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Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

ycombinator.com

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Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#41

Post by bourdine »

jackowayed wrote: post #39
bourdine wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully, PG feels the same way. If I had his email, I could tell him all about and we would decide how best to proceed in this exceptional case.

If you were capable of building a $1B product, you'd also be capable of finding (and/or guessing) his email.

I do not agree with you. My question is relevant to that topic, here on HN, personally I simply delete letters from strangers would not have to waste time. A PG address is, but I just do not write for people who do not expect a letter from me.

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#42

Post by jackowayed »

bourdine wrote: post #41
jackowayed wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were capable of building a $1B product, you'd also be capable of finding (and/or guessing) his email.

I do not agree with you. My question is relevant to that topic, here on HN, personally I simply delete letters from strangers would not have to waste time. A PG address is, but I just do not write for people who do not expect a letter from me.

A much better policy would be not to write people that don't want the letter from you, and pg would definitely want to hear from any billion dollar company that wants him as an investor

Anyway, I've now ingested my USDA daily recommended amount of trolling, so I won't be responding any deeper in this thread

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#43

Post by jayliew »

bourdine wrote: post #35
benologist wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you make a product worth > $1B you'll be an exception for just about everything.

Hopefully, PG feels the same way. If I had his email, I could tell him all about and we would decide how best to proceed in this exceptional case.

The point is, anybody can say they are building a >$1Bil business. How are you really different from everybody else who is applying?

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#44

Post by sahillavingia »

agmiklas wrote: post #32
mrtron wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the team was the same for every application - a smart group of guys.

PagerDuty co-founder here... The group actually changed a bit from one application to the next. The ideas were completely different for the first and second applications. Applications three and lucky number four were for PagerDuty.

What were the ideas for the first and second application?

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#45

Post by pg »

samdk wrote: post #37
bkrausz wrote: post #11

Random question: what would you guys like to hear/know about applying (or YC in general) that's not already out there? I've been considering writing a blog post about GazeHawk's YC experience, but there are so many good ones already, and I don't want to just add redundancy. Anything unanswered from a startup perspective you'd like to know?

This is not so much for me, but if you have anything you didn't like about it, I think a lot of people would really like to hear about it. The most negative blog post I've seen on HN was something to the effect of "it wasn't the right fit for me", and it's really hard to judge something critically without getting both positive and negative opinions. From what I've seen of you guys it looks like it was a very positive…

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1808715

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#46

Post by patio11 »

Alex3917 wrote: post #30
pg wrote: post #4

We added two new questions this year: Why did you pick this project to work on? and How will you get users? In retrospect it's surprising we didn't already ask these. (When reading applications we found we were trying to reconstruct answers to them from the answers people gave to other questions.) We also stopped describing the video as optional. In practice it wasn't.

"How will you get users?" Some unsolicited advice for this question: For startups that rely on 'going viral': The benefit that users get from telling their friends is... For businesses that need to get 2+ separate-facing user bases: The game theory aligns and makes it rational for both X and Y to participate because... For startups doing B2B sales: The reason the X will look like a hero to his boss for making this pu…

Unsolicited advice: In our market the user adoption process looks like... We're going to hack it. Here's how: ...

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#47

Post by thewordpainter »

agmiklas wrote: post #32
mrtron wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the team was the same for every application - a smart group of guys.

PagerDuty co-founder here... The group actually changed a bit from one application to the next. The ideas were completely different for the first and second applications. Applications three and lucky number four were for PagerDuty.

did PG & co. recognize your persistence? what do you think stoof out the fourth try? had the business advanced a good bit?

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#48

Post by thewordpainter »

pg wrote: post #4

We added two new questions this year: Why did you pick this project to work on? and How will you get users? In retrospect it's surprising we didn't already ask these. (When reading applications we found we were trying to reconstruct answers to them from the answers people gave to other questions.) We also stopped describing the video as optional. In practice it wasn't.

i think "how will you get users?" is a great question for whittling the field. any startup entrepreneur with experience knows that "viral effect" is not the answer, and a strategy is involved...especially if you don't have the valley resources at your disposal.

i'm assuming "why did you pick this project..." is all about the passion...

Re: Applications Open For Summer 2011 YC Funding Cycle

#49

Post by JoshTriplett »

agmiklas wrote: post #32
mrtron wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the team was the same for every application - a smart group of guys.

PagerDuty co-founder here... The group actually changed a bit from one application to the next. The ideas were completely different for the first and second applications. Applications three and lucky number four were for PagerDuty.

Sounds like between the second and third applications you found the right idea. What changed between the third and fourth, both of which had the same idea but one of which worked?

Not that anything necessarily had to change; YC has said before that because of where they have to draw the line, they almost certainly reject some good startups.

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