through YC, you'll become the next google or apple.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Invites/Rejections

#317

Post by Ashu_14 »

A rejected application the second time in a row. Had applied to YC W17 batch wherein got rejected after interview. I really doubt if I'm going to apply again in future. As someone marked in the previous comments, YC is now all about high standards and the companies they sign would anyways had done great without them as well. Since the last time we applied, we experienced quite a good growth in terms of revenues and customers. plus we introduced some unique engagement model which previously was not at place and was hypothetically roaming around in our minds. I thought YC support could help us gain networks over in different sectors with experts and that's where we have been seeking support since long. Even in the application we clearly mentioned our "ask" and what we expect from YC. I think they don't deal with hardware startups or even if they do, those startups are the ones who already might be enjoying millions of dollars of revenue.
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