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Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

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Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

#51

Post by jaredhansen »

Applied in 2010 as solo founder of http://www.breezy.com.

Didn't get in, didn't sweat it, tried other things. We haven't yet built a mammoth company or had a successful exit so I have yet to be able to take pg up on his offer to go to lunch sometime to discuss what they missed when evaluating my application, but I think it's fair to say we're doing reasonably well so far, all things considered.

YC is overrated as a gate. (I don't know whether it's overrated in general and I kind of doubt it, but too many people think "I didn't get into YC, oh no, maybe I'm not cut out for this".)

Frankly, as others have said in this thread, if a YC rejection stops you then something else would have stopped you anyway. YC is a very good first step in the right direction, but it is only a step - and there are many other good steps you can take in the same direction anyway, so failing to get into YC means very little in itself, imho, about whether you have what it takes to succeed more generally.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

#53

Post by felipellrocha »

xackpot wrote: post #36
felipellrocha wrote: post #29

Also a solo founder building http://comics-headquarters.com/ , a place to publish your comics online. :) I am currently looking for artists who can help either write stories or/and draw. You can contact me using the web form in the site.

Cool, nice project. I am also a solo founder who founded drawmics.com (a social one page comics platform). However, I didn't apply for this project, but the similarity of our projects prompted me to comment.

Thanks! You have an interesting project yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

#54

Post by dannyhaber »

RuggeroAltair wrote: post #41
untog wrote: post #26

I'm not sure this is the right question. pg repeats time and time again that the product doesn't matter, the team does. So really, the title ought to be: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

2 PhD's of quantitative fields (lots of coding experience) 2 MS's in CS that were already in a startup ( we are all 30-32 yo. (no family/kids yet) but maybe the age? seems like a good team (and a good idea), but oh well...

Just saw this: would like to know more about what you guys are up to, send me an email: dannyjhaber@gmail.com , also you can check out my blog: www.legendarymoves.com

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

#55

Post by mirsadm »

dmvaldman wrote: post #50
mirsadm wrote: post #11

We applied with http://www.musicfilmcomedy.com :).

This is very well done. I've gone to Coachella the last three years (before this one) and I wish I had this. Your interface is already better than theirs. Clearly YC applicants are getting much better for them not to even give you an interview. Where are you located, and who is your team?

Thanks for the kind feedback! Unfortunately the time that (I think) they looked at the web site we didn't have the scheduler implemented!

We're located in Melbourne, Australia. I was a senior software engineer before and so was my co-founder. We are in our late 20s and have both quit our jobs few months ago and could relocate. I think the applicants this time round were very strong!

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

#57

Post by jsaunders »

I applied as a single founder and was rejected as well. The project I am working on is https://codetique.com

The goal being to make code reviewing easier. Think pastebin but with inline commenting and comment karma. Click any line in a code review to leave a comment for that line. You don't need an account to create a review or comment on one.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

#58

Post by jblpsyched »

My partner and I are Ph.D. psychologists who have developed a unique roadmap to permanent behavior change based on our personal experiences (we each lost 40+ lbs. 5 years ago and have kept it off) and professional knowledge. We are longtime friends and business partners so other than being non-hackers we fit the preferred criteria for teams pretty well.

We were rejected as well (www.readysteadychange.com) and as I read these comments several things that have been stated seem abundantly clear:

1. The YC team is telling the truth when they say the number of high quality applications keeps increasing while the limited spots for interviews/funded teams remains more or less constant;

2. The process of thoughtfully completing the application is an incredibly valuable idea stage experience in and for itself;

3. Getting to market and crossing the chasm are the real objectives for all of us, not getting into YC;

4. There really is no guarantee that getting into YC is the best thing for many of us. As someone wrote they seem to favor particular types of teams and ideas which they know a lot about and are able to mentor well. The rest of us should take rejection as a sign to keep moving forward on our own terms and capture any and all "data" from this experience as valuable learning.

As a colleague once said, "the only way out is through," to which I would add, "the only real direction is forward."

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

#59

Post by strlen »

RuggeroAltair wrote: post #41
untog wrote: post #26

I'm not sure this is the right question. pg repeats time and time again that the product doesn't matter, the team does. So really, the title ought to be: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Who are you?

2 PhD's of quantitative fields (lots of coding experience) 2 MS's in CS that were already in a startup ( we are all 30-32 yo. (no family/kids yet) but maybe the age? seems like a good team (and a good idea), but oh well...

I recall pg mentioning that he would consider four founders to be too many (although, I am not sure it's a "hard" rule).
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