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We Make Mistakes

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: We Make Mistakes

#141

Post by ttty »

tomasien wrote: post #115
vacri wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once tried to become a paramedic. I was working in a sort-of outpatient clinic at the time, talked a couple of times with an paramedic instructor, along with some regular officers. I never got in - the HR recruiters didn't like me for some reason. This made no sense to the instructor, who thought I was a prime candidate, nor to my medical colleagues, and I also later successfully coached two friends through the pro…

Absolutely, and you've got to remember that the gatekeepers use heuristics meant to target the greatest chance at being the rightest, not ensuring that they don't miss a few obvious ones. Such it is with YC - their heuristics are designed to ensure that they catch the potential unicorns (among other things) and aren't concerned with missing a few that would seem obvious in retrospect. And btw they seem to do well - a…

Anywhere to know those "heuristics"?

Re: We Make Mistakes

#142

Post by ttty »

flipside wrote: post #71
aliakhtar wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

7 times is a lot. Has it always been with the same product, or different ideas?

Team has changed, name has changed, product has changed, vision has been refined. 10/30 marks my 4 year anniversary for coming up with the core ideas behind Tinj. We're building dramatically better ways for people to share information starting with video ratings. More than anything, I've grown enormously as an entrepreneur, as a developer and as a person.

video, like movies or what? youtubes?

Re: We Make Mistakes

#143

Post by Stoo »

taytus wrote: post #53

First rejection but I have a smile in my face. I did it, I had the courage to apply. So... yeah I'm happy.

Same. And I can think of a couple of reasons why I might have been rejected, which means I now have an area to focus on to develop the company (and the idea) further.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#144

Post by aliakhtar »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #105
aliakhtar wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congrats. What's your start up about?

We're an investment marketplace for agriculture and agtech. On the face of it, this sounds totally dull in the world of SnapChat and Secret. Our job is to make sure that your grandchildren have food to eat by 2050 when we we need to feed 10 billion people. I started the company because I was working for a company in west africa before this. We failed to marshal enough capital to grow our business beyond the pilot sta…

Great idea. You're the 3rd company in the food / agricultural space that got in for interviews this batch. Two others posted here, one which makes analytics for fish farms, and another for cattle farmers.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#146

Post by stevephillips »

flipside wrote: post #14

7th rejection, doesn't even phase me anymore. :P For those with less experience, the disappointment will pass. Take a day if you need to reflect on what you're doing, why you're doing it and how you could do it better. Rejection is fuel for the fire, use it to burn brighter going forward. Next time, be so good they can't ignore you, simple as that.

You should blog about what you learnt at each iteration

Re: We Make Mistakes

#147

Post by aliakhtar »

MCRed wrote: post #79
aliakhtar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll share a bit. I'm a solo, international founder. I applied with a barely usable, very limited prototype, of a technically challenging project (involving A.I and machine learning). My video was viewed twice, and my demo was viewed, but no other action was taken within it. I was rejected. I expected that, given that my prototype was pretty bad, and I have a lot going against me. It definitely lit a fire under me ju…

I was a "solo founder" type for awhile. If you're an engineer I think you can have your pick of co-founders. My suggestion, after working on and for startups for a couple decades is that you should be the CEO, find business people to be co-founders, and hire a VP of engineering, or CTO. It's almost a cliche that there are business guys "starting companies" who "just need an engineer"... but I think the best chances f…

I'm not going to get a co-founder just to get into YC.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#148

Post by KetciaThach »

Been rejected , but been viewed by 6 people (alumni/or YC) and it is a victory for us for a first time. In the end it is all about what resonate the most to them, YC has its agenda if you dont fit in it , doesnt mean you're bad or your idea is not smart enough. It means you don't fit . That's all. We will keep on working and apply in 6 months or just never apply again and make it work on our own. And I think the worst case would have been to be accepted by YC and fail once I got out of it ... which happens a lot !! :) Thanks for all YC

Re: We Make Mistakes

#149

Post by wernerb »

flipside wrote: post #136
bobbles wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We're building dramatically better ways for people to share information..." reaction: cool! "...starting with video ratings" reaction: meh

I know, right? One of these days I'll figure out the right way to explain things in writing...

"Have you wondered what honest video feedback aligned to your own movie watching taste looks like? Check us out at tinj.com"

Haven't looked at your site yet, but this is what I would relate to. Good luck!

Re: We Make Mistakes

#150

Post by wellboy »

doddavenkatappa wrote: post #138

We too got the rejection letter. But it is perfectly understandable in our case as we are really in the early stages, without a prototype. Any thoughts on how much a prototype and full-time commitment from all founders matter?

If you haven't sold a previous company before, you need to have strong traction (at least 5,000 users or $5,000 revenue within the last 6 months), otherwise you don't have a chance really.

Also, you need to have a full-time commitment, otherwise they won't give you $120,000 if that makes sense.

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