Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

veed.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 169 posts

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

#101

Post by dalton »

baxtr wrote: post #99
dalton wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Dom, we worked together directly when you were in YC, and I deeply disagree with your assessment that having progress helps a startup succeed in YC. The worst case scenario is a newly accepted YC startup with a little bit of traction... just enough traction that they aren't willing to change ideas/markets and not enough traction for them to actually know they have product market fit. It's the uncanny valley of pr…

Thanks for sharing! Great insight. May I ask which speed exactly you are referring to?

imagine we are talking about CPU clock rate - the rate at which founders are able to make progress - which means everything from how many customers they can talk to in a day, how fast they learn from running a test, how fast they can build a prototype, how quickly they internalize feedback from customers, etc.

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

#103

Post by baxtr »

dalton wrote: post #101
baxtr wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing! Great insight. May I ask which speed exactly you are referring to?

imagine we are talking about CPU clock rate - the rate at which founders are able to make progress - which means everything from how many customers they can talk to in a day, how fast they learn from running a test, how fast they can build a prototype, how quickly they internalize feedback from customers, etc.

Ok, got it thanks! And, from your experience: what are biggest underlying drivers for speed? Founders’ chemistry? Founders’ willingness to work long hours? Market they’re operating in (some markets are faster than others I suppose)?

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

#104

Post by roymurdock »

slap_shot wrote: post #92

> In March, we submitted our application, and kinda forgot about it. > Two months later we got an email saying that a partner would like to speak to us. This is a tangent, but I want to share something about my YC interview experience for anybody ever in this position. I filled out my application in February for the NYC interviews. They passed on me for the early NYC interviews, but ~2 months later I got an email for…

Why didn't the partners immediately ask you to clarify the discrepancy between the numbers you stated on your app and the numbers you were telling them? Is there not enough time to have a bit of a back and forth?

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

#105

Post by [deleted] »

StavrosK wrote: post #81
joshyeager wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a suggestion: add support for dual-clip lanyards[1]. I've always found the single-clip lanyards annoying: they flop around and get twisted. I went to a conference this spring that had lanyards that clipped to both top corners of the badge, and it was significantly less annoying. [1] For example: https://www.marcopromos.com/product/3-4-cotton-no-flip-lanya...

In the last few conferences with single-clip lanyards, I started noticing the badges' orientation. I would expect them to be roughly 50% front, 50% back, but significantly more badges were oriented so that the back was showing, which surprised me. I guess it's the same kind of magic that makes the USB port always be the wrong orientation, then you flip it and it's wrong again, and it's only right after you flip it tw…

[deleted]

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

#106

Post by SilasX »

slap_shot wrote: post #92

> In March, we submitted our application, and kinda forgot about it. > Two months later we got an email saying that a partner would like to speak to us. This is a tangent, but I want to share something about my YC interview experience for anybody ever in this position. I filled out my application in February for the NYC interviews. They passed on me for the early NYC interviews, but ~2 months later I got an email for…

That seems like it was a failure of the interviewer to ask the right (or any?) clarifying questions.

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

#107

Post by whiddershins »

kaybe wrote: post #78
whiddershins wrote: post #76

At first I was with them, but when they summarized at the end I think they missed the underlying point of the feedback. The feedback was “why have you waited so long” not “this was too early for you to apply” The fact that the founders bent that around in their heads after changing their actions, to me, indicates they aren’t quite getting what the email implied. But what do I know, I’ve never gotten in to YCombinator…

I might have missed the point too, could you expand a little?

This is obviously speculative, I’m not in anyone else’s head.

I interpreted that they were concerned about the thinking that went in to making the decision not to begin charging people sooner.

I felt supported in that interpretation when the founders ended the article by saying perhaps their company was at too early a point for the program.

The feedback seemed to imply they were too far along to have not started charging, so interpreting that to mean they were not far along enough could mean the feedback was responded to with direct action but the underlying thinking remains unchanged.

Like I said, I have no idea if I’m right, but if I am then the last conclusion paragraph validates the YC interviewer’s concern that there’s a deeper problem about how the company is being approached.

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

#108

Post by cloverich »

kaybe wrote: post #78
whiddershins wrote: post #76

At first I was with them, but when they summarized at the end I think they missed the underlying point of the feedback. The feedback was “why have you waited so long” not “this was too early for you to apply” The fact that the founders bent that around in their heads after changing their actions, to me, indicates they aren’t quite getting what the email implied. But what do I know, I’ve never gotten in to YCombinator…

I might have missed the point too, could you expand a little?

(same boat as OP, just hazarding a guess) -- What is the plan? Why were they waiting? Wanting to capture a larger segment of the market to out compete a rival company before monetizing could be an answer. There's others, sure. I think the point was there should be a strategy. The entire post felt like a couple kids waiting to turn in their next assignment, and wanting to know what to do for extra credit. Which is likely unfair, its just the vibe I got. It sounds like they have a product people like, which is great. My next question might be -- what do they want to do next, and how will YC help them? Probably things they've covered, but maybe not.

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

#109

Post by culturestate »

StavrosK wrote: post #81
joshyeager wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a suggestion: add support for dual-clip lanyards[1]. I've always found the single-clip lanyards annoying: they flop around and get twisted. I went to a conference this spring that had lanyards that clipped to both top corners of the badge, and it was significantly less annoying. [1] For example: https://www.marcopromos.com/product/3-4-cotton-no-flip-lanya...

In the last few conferences with single-clip lanyards, I started noticing the badges' orientation. I would expect them to be roughly 50% front, 50% back, but significantly more badges were oriented so that the back was showing, which surprised me. I guess it's the same kind of magic that makes the USB port always be the wrong orientation, then you flip it and it's wrong again, and it's only right after you flip it tw…

I usually keep my badge facing in (so you can't glance at my info) on purpose if the badge has a lead-gen attendee type - e.g. founder, investor, media - printed on it. I find that having it the right way 'round makes it harder to have interesting or productive discussions because by the end of the first day everyone is pre-judging the people they meet based on their badge.

If I'm there on a founder badge, for example, it's difficult to chat up investors because they're wary of hearing the 400th pitch from a random startup guy when I really just want to talk and make a connection.

This may be more annoying for me than most because I'm often at conferences as someone's guest, so the badge type rarely matches with my goals for attending.

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

#110

Post by short_sells_poo »

lukevdp wrote: post #55
short_sells_poo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Having $500 in MRR proves two things: 1. The product is something that people will pay for 2. The team can sell it, at least a little bit Both are huge validations of a startup

That's the thing. In my mind $500 proves nothing. Well, it proves that you can get $500 a month. I think it says zero about the actual ability of this business to become a success.

Put differently, if I believe in the idea behind a startup, I'm willing to overlook the fact that they have no rapid growth yet. If the idea is not enough to convince me, a miserable $500 is sure as hell not going to make a difference. It's too little in too short a time. It says zero about customer retention or satisfaction, etc. It's akin to taking two data points, zero revenue and $500 MRR and then extrapolating the growth. Nobody but a fool would believe such a metric.

If they went away, hustled hard for 2-3 months and got to say 50-100 paying customers (with that number consistently growing), good reviews or some feedback that customers actually like the product, I'd be more inclined to think of it more than just a fluke.

Post reply on HN