This isn't meant to be an angry discussion; simply state your idea, and wait for helpful feedback from your HN peers.
Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#2I didn't apply, but because I thought my business wasn't mature enough for YCombinator. BUT last time I started this thread, I was criticized for not being as forthright. So! my bootstrapped startup:
www.CameraLends.com, P2P camera rental. We've reached 500 users and nearly 100 transactions to date (and growing and accelerating week-over-week). We did not apply to YC because all YC alums who gave me advice said that YC is looking for "10% week-over-week growth" and our numbers are low enough to not be able to show that consistently.
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#3I didn't apply, but because I thought my business wasn't mature enough for YCombinator. BUT last time I started this thread, I was criticized for not being as forthright. So! my bootstrapped startup: www.CameraLends.com, P2P camera rental. We've reached 500 users and nearly 100 transactions to date (and growing and accelerating week-over-week). We did not apply to YC because all YC alums who gave me advice said that…
Nice. I like the design and good product photos. Not sure of the market size. That would be a good part to focus on if you apply in the future imo.
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#4I didn't apply, but because I thought my business wasn't mature enough for YCombinator. BUT last time I started this thread, I was criticized for not being as forthright. So! my bootstrapped startup: www.CameraLends.com, P2P camera rental. We've reached 500 users and nearly 100 transactions to date (and growing and accelerating week-over-week). We did not apply to YC because all YC alums who gave me advice said that…
Nice. I like the design and good product photos. Not sure of the market size. That would be a good part to focus on if you apply in the future imo.
Thanks for the kind words! Re: market size, BorrowLenses was acquired by Shutterfly for ~$14m in equity (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/10/25/shutterfly-a...). The market for pure consumer cameras is shrinking based on industry reports (~$100m/year and decreasing) but professional cameras aren't bleeding as bad. And Calumet (a HUGE national rental shop) closed it's doors recently, leaving a lot of photographers not knowing where to rent from.
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#5[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#6Hi guys we have built a search engine for local apps, 98% of the apps in the stores has less than 50.000 downloads, that is not a healthy ecosystem.
For us each application has a place and each location is a store.
Is no the first time we got rejected ;) Apple did not allow to publish our search engine back in July and later on they publish "Popular" Near me. We will keep fightint for a fair store and organic positioning for every indie dev.
Hope you like what we are trying to do.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.mapplas.co...
www.mapplas.com
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nice. I like the design and good product photos. Not sure of the market size. That would be a good part to focus on if you apply in the future imo.
Thanks for the kind words! Re: market size, BorrowLenses was acquired by Shutterfly for ~$14m in equity ( http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/10/25/shutterfly-a... ). The market for pure consumer cameras is shrinking based on industry reports (~$100m/year and decreasing) but professional cameras aren't bleeding as bad. And Calumet (a HUGE national rental shop) closed it's doors recently, leaving a lot of photog…
Ya, I figure your market is the SMB that needs high end equipment. Very cool. I know guys that could use this.
But I bet you'd have great funding success if you broadened the concept beyond just cameras and became Borrow.it or something. I was recently wishing there was a service that rents espresso machines since I've never used one before and the ones I want start at $700. Similar theme but another passionate crowd :)
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#8Hi guys we have built a search engine for local apps, 98% of the apps in the stores has less than 50.000 downloads, that is not a healthy ecosystem. For us each application has a place and each location is a store. Is no the first time we got rejected ;) Apple did not allow to publish our search engine back in July and later on they publish "Popular" Near me. We will keep fightint for a fair store and organic positio…
I just want to warn you, google will also remove your app once they notice it. Apple & Google do not want anyone competing with their stores.
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#9Hi guys we have built a search engine for local apps, 98% of the apps in the stores has less than 50.000 downloads, that is not a healthy ecosystem. For us each application has a place and each location is a store. Is no the first time we got rejected ;) Apple did not allow to publish our search engine back in July and later on they publish "Popular" Near me. We will keep fightint for a fair store and organic positio…
I just want to warn you, google will also remove your app once they notice it. Apple & Google do not want anyone competing with their stores.
thanks mate, hope for the best prepare for the worst.
Re: Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the kind words! Re: market size, BorrowLenses was acquired by Shutterfly for ~$14m in equity ( http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/10/25/shutterfly-a... ). The market for pure consumer cameras is shrinking based on industry reports (~$100m/year and decreasing) but professional cameras aren't bleeding as bad. And Calumet (a HUGE national rental shop) closed it's doors recently, leaving a lot of photog…
Ya, I figure your market is the SMB that needs high end equipment. Very cool. I know guys that could use this. But I bet you'd have great funding success if you broadened the concept beyond just cameras and became Borrow.it or something. I was recently wishing there was a service that rents espresso machines since I've never used one before and the ones I want start at $700. Similar theme but another passionate crowd…
We're testing the waters for lighting equipment (which is as expensive as cameras) and high-end video, like the RED ONE and Epic-M. It's funny that you suggest becoming more generic -- that was specifically why we began focused on camera gear. There are existing "P2P rent anything" sites like Zilok, Snapgoods, and the now defunct Rentalic. The main problem is that most items aren't expensive enough to be worth the hassle. The frustration that lead to CameraLends was my girlfriend complaining that renting a sewing machine for a few days would require $100 and renting a car to drive across town to pick up, whereas buying a brand new one on Amazon was only $150.