Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The YC Rejection thread

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 145 posts

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#51

Post by unalone »

silencio wrote: post #42
unalone wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excuse me, I'm still young and arrogant and want to be rich and famous before I'm 25. Perhaps that's not the best mindset to approach this from.

:) I guess that depends on what you're doing. For me? Not so much as being rich and famous as it is about paying the bills while helping solve problems people have. Also, you're making me feel older than I should. Please get off my lawn ;)

20? You're old, man. You're like leather jackets and top hats. You've seen the 80s. It's like wack.

I'm one of those annoying disciples who thinks that being rich and famous is the totally coolest part of America, and I bug everybody else trying to be it. Either 7 years from now I'll grow up, or 2 years from now I'll totally be one of those hip Hollywood cats.

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#52

Post by silencio »

smidwap wrote: post #46
silencio wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is age such a bad thing :) I'm 20 and we also got rejected, but one of us happens to be in her 50s and doesn't consider this the worst thing in the world (or even, the worst thing to happen to our startup).

Same here. We have a team of 20-year olds an one 52 year-old. The grandpa of us bunch didn't see the same excitement in this opportunity as the young'uns did. Rejection here as well...would have been a heck of a summer in San Francisco, instead it will have to be an awesome 4 months in Bloomington, IN, home of Indiana University!

Our 3 person startup's disappointment at YC rejection is strongly correlated with age. The ancient one in our group (ha) is disappointed but thinks the challenges we've faced to even get started were more problematic than what we're going to miss out on, while I'm sad we're missing out on the connections, and the youngest seems to be most disappointed over everything YC could have given us. It's our collective first rejection, may there be many more until we just bootstrap and get this startup going anyway! :D

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#53

Post by varun »

I loved the YC process. They asked the right questions on their application form - which helped us a lot in getting a clearer idea of the venture. The prospect of an interview also pushed us to develop a demo quicker than we would have (which we just finished - didn't submit before the deadline).

So thanks to the YC process itself, we NOW have a presentation deck ready and a demo and can charge full steam ahead regardless. YC for us would have been a nice-to-have, not essential. We have a fairly interesting idea and a background which included two of us having founded startups in the recent past (one of them being www.alertle.com - check it out for UI design), being speakers of Ruby on Rails and AJAX at conferences, and work experience at other startups and places like Merrill Lynch. And of course, a CS background. We didn't even get an interview.

I'm assuming the calibre of teams accepted would have been pretty extraordinary this year. Good luck to all! :)

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#54

Post by nanexcool »

goodkarma wrote: post #40
nanexcool wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the YC connections were the first things on my mind. I don't think you can equate them to hard cash. It's just that the cash would have given me the chance to quit consulting and go 100% on my idea. But it's not the end of the world.

So you're letting $10,000 hold you back from your dream? For real?

Of course not! I'm still going to do my thing! I'm just going to have to continue consulting to pay the bills. That's all I'm saying. The money would have let me work full-time on my startup.

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#55

Post by dotmatrix »

smidwap wrote: post #46
silencio wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is age such a bad thing :) I'm 20 and we also got rejected, but one of us happens to be in her 50s and doesn't consider this the worst thing in the world (or even, the worst thing to happen to our startup).

Same here. We have a team of 20-year olds an one 52 year-old. The grandpa of us bunch didn't see the same excitement in this opportunity as the young'uns did. Rejection here as well...would have been a heck of a summer in San Francisco, instead it will have to be an awesome 4 months in Bloomington, IN, home of Indiana University!

Age is seriously but a number. Who cares if your 18 or 52. In fact having a dynamic team with experience people and young people is great. Our company is run by a guy that is in his late 30s and the co founder is in his early 30s and I can honestly say that a young guy couldnt do half the stuff these guys can...

Sometimes age is totally a good thing :) And btw im 24 and on my second startup so I beat you 18 year old shits.

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#56

Post by smidwap »

ktharavaad wrote: post #13

Really sux to be rejected. But now I'm more motivated than ever to work on my produt to prove that they made a mistake.

I feel as if rejection here shouldn't really be a motivating factor! There should be so many reasons above proving YC wrong to be a motivated entrepreneur. But whatever gets you going I guess...

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#59

Post by vaksel »

nanexcool wrote: post #6
vaksel wrote: post #4

I wouldn't worry that much about the money, its not what YC is about. I'd worry more about not getting access to all those YC connections.

Of course the YC connections were the first things on my mind. I don't think you can equate them to hard cash. It's just that the cash would have given me the chance to quit consulting and go 100% on my idea. But it's not the end of the world.

if $$$ is a problem, can either bum around relatives and see if you can convince them to give you the loan or get one of those 10-30K @ 0% APR for 9 months credit card offers.

That way you'll be able to do your thing

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#60

Post by dotmatrix »

khangtoh wrote: post #37
iamelgringo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you enjoy your move to the Bay area. It's delightful. And, if you want to get to know some people in the Hacker community, http://HackersandFounders.com gets together every couple of weeks. Let me know you're coming, and I'll buy you a beer. :)

cool.. I'll definitely attend HackersandFounders meetup when I get there!

I usually attend its a great meetup. Although i think the bayarea is a bit boring compared to NYC..make it really boring
Post reply on HN