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How to Apply to Y Combinator

ycombinator.com

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Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#121

Post by jamiequint »

Mz wrote: post #119
jamiequint wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its a $3B/yr market your company, if it delivers what you say, could almost certainly make $50M a year even accounting for the market shrinking drastically, couldn't it?

Roflol. Short, probably flippant-sounding description: I have discovered The Cure for cystic fibrosis. And it is a videogame! (Actually it's a lifestyle. But mere words have so far proven wholly unable to convey the necessary paradigm shift. So I need a simulation -- aka a computer game. Probably web-based, in part so that advertising can generate revenue since the only viable price point is probably "Free". But also…

Sounds like a market risk company with your marketing machine going up against that of hundred billion dollar market cap companies. Not fun.

However, big congrats on conquering your own situation.

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#122

Post by Mz »

Mz wrote: post #119
jamiequint wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If its a $3B/yr market your company, if it delivers what you say, could almost certainly make $50M a year even accounting for the market shrinking drastically, couldn't it?

Roflol. Short, probably flippant-sounding description: I have discovered The Cure for cystic fibrosis. And it is a videogame! (Actually it's a lifestyle. But mere words have so far proven wholly unable to convey the necessary paradigm shift. So I need a simulation -- aka a computer game. Probably web-based, in part so that advertising can generate revenue since the only viable price point is probably "Free". But also…

Thanks (for the congrats).:-) So far, my efforts have been very grass-roots. It's only since getting "clean and sober" ;-) that it occurred to me the issue is the information gap and the solution is a simulation.

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#123

Post by swaroop »

dhouston wrote: post #73
lacker wrote: post #14

It would be great to see previous successful applications, if they don't mind. (Unsuccessful ones would be interesting too but that might be weird for them.)

Hopefully I won't feel stupid posting this, but I wished someone had done the same thing when I applied. (pg -- if you'd rather I not share this, feel free to delete) Original Dropbox YC app: http://files.getdropbox.com/u/2/app.html Had to remove some names and one sensitive thing but otherwise unedited

You seem to be already doing well at the time of the application, why were you applying to YCombinator? Was it the money, the networking, or something else?

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#125

Post by grinich »

pg wrote: post #91
andreyf wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think we're much influenced by how memorable usernames are Well, by definition, biases aren't intuitively obvious. But I'd love to hear explicit introspection about this in the essay: what are your biases, and how do you eliminate their affecting your decisions?

That's a question we think about a lot, because bias basically equals things we judge wrong. I like energetic founders, for example, but one wouldn't call that a "bias," because energetic founders are good. So what you're really asking is what makes us pick wrong, which is something we're constantly thinking about. When I pick wrong, it's often because the founders seem really nice. That's probably my biggest weaknes…

It's a complicated problem.

Understated.

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#126

Post by brlewis »

fallentimes wrote: post #124
pg wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably. We're going to have to face this eventually. Plus any sufficiently rich market probably has room for several permutations.

Like photos?

Or words, or anything else that can be used in a variety of ways. See real-user discussion here: http://friendfeed.com/seemsartless/d4728c4a/saturday-june-27...

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#127

Post by felideon »

dhouston wrote: post #73
lacker wrote: post #14

It would be great to see previous successful applications, if they don't mind. (Unsuccessful ones would be interesting too but that might be weird for them.)

Hopefully I won't feel stupid posting this, but I wished someone had done the same thing when I applied. (pg -- if you'd rather I not share this, feel free to delete) Original Dropbox YC app: http://files.getdropbox.com/u/2/app.html Had to remove some names and one sensitive thing but otherwise unedited

If you were applying as a single founder, how and when did you meet Arash (or at what point did you get him to be cofounder)?

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#128

Post by messel »

Maybe because I'm a little older I'm confused on this one Paul. Why so much competition for 20k? Why are young founders racing to give away up to 10% of their business for such a small amount of capital? I can see the value of the YC network and that's worth a lot to me right now. But rent and fast food money for 3 months seems a little low of a reward on "winning" applications. Is the success rate of YC founders low? (success measured as sustainable/viable business in 5 years or a liquidity event)

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#129

Post by messel »

dhouston wrote: post #73
lacker wrote: post #14

It would be great to see previous successful applications, if they don't mind. (Unsuccessful ones would be interesting too but that might be weird for them.)

Hopefully I won't feel stupid posting this, but I wished someone had done the same thing when I applied. (pg -- if you'd rather I not share this, feel free to delete) Original Dropbox YC app: http://files.getdropbox.com/u/2/app.html Had to remove some names and one sensitive thing but otherwise unedited

Nice pitch Drew. And of course, I use and love dropbox.

Re: How to Apply to Y Combinator

#130

Post by messel »

swaroop wrote: post #123
dhouston wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully I won't feel stupid posting this, but I wished someone had done the same thing when I applied. (pg -- if you'd rather I not share this, feel free to delete) Original Dropbox YC app: http://files.getdropbox.com/u/2/app.html Had to remove some names and one sensitive thing but otherwise unedited

You seem to be already doing well at the time of the application, why were you applying to YCombinator? Was it the money, the networking, or something else?

This is exactly what I want to know. Must be the networking to sharp folks and help building the business from concept to concrete.
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