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Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

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Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#131

Post by dang »

sovnwnt wrote: post #130

> Upload a founder video Yeah definitely not. No thank you. It's a great filter though. I am exactly the type of person who you don't want to see a video of, and therefore perfectly unsuited for YCombinator/SV/etc. which are all about personality.

I totally get it as video is anathema to me too, but I think you're drawing exactly the wrong conclusion. YC doesn't care about any social commonplaces (personality, dress, etc.). They just want a sense of who you are as a potential founder. A lot of what might be considered 'negatives' in more conventional contexts aren't negative at all in the YC context, and might actually help an application.

p.s. YC is definitely not "all about personality" - I don't know where you got that idea, but the spectrum of YC founders is about as wide as you could get that way. There are extraverted outgoing types and introverted awkward types and pretty much everyone else too.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#134

Post by dimmke »

dang wrote: post #39
Rapzid wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The LinkedIn page for a lot of these companies showing you "Where they studied" can be a bit intimidating. Chockablock with Stanford and Ivy League. I was filling out the Co-Founder matching service application and it has a required text area for education. The placeholder text examples? Standford MS in Comp Sci, NYU BS in Physics. As a college dropout with "some college" but a 14+ year career in systems/software eng…

I'm with you and wish that we were more careful with this sort of signaling risk. However, there are tons of college dropouts and uncredentialed software people who make it in to YC. What I'm basically trying to tell everyone, and hoping to convince a few, is: don't listen to any of this, just do it.

Just curious, I was filling out my profile and it says Education History required. Normally that means college experience. I only did one year at a local community college. Should I just put that? My cofounder is attending a well respected school though.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#136

Post by radix7 »

dang wrote: post #96
giantg2 wrote: post #89

I have a #3 - I don't have a marketable idea.

You don't need a marketable idea. YC cares about founders and that's it. Everything else can be taught. But you're absolutely right that that is on the short list of bogus reasons not to apply.

>You don't need a marketable idea

Seems like most of the application is describing your idea.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#137

Post by Rapzid »

tempusalaria wrote: post #120
Rapzid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm seeing a few "founding engineer" roles that pay pretty well and offer up to 1% equity for highly experienced candidates. Honestly some pretty unique opportunities. But yeah, I'm not building out and MVP without pay for 1%.

1% at seed stage also become 0.1% after a few rounds of funding, plus you are way down the preference stack and have no liquidity power. Startup equity is pretty much objectively a terrible deal except for founders. Be a founder or get paid market comp in cash.

A factor 10 dilution is huge and I'd like to see the math on that.

There are different roles founders hire for under the "founding engineer" umbrella.

There is your fresh out of bootcamp "founding engineer" brought on during pre-seed or seed stages to help bash out POCs and mocks used to sell the vision.

Then there is the "founding engineer" they bring in post money and customer commitments to actually deliver the MVP and help build out a professional engineering program.

I'm in the later category and those roles can pay very well for early stage startups.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#138

Post by Areibman »

selfie wrote: post #127
Areibman wrote: post #121

We got rejected (2nd time applying) and ended up raising a substantial seed/pre-seed round at excellent terms a month later. Is there a compelling reason to still apply?

That means nothing though. If you (N=1) apply to Google and get rejected but take a Facebook job, it doesn't mean people shouldn't apply to Google.

It was a question more for us than general public. I think YC is probably the best first check you can get since they invest in companies with nothing more than an idea.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#139

Post by kxrm »

dang wrote: post #14
outop wrote: post #9

It would be nice to be told roughly what the process is before having to 'sign up'.

You're already signed up, because you can use your HN account to log in. (All YC accounts are HN accounts and vice versa.) The process is that you fill out a form and make a 1 minute video* and click 'submit'. (* I know...I hated the video thing too... but it gives a sense of what someone is like that doesn't come through in text, and you just talk for a minute about what you care about. nothing fancy.) (edit: also,…

I just went through the application because of your post. I don't have a lot to bring to the table so hopes are not high but what's the worst that could happen? They say no.

Anyway, I got hung up on the video, I definitely have no idea what to say, so I saved the application for later and will come back to it. Perhaps my plan for the video should be to read what I wrote in the plan fire it off and forget I did this. :) But yea, as someone who has issues with presenting to others visually in this way, the video requirement is really hard. I'll do it because this is all to see what happens, but definitely not confident on that part of things.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#140

Post by _akhe »

RowanH wrote: post #52
_akhe wrote: post #23

Re: "won't get in" How do I balance this encouraging advice with everything I've heard online about YC basically being a post-Ivy League thing? Seems like there's basically a 0% chance a random person would get into YC. And often those who did get in went to Stanford, Harvard, etc. and don't even have a product - sometimes they don't even know what they're going to build yet. I wrote the idea of VC stuff off long ago…

> My wife and I have a profitable business here in SF that would be perfect as a startup Keep doing what you're doing. Being VC funded shouldn't be the holy grail - the holy grail is having a business you enjoy doing, that's making you the life you want. For some the life you want is pitching, raising, getting the kudos of the big numbers, onto the next raise etc. For some the life you want is the complete opposite a…

I really appreciate this comment. Service offered / payment received is irreplaceably wholesome and satisfying :) especially when they come back as repeat customers or become regular clients. Repeat business and gradual growth gives us both an exciting feeling about the future that I never quite felt at a startup. I've found too often a venture-backed startup is really a lifestyle business in disguise for the founders, not really about serving customers, so it's hard to truly get excited about them anymore. Where running a business that solves a problem for paying customers feels more like changing the world:

> we're making a difference in their lives, and they in turn pay us money

We've felt this too in our community, it's the real meaning of "Make something people want" (and why we haven't had a day off in like 62 days or something lol). It's strange to refer to our business as a "startup", but it is one, moreso than most VC-funded ones and I bet we have more customers, higher revenues, and a better growth outlook than the average local seed-funded startup. For us, a loan or VC route would just let us expand nationally right now to other major cities, instead of focusing first on the Bay Area and expanding nationally over the next several years which feels inevitable.

The amount a VC might pressure us to go in the wrong direction is another worry, and because it's just capital we'd need (not advice), they might just get in the way and throw off timing or team structure.

Thanks for your comment! I needed the reminder of how rewarding it is compared to conventional employment as today has been exceptionally hectic!

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