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

joncrawford.com

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

#61

Post by acangiano »

joh6nn wrote: post #41
NewMonarch wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came to SF the first time by myself because I was the hustler in the group. I talked to my team members every day. They knew I was in SF talking to investors and they knew I was interviewing for YC. They just hadn't heard of it until I was already doing the interview. As to how I was able to continue, as I explain in the article, they spun off a t-shirt printing business that we had been running. It was a more pred…

what's your asking price for your first born?

Considering that couples pay up to 5 figures for private adoptions in Canada, the question may be less silly than one would expect. :)

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

#62

Post by BalancedThought »

ghshephard wrote: post #47
run4yourlives wrote: post #38

The article makes it sound that PG and co allowed this guy to pick up and move to SF only to tell him to suck it the next day. If that is what happened, they deserve some scorn for playing with a person's life like that. That's just not on. If, however, they were clear about their reservations and just wanted to meet the guy again to discuss, it was really stupid of him to transport himself from his home to a hotel.…

"Such a cavalier attitude to risk actually might be a very good reason that this guy should not be running anything" I read this story very differently. Jon was fearless, took a calculated risk, and, when the initial outcome didn't role in his favor, just kept plugging in the face of obstacles - to his success. If you think that "Flying out to Silicon Valley on a reasonable chance that Y Combinator was going to fund…

It was risky. But, I also believe that there are two key points from the story that made it easier.

1. He married a woman who is extremely supportive and dialed in. 2. He had a savings that he could fall back on. So, getting kicked out of Y Combinator was heartbreaking but not soul crushing.

Basically, he had some good protective factors which made it possible for him to take risks.

Congratulations and best to you and Storenvy.

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

#63

Post by alexophile »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #58
alexophile wrote: post #25

I was kind of hoping this would be a story of Yuri Milner tracking down the one that got away.

Can you please explain?

Who downvoted this? That's not cool. Asking for an explanation is always ok.

Anyways, Yuri Milner (with Ron Conway) recently announced a blanket offer to all YC companies: $150k in no cap convertible debt. The title could have been to a story where a YC company dropped, presumably forfeiting the offer, only to be tracked down specifically and offered much more.

[edit: typo]

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

#64

Post by btilly »

thematt wrote: post #57

Why did you have to move to San Francisco? I understand the benefits, but I thought YC funds companies based outside CA, so was that a condition of the funding that they made?

A startup batch has to all be physically present for the YC period. That is because they meet in person frequently. So for 3 months you have to live where they are holding it.

Originally YC alternated between Boston and Silicon Valley. However they have now changed to always operating out of Silicon Valley. So you have to live there for that period.

This does not stop companies from moving there for 3 months and then moving back. As a notable example, Wufoo is based in Florida.

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

#65

Post by marcamillion »

alexophile wrote: post #63
rokhayakebe wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please explain?

Who downvoted this? That's not cool. Asking for an explanation is always ok. Anyways, Yuri Milner (with Ron Conway) recently announced a blanket offer to all YC companies: $150k in no cap convertible debt. The title could have been to a story where a YC company dropped, presumably forfeiting the offer, only to be tracked down specifically and offered much more. [edit: typo]

Love your name alexophile. I also love the explanation for it in your profile.

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

#66

Post by pg »

Every batch there are some groups that fall apart between when we agree to fund them and when YC starts. Sometimes we tell them not to worry about it and do YC anyway, and sometimes we tell them they should take some time to repair the damage and reapply for the next cycle. It depends on how bad the breakage is. If a team of 3 loses 1 person, that's no problem. Whereas if a team of 3 loses 2 people, that's bad.

In this case, the breakage was not only on the bad end of the spectrum, but we weren't told about it till the last moment. IIRC Jon told us an hour before he got on the plane here. That affected our decision more than the breakage itself. At the scale we operate on, we can't afford to have people around who aren't upfront with us.

I'm glad Jon got funded though. As he says, I was quite enthusiastic about what they were working on.

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

#67

Post by JacobAldridge »

joh6nn wrote: post #50
electromagnetic wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I'm wondering, I bet there's good money in child-flipping. You know buy a 3 month old, get them to the walking+talking phase and boot them off to someone willing to drop top dollar. (FYI for the downmodders: that's what's called a sick joke)

well, thanks for posting that publicly: there goes the idea for my YC '12 entry.

Not at all - ideas are worth nothing, but if you can prove the execution you're good to go. So own the idea, go forth, and execute some kids better than anyone else.

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

#68

Post by ztan »

I'm curious in how things would have turned out had he not been kicked out of YC. My guesses are he probably wouldn't have been that much better off. My analogy for this would be the situation of a Harvard drop out. You've already accomplished the toughest task - getting ACCEPTED. Whether you graduate or not seems pretty insignificant since it's so much more unlikely for an average high school student to be accepted into Harvard, compared to an average Harvard student finishing the program he was accepted in. Ultimately he was able to demonstrate his ability to network and raise fund despite not completing YC. What I don't know is how much did having that YC stamp of approval (despite being taken away later) helped in those endeavors.

Edit: rephrased my question a bit, still seems awkward...

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

#69

Post by bootload »

"... Still, a couple hours later, I boarded a plane with my wife, dog, and all the necessities for the summer stuffed into a suitcase and flew to SFO and hoped for the best. Seven days isn't nearly enough time to find a proper housing setup in SF, so we checked into an extended stay hotel where we would end up living for an entire month.

The next morning, Paul emailed and arranged a meeting with the entire YC team for us to discuss the future of Storenvy in YC. Since we didn't have a car, and I didn't have enough time to figure out something better, Janette and I took a $100 cab ride down to Mountain View. ..."

Anatomy of determination.

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

#70

Post by alanfalcon »

NewMonarch wrote: post #54
shasta wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

)

The smiley face/close parenthesis move is completely valid. (Otherwise you get double lips. :))

Actually, then it's time to get all fancy (that's right, I'm talking Reverse-Smiley! (-: )

But then it's like he's bald.

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