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Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
81–90 of 160 posts
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#82Life skill for you: putting a message into a bottle and then flinging it onto the Internet could get it read, but that isn't the way to bet. Here's a hypothetical for you: how many people do you think have social permission to contact a YC partner and say "X is awesome and deserves a look." I'd ballpark that in the hundreds to low thousand range. Many of them are accessible on the Internets and less overwhelmed with…
http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.
A good way to stop being a "nobody" is to get your names on your online properties. Twitter handles on your blog posts would be a good thing.
It took way too much effort to track you guys down on angel.co, and even then I don't have twitter handles.
( ps: I'm also hanging out in Iowa, hacking on a startup. Hit me up @collintmiller, maybe we can cook up some ways to remind people this is the state that brought you the computer. )
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#83Life skill for you: putting a message into a bottle and then flinging it onto the Internet could get it read, but that isn't the way to bet. Here's a hypothetical for you: how many people do you think have social permission to contact a YC partner and say "X is awesome and deserves a look." I'd ballpark that in the hundreds to low thousand range. Many of them are accessible on the Internets and less overwhelmed with…
http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.
Getting into YC isn't the goal here... having a successful company/product is. I would try to just build something that solves a pain point for you. If you want to prove yourself based on what you can build in 72 hours, then pick something and do it[1]. That will get you more consideration than something like this.
[1] But, I'm not a fan of "look what we built in 72 hours" types of projects, so you may want to just try to build your product.
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#84Life skill for you: putting a message into a bottle and then flinging it onto the Internet could get it read, but that isn't the way to bet. Here's a hypothetical for you: how many people do you think have social permission to contact a YC partner and say "X is awesome and deserves a look." I'd ballpark that in the hundreds to low thousand range. Many of them are accessible on the Internets and less overwhelmed with…
http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.
Regardless whether you get a response from YC or not, I think that what you did is more creative than chasing down a bunch of YC alumni you don't know and getting reluctant recommendations that carry no weight. Good luck!
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#85If you are so talented and innovative, do you really need YC? Just because one road closed down, doesn't mean you can't reach the destination.
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#86Life skill for you: putting a message into a bottle and then flinging it onto the Internet could get it read, but that isn't the way to bet. Here's a hypothetical for you: how many people do you think have social permission to contact a YC partner and say "X is awesome and deserves a look." I'd ballpark that in the hundreds to low thousand range. Many of them are accessible on the Internets and less overwhelmed with…
http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.
Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox.
There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far in life. I suggest working on it.
With specific reference to you being in Iowa: howdy! I live in a rice field in Central Japan. I work that into speeches frequently, often as part of a self-deprecating joke. I probably overuse self-deprecating jokes if I'm being totally honest with myself, but when I use them, the idea is not to convey "I'm not as competent as all you cool kids from the Valley who paid good money to hear me talk today", it is close to exactly the opposite of that.
You say you don't know any YCombinator alums. Is knowing YCombinator alums a priority to you? Winners routinely achieve their priorities by taking the basic, obvious steps for achieving them. There's a series of tubes between central Iowa and every YCombinator alum. There's also planes which regularly fly between Iowa and Silicon Valley. (I am totally serious.)
You may be inclined to state reasons why YC alums (or anybody else whose cooperation would be valuable) would not want to talk to you. How about you just don't state those reasons and instead wait to hear them from the horses' mouths instead? Better still, how about instead coming with reasons why they would of course want to talk to you, because you're building things that will solve identifiable problems for them?
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their offer is specifically for problems that YC itself faces. Give us a problem, a painpoint, anything that annoys you in day to day life, and we’ll hack it in 72 hours. Sending a phone to Mars and back isn't one of them, and is missing the entire spirit of the problem.
"Give us a problem, a painpoint, anything that annoys you in day to day life, and we’ll hack it in 72 hours." Perhaps one of their painpoints is people begging for acceptance with the argument "gosh, we really are worthy, honest!". Maybe they could solve that one by coming up with a way to demonstrate their value beyond a plea for compassion.
I didn't say I thought it was a good approach. I was just clarifying the GP's misunderstanding.
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.
Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox. There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far i…
Better still, how about instead coming with reasons why they would of course want to talk to you, because you're building things that will solve identifiable problems for them?
Bingo.
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.
Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox. There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far i…
I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials and we're worth a shot.
Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
A reality show of this nature actually is a pretty good idea.
Techstars created a reality show out of their program and I think it was widely regarded as a pretty bad decision in hindsight...
Right, but this won't be filmed, it will just be watched in our minds until the moment of failure or triumph, at which point we will pepper the internet with generally useless comments.