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Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#211

Post by rpm33 »

r_singh wrote: post #193
sanjanamane wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it says I am in the advisor track but now since everyone is in the advisor track, I am expecting it to change?

Not everyone is in the advisor track. About 4000 out of the 15000 are in it—is what some of the comments are saying. The applicants that were initially erroneously accepted and then rejected are in something like an audit track, except they will have access to the forums and will stand a chance to compete for the $10k (I think). Hope that clears your doubt. Congrats! Are you a founder based in India? (just taking a w…

Founder from India, got accepted into the advisor track. Hit me up.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#212

Post by r_singh »

rpm33 wrote: post #211
r_singh wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone is in the advisor track. About 4000 out of the 15000 are in it—is what some of the comments are saying. The applicants that were initially erroneously accepted and then rejected are in something like an audit track, except they will have access to the forums and will stand a chance to compete for the $10k (I think). Hope that clears your doubt. Congrats! Are you a founder based in India? (just taking a w…

Founder from India, got accepted into the advisor track. Hit me up.

Your bio doesn't have any contact info. I've updated mine to include my email address.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#213

Post by sanjanamane »

r_singh wrote: post #193
sanjanamane wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it says I am in the advisor track but now since everyone is in the advisor track, I am expecting it to change?

Not everyone is in the advisor track. About 4000 out of the 15000 are in it—is what some of the comments are saying. The applicants that were initially erroneously accepted and then rejected are in something like an audit track, except they will have access to the forums and will stand a chance to compete for the $10k (I think). Hope that clears your doubt. Congrats! Are you a founder based in India? (just taking a w…

Yes, I am a founder from India also based in Mumbai. I will email you.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#215

Post by enqa »

r_singh wrote: post #163
throwmeoutoft11 wrote: post #157

Unpopular opinion here. The value of startupschool (as a previous graduate) is the individual attention we got from a hand selected instructor. I know yc screwed up with the emails, and their response was to please those that they have misled, accidentally of course. But I think they also devalued the class. It's gonna be much harder to offer the quality attention of the past. I think the right thing they should have…

I personally think that they've rectified this in a smart way by introducing 2 tracks: the advisor track and a normal one (this is just a guess since I received mail saying I've been accepted to the 'advisor track'). So YC is giving forum access to all the companies that applied but advisor access only to a subset of all the companies that applied. Is that correct?

I don't know. The fair way to handles this would have been to first honour the original deal. They have already put people through the application process and the were going to reject them if this hadn't happened. Instead of "accepting everyone" they should have rejected the ones original being rejected and then asked them forgiveness and confidence in this additional track. Now they have left a lot of people in the awkward position of doubt if they want to do it but without an easy way to say no.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#216

Post by allanmacgregor »

As someone that is now in the Team 2nd Chance, this has been a fun emotional rollercoaster.

Two great lessons can be taken from this experience, first for those that got accepted, then rejected then accepted; dealing with rejection is an essential part of a startup or any business, shit happens and is how to deal with it that makes or breaks companies.

Second, YC just thought a masterclass on how to handle mistakes and how to fail forward. A mistake turned into an opportunity for them and the 11,000 people that got rejected.

Looking forward to be learning side by side with y'all!

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#217

Post by wj »

The email mentions organizing groups by yourself. My initial thought is that a group of startups in the same industry would be the most beneficial but maybe the cross-pollination from a wide-range on industries in a group would yield different viewpoints and better results in the long run.

Any tips on organizing groups?

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#218

Post by kutanov »

r_singh wrote: post #163
throwmeoutoft11 wrote: post #157

Unpopular opinion here. The value of startupschool (as a previous graduate) is the individual attention we got from a hand selected instructor. I know yc screwed up with the emails, and their response was to please those that they have misled, accidentally of course. But I think they also devalued the class. It's gonna be much harder to offer the quality attention of the past. I think the right thing they should have…

I personally think that they've rectified this in a smart way by introducing 2 tracks: the advisor track and a normal one (this is just a guess since I received mail saying I've been accepted to the 'advisor track'). So YC is giving forum access to all the companies that applied but advisor access only to a subset of all the companies that applied. Is that correct?

Yeah, same here. Got the email about accepting our startup to the advisory track. My friend got the email about the normal track.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#219

Post by dustingetz »

threeisoneis wrote: post #209
jackconnor wrote: post #104

Man, credit where credit is due, this showed a lot of integrity. There was one good solution, it was just a painful one, yet they still did it. Well done YCombinator! P.S. They make the point that this is an experiment, and I think all of us who join should prove that it is a good one. Nobody rails against applications and qualifying scores like HN peeps (check the comments of any article, ever, about SAT/GMAT/GRE sc…

I disagree. They didn’t do anything except open up the grant application part to everyone (no cost to them) and promise everybody that they would get some credits (probably no cost to them). The course was always able to be audited. What this really does is make clear the desire of the people at ycombinator to open their pre screening program (which is what startup school is, essentially) to more startups. The value…

This – Every serious founder already audited last years startup school via the youtube and podcast. The content was amazing but I saw this as a way for us who don't live in the valley to network our way into YC. However, a YC branded forum exclusively for active founders seems valuable so lets see what happens.

Re: Startup School: Every Company That Applied Is Now Accepted

#220

Post by RoastBeats »

Am I the only cynic who wonders if the original “mistake” was fabricated?

It doesn’t really cost YC anything extra, they get lots of good press and praise, and ultimately they wind up with an even fatter pipeline of companies they can select from. Win, win, win situation as far as they’re concerned.

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