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

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

#271

Post by tobinfricke » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:06 AM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #263

llamaimperative wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a YC founder and I dropped out of not-one-of-those colleges (RPI). My cofounder dropped out of high school. Why not just give it a shot? Find the powerful parts of your story (I'm sure they exist) and share them! We applied, as GP advocates for, mostly to sharpen our thinking. Just the application process would've been worth the time, even if we had gotten declined immediately. The interview 10x'd that value, the…

I would definitely count RPI as one of "those" colleges! I guess everyone has a different list, but for me, RPI is in the same category as Rose-Hulman, Olin, Harvey Mudd, etc. Perhaps not Ivy League level in the sense of being a household name, but still known among people in the field.

The "Ivy League" consists of precisely these eight schools: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

Honestly I feel like some of these are negative indicators when it comes to engineering cred.

Meanwhile, stellar engineering schools like Caltech, Stanford, and MIT are in a league of their own.

This comment is mostly to complain that using "Ivy League" as a shorthand for prestigious engineering schools is inaccurate.

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

#272

Post by kyleyeats » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:06 AM UTC

stevage wrote: post #133

After all the horror stories I have read on here about YC and VC in general, I'm genuinely surprised that many people are still keen to go down that path.

It's me. I'm posting the horror stories to increase my chances of getting in.

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

#273

Post by theanirudh » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:07 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #216

OJFord wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well then I think I might have plans this weekend. Thanks!

My informant says "for w2024 most companies applied 0-3 times previously, but it went as high as 12!" (Edit: disappointingly to me at least, 12 turned out to be a bug. The highest number of applications for W24 was 6. Still pretty high!) Good luck with your application if you go ahead with it!

I might beat that for this batch! This will be my 8th application. 2 for my previous company, and 6 with my current startup and co founders.

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

#274

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:18 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #118

dang wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startup in W09, worked on it for 4 years, started saying no to pg about moderating HN, ran out of money, needed a job, said yes to pg about moderating HN.

Is this the only path to the job?

[deleted]

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

#275

Post by preommr » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:18 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #211

OJFord wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could've sworn there was a cap, like apply and be rejected three times and that's it or something, but I can't find that now - is that not the case? Just could be quite significant to people considering 'just apply' advice quite last minute over this weekend is all :)

That's definitely not the case.

Might as well have a webpage about "myths about applying" at this point with how much confusion and misinformation there seems to be.

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

#276

Post by necovek » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:43 AM UTC

sosodev wrote: post #231

queuebert wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the possibility for ethical, sustainable business models is still very real. Those exist everywhere in the trades. Every major city has dozens of small businesses doing plumbing, electrical, roofs, etc., with the goal of sustainable, loyal customers based on doing a good job at a fair price.

Well put. The difficult part for us software folk is learning to apply that model to software. Customers in the world of software generally don’t know what they want. I think the low hanging fruit here is to copy products from the unethical companies and beat them at caring for the customers. The real value is probably in new product models that can only exist given an ethical perspective. Perhaps reviving the mostly…

Customers for other trades similarly "don't know what they want", unless it's "fix this for me".

The main difference in the software world is that you can potentially build things "once" (or rather, keep building it forever) for a huge global market, which means that it's hard to know when something is good enough. With roofing or coffee, you do good enough work (differs between companies, sure) and move on to the next customer.

But you don't think about adding continuously running rainfall test for the roofs you do to ensure no regressions (leaks) appear.

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

#277

Post by spdustin » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:52 AM UTC

I've thought about it, but the target market for my project isn't a high growth one; it's US middle school teachers (years 6-8, typically). Public schools aren't exactly flush with cash—individual teachers even less so—and while I (and my school teacher wife) think I'm on to something that would change teachers' lives, I can't imagine a world where that market would lead to a six figure MRR.

Starting to think I need to find grant money rather than startup/seed money.

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

#278

Post by choppaface » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 5:56 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #56

Animats wrote: post #51

What happened? Not enough people applied? Here's the last batch.[1] Gives a sense of what's being funded. Ideas: - MoneyNow - leverages the new FedNow instant payment system. FedNow is run by the Fed and transfers money in seconds with a charge of just US$0.045 per transaction. And they mean seconds . If the money isn't there in 10 seconds, the transaction times out. Few banks support it yet, but some do. It needs co…

No idea how many people applied but I'm sure there's no lack - I just felt bad for forgetting to put the usual footer at the bottom a month ago. And I worry about the comments I see on HN interpreting YC as just for credentialed-elite applicants. It's deeply not true and I have a personal feeling about the question - being one of the uncredentialed-unelite-self-doubting types who could have been dissuaded from applyi…

[flagged]

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

#279

Post by april192024 » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 6:10 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #241

april192024 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> "YC is pretty explicit that they try to pick founders, not ideas, most of the time. That approach is all over the Startup School videos, for example; they don't exactly make a secret of it." If Y Combinator truly prioritizes founders over ideas, as indicated in their Startup School videos, repeated rejections might suggest a fundamental mismatch. If you haven't been accepted after one or two tries, it may be a si…

It's exactly the other way around. You'd be right if YC were perfect at assessing founders every time, but of course they're not. Applying repeatedly gives you a chance to prove that they got you wrong the first time (and the second, and the third, and so on, if need be). Not only does this work, it's the majority case (I just double checked this). Most founders that YC funds are repeat applicants. Applying repeatedl…

YC frequently heralds persistence as the most reliable indicator of future success. However, a closer look at their selection practices reveals a profound contradiction. Despite their public endorsement of this trait, YC often rejects applicants who demonstrate true persistence by reapplying after initial failures. In contrast, they appear to favor individuals with prestigious academic or corporate backgrounds—those who might be perceived as career opportunists lacking deep commitment to their ventures—over genuinely dedicated founders.

This pattern not only questions the sincerity of YC's stated values but also suggests a broader inconsistency. If such a discrepancy exists in their evaluation of persistence, one can reasonably doubt the authenticity of other virtues YC promotes. This insight casts a shadow over the overall integrity of their selection criteria, hinting that what YC publicizes may not always align with their actual priorities.

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

#280

Post by mirsadm » Sat, Apr 20, 2024, 6:18 AM UTC

nubela wrote: post #251

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…

You only have to look at some of the businesses that launched the last couple of batches. The AI products in particular were of very questionable quality.