How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle • Hacker News Board

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#21

Post by Peroni » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:15 PM UTC

CaveTech wrote: post #9

Honestly I don't get it. While the story is cool, it really just seems like you're comfortable blowing several thousand dollars on what, lets be honest, is a very, very unlikely chance at securing a domain name. I know this story speaks of SV culture in some way; huge risk, huge rewards and the idea that no one can stop you. If the venture pays off, it makes you a hero. If it doesn't, well you get a cool story. But y…

...you're comfortable blowing several thousand dollars on what, lets be honest, is a very, very unlikely chance at securing a domain name.

Considering the context I have to vehemently disagree.

Steve's really well known in the UK tech scene. He's a regular attendee & speaker at the Hacker News London meet-ups. Acceptance into the YC program would have vindicated his ambitions.

YC is seen as almost mythical in this part of the world as it's a huge ask to move to the opposite side of the world to go through a program to gain funding when there are an insane number of VC's & angel investors in the UK. YC is essentially 'Tech Hollywood' as far as most UK hackers are concerned. You can make yourself a household name as an Actor based in the UK but most Actors would jump at the chance to make it in Hollywood. The appeal of YC is a microcosm of that analogy.

EDIT: I appreciate CaveTech is referring to the zap.com situation but the entire trip was a guy doing everything humanly possible to make his dream a reality. I stand by my point.

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#22

Post by wilfra » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

zap.com is a public company http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ZPCM

That probably explains why there is little interest in selling you the domain. It would probably be a huge PITA for them, even if they wanted to do it.

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#23

Post by Murkin » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

tl;dr;

1. Spent lots of time and money(thousands of pounds) trying to meet with CEO of hedge fund just to get one of the domains in their portfolio. 2. Failed. 3. Explained that he is co-founder of twillio europe. 4. Used above story as some kind of self proof of ability 5. Decided that he failed YC interview because of a silly mistake 6. Drew lots of lessons and conclusions.

yawn

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#24

Post by Irregardless » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:18 PM UTC

wilfra wrote: post #17

CaveTech wrote: post #9

Honestly I don't get it. While the story is cool, it really just seems like you're comfortable blowing several thousand dollars on what, lets be honest, is a very, very unlikely chance at securing a domain name. I know this story speaks of SV culture in some way; huge risk, huge rewards and the idea that no one can stop you. If the venture pays off, it makes you a hero. If it doesn't, well you get a cool story. But y…

Just because he was not successful (yet) does not mean it was a foolish effort. It's attitudes like yours that make hustling work, simply because so few people are willing to even send an email to somebody because they think it's unlikely they'll get an affirmative response. Getting rejected is like ketchup on french fries.

He flew from London to NY and showed up at their office uninvited only to find out the CEO was in Aspen. After spending countless hours stalking the guy and hundreds (or thousands) on a plane ticket, he missed by 2,000 miles...

If that happened to me, I'd be too embarrassed to repeat that story even to a group of close friends, let alone tout it as my proudest "life hack".

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#25

Post by sjtgraham » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:23 PM UTC

ChaseB wrote: post #20

"but when I finished I filled the BCC with as many permutations of what his email address could be and then hit send." I've figured out a great way around this. Install rapportive in gmail, compose a new message and start guessing emails. If the email is correct, rapportive will pull up all the information for that person. Bingo! There's the correct address!

Tried that!

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#26

Post by tetomb » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:24 PM UTC

Peroni wrote: post #21

CaveTech wrote: post #9

Honestly I don't get it. While the story is cool, it really just seems like you're comfortable blowing several thousand dollars on what, lets be honest, is a very, very unlikely chance at securing a domain name. I know this story speaks of SV culture in some way; huge risk, huge rewards and the idea that no one can stop you. If the venture pays off, it makes you a hero. If it doesn't, well you get a cool story. But y…

...you're comfortable blowing several thousand dollars on what, lets be honest, is a very, very unlikely chance at securing a domain name. Considering the context I have to vehemently disagree. Steve's really well known in the UK tech scene. He's a regular attendee & speaker at the Hacker News London meet-ups. Acceptance into the YC program would have vindicated his ambitions. YC is seen as almost mythical in this pa…

I do not understand your comment at all.

To what do you vehemently disagree? That it is a slim chance of securing the domain name? If so, why does the rest of your comment discuss how important YC is to UK programmers?

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#27

Post by stephengillie » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:24 PM UTC

Murkin wrote: post #23

tl;dr; 1. Spent lots of time and money(thousands of pounds) trying to meet with CEO of hedge fund just to get one of the domains in their portfolio. 2. Failed. 3. Explained that he is co-founder of twillio europe. 4. Used above story as some kind of self proof of ability 5. Decided that he failed YC interview because of a silly mistake 6. Drew lots of lessons and conclusions. yawn

I'm kind-of amazed at how much this person was willing to spend at the drop of a hat. I see someone carelessly jumping on planes, spending thousands of dollars without blinking, and I start to wonder if the person may be bipolar and experiencing a manic episode.

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#28

Post by ragmondo » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:24 PM UTC

Irregardless wrote: post #16

brador wrote: post #12

Anyone got a TLDR on this? It looks interesting, but I don't have the minutes to read it to get the juice.

Spent lots of time and money stalking a big time hedge fund manager in an attempt to acquire Zap.com domain. Failed to acquire domain, but still considers this a "life hack" because the manager downloaded his business plan. Later, messed up one question in YC interview and got rejected. Baffling...

How do we know the guy downloaded his plan? It could have been anybody - a deputy, underling, hell, even the secretary that absolutely refused him access. It doesn't matter that the CEO was running a hedge fund, I guarantee you he knows how to type in "how much is my domain worth" into google to get a rough figure for it.

In my earlier and somewhat more flush years, I used to have a saying "just throw money at the problem until it goes away". And you know what.. it worked. Well .. until I ran out of cash that is. This is what this sounds like to me. Flying London to New York on the off chance to meet this guy? One would have been better off finding out what gym he's a member of, which bars he drinks at, where he shops etc one was that desperate. mini-rant over.

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#29

Post by wilfra » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:25 PM UTC

Irregardless wrote: post #24

wilfra wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because he was not successful (yet) does not mean it was a foolish effort. It's attitudes like yours that make hustling work, simply because so few people are willing to even send an email to somebody because they think it's unlikely they'll get an affirmative response. Getting rejected is like ketchup on french fries.

He flew from London to NY and showed up at their office uninvited only to find out the CEO was in Aspen. After spending countless hours stalking the guy and hundreds (or thousands) on a plane ticket, he missed by 2,000 miles... If that happened to me, I'd be too embarrassed to repeat that story even to a group of close friends, let alone tout it as my proudest "life hack".

Most people would agree you with you. But that doesn't make you, or them, correct. You should learn to embrace failure as a completely normal and natural part of success, instead of fearing it. This story, and the fact that he is proud of it, is evidence that he gets that.

I have no idea who this guy is but if I could buy stock in his future right now, I would. I can't say the same for anybody who reads this and thinks he's foolish.

Re: How I got a YC interview as a single founder and blew it at the final hurdle

#30

Post by _hgt1 » Tue, Dec 04, 2012, 4:26 PM UTC

> "PG knew exactly what I wanted to do, it was the quickest anyone has grokked my idea. I could almost see this divide conquer algorithm working in his brain as he traversed the idea space, it was spectacular to behold."

These PG hagiographies are getting good.