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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

#301

Post by wg0 »

threeseed wrote: post #104
wg0 wrote: post #61

YC is totally a non starter for non US aspirants and it's not YC's fault. Best case scenario - you end up having a company that's registered in US, would be paying taxes in US when it comes to that but you yourself wouldn't be allowed to set foot on the US soil, and even if that, would be shuttling for visa renewals every now and then.

YC has apparently been helping many founders get the O-1 visa. And there are plenty of services that allow you to manage US companies remotely.

O-1 visas are pretty darn hard to get by. Most start-up founders would lack the national or international distinction and that too way before even they have started their journey.

Those having such kind of distinction would already have going too good for them (unless they're just good on the paper) that it wouldn't make much economic sense for them to relocate elsewhere.

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

#302

Post by sokoloff »

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…

People invent all kinds of reasons to support the path they choose. People with confidence/optimism select data that reinforces their “go for it” decisions. People who want to find elitism as a reason to not do something will be able to that as well. Elitism surely exists in the world, but letting that stop you seems like cutting off your own nose to spite your face.

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

#303

Post by hnroo99 »

Tried submitting an application for fun™ but encountered a visual(?) bug. When I tried saving a new founder profile after filling out some sections and tried editing it, I was met with hundreds of repeated rows of work/education/etc sections. Anyone else have this issue?

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

#304

Post by tempusalaria »

tibbar wrote: post #148
tempusalaria wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you actually get 1% at seed stage and the company goes through a "few rounds" of funding (and subsequently exits), you're doing great . You've basically won a small lottery and have an excellent chance of being a millionaire. The problem with startup equity is that this is a very rare scenario, and most of the other scenarios aren't so good. If the company doesn't exit, your equity is worthless. If they exit at a…

That’s my point. Even in massive outlier upside cases getting a 1% equity deal at seed is not really worth more than just being a standard FAANG worker. And that requires many rounds of funding an and dilution and an exit. It’s worth remembering exits are very hard right now and founders have far more liquidity options. There have been multiple unicorns I’m aware of in the past 5 years with founders taking 8 figures in secondary and employees getting nothing. Now those unicorns have worthless equity for employees and the founders are on the beach.

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

#305

Post by thih9 »

selfie wrote: post #129
sevagh wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear that experience. I've come to discount any form of flattery in intro emails. E.g. when a FAANG recruiter emails me "wow, we were impressed by your public project!", I used to believe it. Now I know it's just a synonym for "join the back of the line of 17,639,838 applicants."

Yeah, if PG takes me out for a steak, I will believe it :-). An email that cost $0.000001 on SES, nah!

$0.000001 plus some credibility

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

#306

Post by brandall10 »

Rapzid wrote: post #230
hindsightbias wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gates, Jobs, and Zuck Harvard, Reed, Harvard. Any drop out from any of those has hurdled more than 98% of the general college corps. Or at least that would be a rational assumption by the VC cadre that is probably in the top 0.1% and an Ivy League grad.

People are commenting on this but failing to stake out a real point. Is the point that just having been accepted to those schools is a strong signal? I would concede that it could be, sure. But a lot of people drop out of Ivy league schools and simply flame out. Many would consider dropping out of those schools after a few semesters as failure. And many companies still require degrees; a few semesters at Harvard won'…

I'd argue getting accepted is almost the entire signal.

These people dropped out to chase extremely lucrative business opportunities - that they created as a student, likely aided by structural/networking support inside that institution - due to timing risk.

One could argue they not only got into a highly prestigious institution, but they quickly leapfrogged everyone there. That's the opposite of flaming out.

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

#307

Post by bcye »

ghiculescu wrote: post #232
eddd-ddde wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unrelated, but they _charge_ you for transferring money??? Is the US ever gonna have true free instant transfers? Without none of this venmo paypal shenanigans?

Most (all?) countries do this. Consumer banking services will offer free transfers as a loss leader.

I think SEPA Instant in the EU is probably free, seeing as EU will require banks to provide SEPA Instant for free to their users (or at the same cost as normal transfers)

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

#308

Post by tempusalaria »

dang wrote: post #154
tempusalaria wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that this idea of cofounders being a huge statistical success factor was pretty much just a myth. Moreover, all reasons given by YC as to why you should have a cofounder are qualitative e.g. https://www.ycombinator.com/library/8h-how-to-find-the-right... . Would love to see the statistical evidence because if anything it seems to be the other way round and this is pretty much just reflectiv…

I don't have citations for you but I don't think it's anything like a "personal preference" - YC has tons of data on this. But it's fine to apply as a solo founder—many do get funded; and you're quite right—the risk of picking a wrong cofounder is also high and is not something one should do lightly (e.g. just to try to improve a YC application).

The thing is, YC heavily signals against solo founders.

So it seems like there could be a lot of adverse selection in your data where good solo founders don’t bother applying, or good solo founders take on value destructive cofounders just to satisfy YC.

That’s then a vicious cycle where YC sees increasingly lower quality solo founders which reinforces their opinions and data about solo founder outcomes.

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

#309

Post by [deleted] »

nubela wrote: post #296
dang wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> our application was just ignored The only way that would happen is a bug. YC always responds to applicants. Rejections usually aren't personalized because that can't scale—but not hearing back at all should never happen. If you want me to look into what might have happened there, I'd be willing to try if you email hn@ycombinator.com. Congratulations on your success in any case! (I'm breaking the rules by copying ht…

> YC always responds to applicants. With templated responses. No difference from not responding.

[deleted]

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

#310

Post by bcye »

elbasti wrote: post #74
wg0 wrote: post #61

YC is totally a non starter for non US aspirants and it's not YC's fault. Best case scenario - you end up having a company that's registered in US, would be paying taxes in US when it comes to that but you yourself wouldn't be allowed to set foot on the US soil, and even if that, would be shuttling for visa renewals every now and then.

Not a YC founder, but this is factually not true. YC allows Delaware, Cayman, Canada, and Singapore corporations [0]. Pre-empting the accusation that "cayman companies are about tax dodging": Cayman companies are a great fit for heavily international businesses that do not reside in the USA, but that want to be governed as if they were, because cayman corporate law is basically delaware's. A good example is Nubank, w…

These are still incredibly limited options for locating your company.
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