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

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

#51

Post by sjtgraham »

paulsutter wrote: post #50
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…

Good domains are valuable, so a few thousand pounds is a small amount to risk. Zap.com is a really good domain. His approach was smart. A billionaire is too busy to discuss the sale of a domain, but if you do manage to catch his interest, he may well give it to you free/cheap because it isn't an asset he spends time worrying about. I love the conservative objections here. Stunts like this only work if most people are…

Thank you for breaking this down.

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

#52

Post by leoh »

Do these "how I blew it" articles make anyone else uncomfortable? They always seem so self-deprecating, presumptuous, and often very seriously glorify YC and/or PG. Reflecting on an experience, especially one that you were hopeful about, but didn't go the way you wanted is good. But being so attached......

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

#53

Post by jessedhillon »

paulsutter wrote: post #50
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…

Good domains are valuable, so a few thousand pounds is a small amount to risk. Zap.com is a really good domain. His approach was smart. A billionaire is too busy to discuss the sale of a domain, but if you do manage to catch his interest, he may well give it to you free/cheap because it isn't an asset he spends time worrying about. I love the conservative objections here. Stunts like this only work if most people are…

I love the conservative objections here. Stunts like this only work if most people don't have the cojones to try them.

I get the point, but why the snark? Why be so dismissive? Especially since this "stunt" didn't work. (Yet?)

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

#54

Post by sjtgraham »

tetomb wrote: post #44
Peroni wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with CaveTech's summation that the process was all about securing a domain. It was about the author doing everything he could to bring his intentions for his product to fruition and the original article was about the significant effort the author made to get accepted into YC only to blow it on a single question. I believe a lot of folk aren't quite grasping how or why one guy would go to such extremes with…

I guess the post can be seen as a cautionary tale about the dangers of spending too much time on your domain name and not enough on your product.

Not at all. As I state in the post, I think I spent too much time on preparing the product and not enough time on interview prep.

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

#55

Post by spitx »

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…

...when there are an insane number of VC's & angel investors in the UK.

The constant gripe of U.K. based talent is that nothing ever gets funded there. At least not at the rate or the fluidity with which it does in the valley. Besides this maverick ex-con of an angel, Xavier Niel, who claims to have invested in some 700 startups to the tune of almost $150,000 a pop, who are these angels and VCs you talk about?

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

#56

Post by scott_s »

wilfra wrote: post #29
Irregardless wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 thin…

I would not. Not all failure is created equal. Failing is fine. Even failing big is fine. But the risk has to be worth the reward. His reward was a name. That's it - not the success or failure of the project he wanted to start, but just the name. Sure, names are important, but spending this much effort on the name and not the project itself does not, to me, indicate good judgement on where one's efforts are best spent.

"Learning to embrace failure" is not an excuse to avoid basic cost analysis.

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

#57

Post by tetomb »

paulsutter wrote: post #50
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…

Good domains are valuable, so a few thousand pounds is a small amount to risk. Zap.com is a really good domain. His approach was smart. A billionaire is too busy to discuss the sale of a domain, but if you do manage to catch his interest, he may well give it to you free/cheap because it isn't an asset he spends time worrying about. I love the conservative objections here. Stunts like this only work if most people are…

But the more valuable it is the more unlikely it is that it will be given away. Is spending time and money on the extremely small chance of getting hold of zap.com smarter than using those efforts to get hold of zap.co or zap.me? How much more is zap.com worth to your business over other alternatives?

If a few days and a few thousand pounds isn't worth much to him then I understand but if resources are scarce, using them on long shots that might not even pay that much over the alternatives is not good business.

edit: punctuation, grammar

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

#58

Post by mrkmcknz »

wilfra wrote: post #22

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.

From what I can see ZPCM isn't a public company it trades on what is referred to as the pink sheets.

It has no revenue or business activity meaning it was probably once a public company or had the intention of becoming one.

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

#59

Post by snowwrestler »

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.

I would think a more impressive effort at hustling would be to find a (more readily) available domain name, then focus on building such a great product that it works anyway.

IMO the story shows great hustle but poor prioritization. Domains don't matter that much. One of YC's most successful graduates is airbnb after all. That domain is basically nonsense, but the product is so good, now it's their own special nonsense.

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

#60

Post by Irregardless »

paulsutter wrote: post #50
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…

Good domains are valuable, so a few thousand pounds is a small amount to risk. Zap.com is a really good domain. His approach was smart. A billionaire is too busy to discuss the sale of a domain, but if you do manage to catch his interest, he may well give it to you free/cheap because it isn't an asset he spends time worrying about. I love the conservative objections here. Stunts like this only work if most people are…

This sounds like something you only see in movies: Billionaire hedge fund manager signs over really valuable asset to persistent little whipper-snapper then utters some cliché phrase like "You've got spunk, kid!". Hedge fund managers didn't get rich by giving things away to the first person who asked nicely, and they still have business partners to answer to.

I'm surprised that calculating risk before investing large amounts of time and money now qualifies as 'conservative'. If that's a common attitude in SV these days, the bubble may be worse than I thought...

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