We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected • Hacker News Board

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#61

Post by dalton » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:31 PM UTC

prickledpear wrote: post #7

It's great that YC provides feedback on why they don't accept (some) companies. However, it's a bit disappointing to see that not having MRR is a reason to reject a company. It seems like a lot of the successful YC companies were accepted way before they were anywhere to close to revenue -- and some were even working on a completely different product when accepted. My hope is that MRR is sufficient, but not necessary…

From the feedback from YC, lack of MRR isn’t the takeaway, and I think both OP and a lot of people on this thread aren’t getting that.

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#62

Post by rufugee » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:33 PM UTC

plehoux wrote: post #8

missiveapp.com and conferenceBadge.com, my two startups, have both been rejected at the interview phase. Our yearly revenue for both now stands in the 7 digits. We are still just a team of 3 + 1 employee, 100% bootstrapped. Life is good. My advice, keep pushing! https://missiveapp.com/ https://www.conferencebadge.com

conferencebadge.com is very interesting to me, as are all niche businesses that can generate 7 digits.

Would you care to share how you identified the opportunity and estimated potential revenue?

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#63

Post by omginternets » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:35 PM UTC

short_sells_poo wrote: post #24

prickledpear wrote: post #7

It's great that YC provides feedback on why they don't accept (some) companies. However, it's a bit disappointing to see that not having MRR is a reason to reject a company. It seems like a lot of the successful YC companies were accepted way before they were anywhere to close to revenue -- and some were even working on a completely different product when accepted. My hope is that MRR is sufficient, but not necessary…

Maybe I just don't get the Silicon Valley culture, or perhaps I'm missing something fundamental, but let me just get this straight: 1. Startup has no revenue whatsoever, but ostensibly have good product. They go pitch to investors and get rejected, likely because they have no revenue. 2. They hack around for 1 (!) weekend and get their MRR to $500. Five hundred bucks. They now go back to investors and say: hey look,…

>In what world would those $500 be expected to make a difference? How is that a proof of anything? I expect even really inept startups can somehow pull together $500 revenue from friends and family.

In practice, this is actually much harder than you'd expect. Also, competent VCs will probe to understand who made the purchase, and whether they're likely to do it again.

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#64

Post by rpastuszak » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:36 PM UTC

plehoux wrote: post #8

missiveapp.com and conferenceBadge.com, my two startups, have both been rejected at the interview phase. Our yearly revenue for both now stands in the 7 digits. We are still just a team of 3 + 1 employee, 100% bootstrapped. Life is good. My advice, keep pushing! https://missiveapp.com/ https://www.conferencebadge.com

The "Why use Conference Badge" section on conferencebadge.com is fantastic.

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#65

Post by natch » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:37 PM UTC

Sort of an aside but it’s really impressive to see the level of care the YC team puts into the feedback provided in the email. It would be easy to just have a generic rejection. Considering the number of teams they are interviewing, it’s even more impressive. Kudos.

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#66

Post by djsumdog » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

sithlord wrote: post #35

cdubzzz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apropos of nothing, this little marketing page is pretty great -- https://www.conferencebadge.com/why-use-conference-badge

so, it took anna 10 hours, and lets assume anna gets paid 25 dollars an hour, so a cost of 250 dollars. Shelley, used the conference badge, and at 1.79 for the fully shipped version of the badge, it will cost 582 dollars. So, essentially, Shelley paid 332 dollars for QR codes and convenience. Is it worth it? probably. but maybe not.

I think this depends on one-off vs long term. If this group is going to be doing 2~3 conferences a year, learning how to print labels yourself or is valuable skill. You might even have a designer on your team that could work with a local print shop (allowing a personal relationship and even last minute badges so you're not handwriting last minute speakers).

There's a one time cost of learning all that stuff, and then each year you just reuse those same templates and skills with a new logo/graphics from your design guy.

If this is something your team/volunteer group/etc. rarely does, then it's probably worth just paying conference badges. It's a trade-off.

If it's a non-profit thing, consider open souring the process and CC licensing the designs to help others doing the same thing.

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#67

Post by wenbin » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:39 PM UTC

Thanks for sharing your YC story!

Some personal experience: I applied to YC for 8 times over the past few years. Got one onsite interview (late 2017). Got rejected. I documented that onsite interview experience here: https://broadcast.listennotes.com/my-y-combinator-interview-...

Probably YC is not a good fit for everyone. I stopped applying to YC since then. My small startup is doing well now, so I'm happy :)

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#68

Post by wongarsu » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:40 PM UTC

autotune wrote: post #33

davefp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI visiting https://conferencebadge.com doesn't work, only the insecure or www does.

Little Terraform and ACME/LetsEncrypt provider with a build pipeline or basic cron job and this is an easy permanent fix.

> Little Terraform and ACME/LetsEncrypt provider with a build pipeline [...] and this is an easy permanent fix

That's the easy version. The overkill version uses Kafka, BigQuery and AWS SNS. (/s)

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#69

Post by djsumdog » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:40 PM UTC

Hmm. Some rapid development. I wonder if they wrote test cases for the subscription functionality. When they had that test-payment gateway go to production, did they add safeguards to prevent that from happening again?

I mean, it seems like an impressive story, but when I read it, all I see is potential technical debt.

I don't think I'd like to be back in startup culture. I really like solid testing, and I hate moving so fast that we don't create that safety net.

Re: We tried to hustle our way into YC after we got rejected

#70

Post by slap_shot » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 4:44 PM UTC

djsumdog wrote: post #69

Hmm. Some rapid development. I wonder if they wrote test cases for the subscription functionality. When they had that test-payment gateway go to production, did they add safeguards to prevent that from happening again? I mean, it seems like an impressive story, but when I read it, all I see is potential technical debt. I don't think I'd like to be back in startup culture. I really like solid testing, and I hate movin…

You can't assume they didn't. More importantly, I work very closely with subscription providers can tell you that many of them fail to create these basic safety nets with large teams, slow release schedules, and lots of funding.

But yes, startups may not be for you.