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We Make Mistakes

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: We Make Mistakes

#81

Post by paul9290 »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #67
paul9290 wrote: post #51

I'm curious to how many founders in this batch are... - Over 35 - Female - African American Edit: My post here is to gauge if the needle of progress in our industry is moving forward in the terms of race, age and sex.

We were accepted for an interview (Not accepted to the class yet). I'm 41 and my co-founder (who doesn't looks quite as young as I am) is 47. To be honest, I fully expected a rejection for this very reason so I'm pleasantly surprised which is actually pretty consistent with the YC brand. To make a fair assessment you also need to look at the distribution of applicants. If 15% of applicants are female, then your null…

Congratulations!

I do wonder if you...

- Are already generating revenue

- Have lots of traction/traffic

- Sold previous start-ups and or companies before

- Worked at and or working at Apple, Facebook, Google or similar companies

- Ran a successful KickStarter

- Went to an ivy league school

As for us.. I am 39 and this is my second start-up. My co-founder is 21. Our first start-up idea (was a novel idea at the time) has since gone onto being worked on/copied by dozens, including one now with millions of users. We were not technical when we started our first start-up, but did receive a fair amount of attention for the concept.

Overall, I don't think that matters due to the competition you face in applying for YC. I would assume many who are interviewed & accepted can check off a few of those questions I asked above. Though maybe not?

Not sure we will apply again since we applied in April of 2013. Though when we applied in 2013 & got rejected we soon were invited to demo our technology to an entity in the valley. That is an interesting story in itself. Maybe that will happen again :-)

Well we were not lucky this time, I wish you better luck!

Re: We Make Mistakes

#82

Post by wpietri »

curiousDog wrote: post #62
paul9290 wrote: post #51

I'm curious to how many founders in this batch are... - Over 35 - Female - African American Edit: My post here is to gauge if the needle of progress in our industry is moving forward in the terms of race, age and sex.

Why? Do you think any of those were grounds for rejection?

Those are all things demonstrated to bias hiring, so it's a reasonable question.

Note also that hiring biases don't require anything so unsubtle as making something like that grounds for rejection.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#83

Post by Fando »

There are more applicants than YCombinator could accept (or anyone could accept if you look at it in scale). Someone should create a social-media type website for YCombinator applicants (or anyone) to share their stories, meet, interact, network, learn, and collaborate on new and existing ideas. Imagine how many start-ups would be "born" like this. Think of how many great ideas don't get in or simply don't apply, think of how BIG this community could grow to be in a short time - it would grow by itself. Look at what Kickstarter is doing. Think of how many new comers this type of stepping stone would benefit and help achieve their ideas. Starting this community is possible by creating a great website that creatively engages members to collaborate. Let YCombinator (and anyone else) endorse it - first to members of the y-community then others. In fact "y-community" should be the name of it. We all know that out kind already burn with passion, desire and creativity. With minimal guidance from YCombinator it could succeed faster - passionate desires of those not-accepted will continue to burn and be fostered. Eventually, and this is speculating perhaps, if YCombinator becomes somewhat involved, with so many start-up communities popping-up in every city and country, this website, could grow to become the "Facebook" of start-ups. (only it would also be productive :) But seriously.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#84

Post by chacham15 »

Is it just me or does the application to YC feel like a pitch to an investor? I understand that for very specific cases they might be different in that they can see some early potential. However, if you're not one of those lucky few, then it feels like if you're at the point where you can convince YC to invest, you're already not too far from being able to convince an investor to invest. E.g. I've gotten the advice from multiple people at or affiliated with YC: "get users and show growth". But, for me specifically, if I had users and growth already, there is little more that the money that YC would help me raise can do. If I got into YC earlier, I would have hired people to help build the product which people want. Yes, there is a lot of work to grow post product, but in my case, money wouldnt really help that much (my case is desktop software, so I dont really need more server capacity or have scaling issues like other companies do).

Re: We Make Mistakes

#85

Post by birken »

AustinPythonFTW wrote: post #77

I'm definitely speaking at least a little bit out of bitterness (our team just got rejected), so with that caveat it feels like YC is becoming more like traditional VC (venture capital): - extremely low probability of success just due to volume of applications - no feedback (again, due to volume of applications, and they posted a nice blog post about this, but just stating a fact) - it seems (I don't have any factual…

Lots of people will give you money if they think you will turn it into more money. VCs, YC, techstars, rich people, angel investors, your parents, your dentist, etc. Having dealt with many varieties of these before, they all generally share those principles:

- You get a lot more 'no's than 'yes'es

- They don't give you a lot of feedback when they pass

- Having a previous relationship with them is helpful

- The more successful you are, the more they want to give you money

Unless you are starting a non-profit, this is just how it works. These people are investing, not donating to charity or your team's self-development. Get some traction and/or revenue and the game will flip around very quickly.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#86

Post by paul9290 »

austenallred wrote: post #60
paul9290 wrote: post #51

I'm curious to how many founders in this batch are... - Over 35 - Female - African American Edit: My post here is to gauge if the needle of progress in our industry is moving forward in the terms of race, age and sex.

I don't recall YC asking for race or gender on the application, so I doubt that's possible unless self-reported.

You have to submit a team video.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#87

Post by BillionaireBear »

Dissapointed, got very positive feedback from an alum prior to applying. But alas, that was not enough. :) I do find that international founders are at a distinct disadvantage due to lack of networking opportunities (which definitely plays a big part when each application probably receives 5 minutes per reviewer). That said - you could argue that any great entrepreneur would not allow that to be a barrier hehe!

Best of luck to everyone who has an interview and those who don't.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#88

Post by hillis »

Fando wrote: post #83

There are more applicants than YCombinator could accept (or anyone could accept if you look at it in scale). Someone should create a social-media type website for YCombinator applicants (or anyone) to share their stories, meet, interact, network, learn, and collaborate on new and existing ideas. Imagine how many start-ups would be "born" like this. Think of how many great ideas don't get in or simply don't apply, thi…

The website you're describing already exists. In fact, you just posted on it.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#89

Post by BillionaireBear »

kevin wrote: post #9
Udo wrote: post #7

Damn, I was thinking about trying for a "late" application, but apply.ycombinator.com seems to be down. Does anyone know if they still allow this, in principle? Or are batches now so saturated (with good ideas) that they dropped the option?

We do still allow late apps. We're working on the problem and hope to have it back up soon. Sorry guys!

What happens if a rejected company from this batch submits a late application. Does this paradox cause the universe to implode?

Haha - honestly though , is this acceptable?

Re: We Make Mistakes

#90

Post by aloma85 »

austenallred wrote: post #60
paul9290 wrote: post #51

I'm curious to how many founders in this batch are... - Over 35 - Female - African American Edit: My post here is to gauge if the needle of progress in our industry is moving forward in the terms of race, age and sex.

I don't recall YC asking for race or gender on the application, so I doubt that's possible unless self-reported.

If you are not a White or Asian male, don't even bother. Someone needs to start a fund for African Americans and women.
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