Live data from Hacker News

How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $1.5m for My Startup

joncrawford.com

21–30 of 125 posts

Re: How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $1.5m for My Startup

#23
We use storenvy at grooveshark (http://www.storenvy.com/stores/3605-grooveshark and http://store.grooveshark.com/) and its super awesome. I love the emphasis they place on community as that is something we value very highly internally as well. Great work and thanks!

Re: How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $1.5m for My Startup

#24

Wow really shows how Y Combinator values co-founders... No co-founder....no soup for you! To be fair, they did get accepted based on having the whole team. Do you think you would have been excepted if you applied as just yourself?

It's hard to say. To be fair, YC never met the rest of my cofounders. I was the only one they'd ever spoken with.

- Jon (The guy who wrote this story. :)

Re: How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $1.5m for My Startup

#26

Wow really shows how Y Combinator values co-founders... No co-founder....no soup for you! To be fair, they did get accepted based on having the whole team. Do you think you would have been excepted if you applied as just yourself?

It's hard to say. To be fair, YC never met the rest of my cofounders. I was the only one they'd ever spoken with. - Jon (The guy who wrote this story. :)

[deleted]

Re: How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $1.5m for My Startup

#28
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dunno, imho AirBnB story was more thrilling.

It's not a contest, there can be more than one :)

well, at least they were as close to death of a company as it gets. Not getting funded by YC is hardly death, IMHO.

Re: How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $1.5m for My Startup

#29

Awesome insight Jon. Thanks for the honest look back. I never found you inspirational, but you fake it well, ha.

Sorry for the bad sarcasm community. I love Jon and Janette. I met Jon way back in 2009 and he was hustling with just an idea then. As a fellow Midwest entrepreneur it's awesome to see him "graduate" from our area and succeed in the valley.

Re: How I Got Kicked Out of Y Combinator and Then Raised $1.5m for My Startup

#30

Wow really shows how Y Combinator values co-founders... No co-founder....no soup for you! To be fair, they did get accepted based on having the whole team. Do you think you would have been excepted if you applied as just yourself?

I went through TechStars Seattle 2010. In watching the 9 other companies, it is obvious that the best predictor of success for my peers has been the strength of the relationships between co-founders. I'm measuring success (at this early stage) as some fuzzy function of how easy the team made it look to build a product, gain traction, raise money, and keep smiling.

I can only guess that Y Combinator really values co-founders because the patterns I've seen in 10 companies must be painfully obvious with 100 companies. That's not to say that there won't be outliners/exceptions, but when you're placing bets...

Post reply on HN