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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

#251

Post by nubela »

I'll play devil's advocate. I have applied to YC for at least 8 times in my 20s? They rejected me everytime. Not even an interview.

I now run a $XM SaaS (scale-up, not startup) growing at Y00%/annum. 100% bootstrapped with a healthy profit margin. Thanks YC.

The only thing I'd say that YC is good for is their network of existing startups. Then again, startups aren't the best customers IMO given that they die too much.

Advice is free on the internet as marketing material these days. And there are better VCs.

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

#252

Post by danenania »

999900000999 wrote: post #62
apsurd wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The filters are self-fulfilling. For twenty-somethings ideas are easy and all opportunity is in front. Might as well swing for the fences and yes people do hit home runs. At this stage, debating the actual statistics is misguided use of energy. Because justifying a reason not to play still means you're not playing. And the older you get the more gray this calculus is. There's more reasons not to do something. We put…

It's more like I don't think cold calling ( tweeting) VCs yields results. It's the equivalent of singing with a guitar outside of Columbia records. It's not like Paul McCartney is going to just tell you to step into his office and record a demo. I do plan on taking some time off to work on my side projects though. Maybe I'll try again...

Cold emailing or tweeting investors only works if you have eye-popping results to point to or credentials that stand out.

Otherwise the way to get to them is via accelerators like YC. And the way to get into accelerators with no credentials is to launch something and get some traction. It doesn’t even need to be a lot of traction. Just having users who use your product regularly puts you near the top of the pile.

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

#253

Post by nubela »

chenxi9649 wrote: post #60

I think one thing that people don't realize is that the YC application process is really one of the best tools for "sharpening" your idea/business. The written applications forces you to articulate your ideas in a concise yet easy to understand way. And as much as YC doesn't recommend this, the mock YC interviews we did with alums was one of those most beneficial things that happened to us. Because so rarely will you…

> I think one thing that people don't realize is that the YC application process is really one of the best tools for "sharpening" your idea/business.

Meh. Sharping your concept, yes. It is a snapshot of your concept.

The best way to sharpen your idea/business is to sell. That way, the "sharpening" process is iterative instead of a once-off event.

Honestly, YC isn't what you think it is. PS: I have a few YC customers and their founders aren't what the media make them out to be.

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

#254

Post by [deleted] »

reagan83 wrote: post #243
eggbrain wrote: post #101

I'm going to post something vulnerable, but I hope people take my comment in the right light, as in general I love YC and what it has done for the startup community. I've been building startups for a long time, and have applied to YC several times, mainly with the same idea (although I've always listed 4-5 other ideas I'm interested in as well). I have always gotten rejected, and while that was disappointing, I 100%…

I love a lot of what YC has done but their application process is fundamentally broken and has been for years. It appears to just be a just a factory and numbers game now, all clinging to previous successes from when PG and Jessica used to run things.

[deleted]

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

#255

Post by dang »

b20000 wrote: post #247

i applied several times and never got feedback which doesn’t help

YC responds to every application, so unless there was some weird email problem, I can't imagine why that would happen. Especially several times—that is really odd.

If you want me to look into what might have happened there, I'd be willing to try if you email hn@ycombinator.com.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40093529

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40092169

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

#256

Post by all2 »

dang wrote: post #31
ketanmaheshwari wrote: post #15

I wanted to sell samosa on the internet. Would YC be a good place to seek funding for such a business? Samosa because they are versatile across many dimensions: ingredients, taste, shelf-life, and can be easily made in a combinatorics space of these dimensions. They are kind of like how Bubba describes shrimp to Gump. I once wondered if YC is a good platform for such a business?

YC is a good platform for founders who want to build a high-growth startup (which is basically the original pg/YC definition of what a startup is). So your question reduces to whether selling samosas on the internet can be a high-growth business or not, and whether you would want to optimize for that.

We have specialized samosa delivery drones and utilize existing shipping and storage infrastructure. Our samosas are "just add water!" variety and are appropriate for a variety of events and occasions! Weddings, parties, wedding parties, parties with incidental weddings, pizza and beer and samosas, Netflix and chill, and so much more!

...

I started with a pitch and it became a late night commercial.

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

#257

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

_akhe wrote: post #189
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how it becomes the next $100M household name Unfortunately this is too low for a VC/YC. The min valuation they are looking for is around $1B

I meant $100M in annual revenues :) Your point is taken though, I think a lot of VCs would scoff at our present-day numbers despite our growth and outlook. It's very much still a small business, yet by far the most impressive thing either of us have ever done and the hardest we've ever worked. Been at it since July of last year pretty much non-stop.

$100M from only July last year is far far impressive. We have been on this for 3 years and barely reaching $1M revenue (Although I wasted two years of my life applying for YC/VC/Pitching)

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

#258

Post by chaostheory »

bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #103
jacobwg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I didn't even graduate college :P > So we're just doing it on our own. IMO if you can become a $100M household name without VC, that's absolutely the way to do it. Even if you do take the VC path, YC for me was a massive boost in network, knowledge, and resources that I didn't have before, but it's also not the only way to acquire those things. You can even find that YC knowledge online, e.g. https://www.star…

> I mean, I didn't even graduate college :P Yes, but did you go to one of those colleges where dropping out is even better than graduating? Because most of us didn't even get the chance to drop out of one of those.

This is a really good point because the vast majority of YC members (97-99%) either graduated or dropped out from Ivy League level schools, or really highly rated state schools. (Dropouts are also a very small minority.) There are YC members who didn’t come from prestigious schools, but they are outliers. Maybe it’s changed the last 4 years? That’s when I stopped tracking it.

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

#260

Post by zamfi »

dang wrote: post #194
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how it becomes the next $100M household name Unfortunately this is too low for a VC/YC. The min valuation they are looking for is around $1B

That's not so. At the last YC talk I attended, founders of $100M startups were cited as successes (anything else would be pretty weird, no?) That's incredibly successful, even though startup investing is a power-law game.

That’s totally true, though there’s a difference between “founders of $100M startups” that already have that valuation, and working on a company in a market where $100M is the max you could expect.

If you aim for $10B and hit $100M that’s great, you aimed for the Sun and landed on the Moon! But if the max you can hit is $100M, then everything needs to go right to reach the Moon, and the Sun is fully out of reach — and it will be much harder to raise money.

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