Well... It was really disappointing to get the rejection, especially when we've put so much work into that YC application. First idea when I saw the email: Damn! How could they do not invite us? We have such a great mobile email app! Disrupting! Fantastically awesome! Totally new approach that blows Google's Inbox and Mailbox out of the water hands down. Cool traction with early adopters and even a 200M users company as a partner that opens their audience to us. But then the second thought came. Thank you! Tanks for not inviting us to the interview for this W15 batch. We'll work our asses off to get into Summer batch. It is obvious that we didn't work hard enough to get invited into this one. Thanks for the motivational ass kick! Let's talk in April.
Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
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Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#2Yup, work harder.
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#3We'll work our asses off to get into Summer batch.
How about just "work your ass off to make a great product that satisfies your users, and grow your company", where getting into YC (or not) is just a side effect? Pointedly working to get into YC sounds, to me, like a micro-optimization, that may or may not make much difference in terms of your end goal(s).
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#4We'll work our asses off to get into Summer batch. How about just "work your ass off to make a great product that satisfies your users, and grow your company", where getting into YC (or not) is just a side effect? Pointedly working to get into YC sounds, to me, like a micro-optimization, that may or may not make much difference in terms of your end goal(s).
Piling on here. Marc Ecko's book Unlabel does a good job touching on this. There's gatekeepers and goalkeepers. YC is very valuable to be sure, but the real goalkeeper is getting your customers to pay for your product or service. That's really it.
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#5We'll work our asses off to get into Summer batch. How about just "work your ass off to make a great product that satisfies your users, and grow your company", where getting into YC (or not) is just a side effect? Pointedly working to get into YC sounds, to me, like a micro-optimization, that may or may not make much difference in terms of your end goal(s).
Or, work so hard to get into the summer batch that you don't end up caring about getting into the summer batch.
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#6We'll work our asses off to get into Summer batch. How about just "work your ass off to make a great product that satisfies your users, and grow your company", where getting into YC (or not) is just a side effect? Pointedly working to get into YC sounds, to me, like a micro-optimization, that may or may not make much difference in terms of your end goal(s).
Or, work so hard to get into the summer batch that you don't end up caring about getting into the summer batch.
Or, work so hard to get into the summer batch that you don't end up caring about getting into the summer batch.
To the extent that you'd do the same things either way, I think that makes perfect sense. But I'd worry if someone optimized for getting into YC, at the expense of doing something to improve their product / develop better engagement with their customers / etc.
Of course this is a continuum, not a binary thing. Even just filling out a YC application is an investment of time, that, theoretically, could have been used for writing code or something. And I'm certainly not saying "no one should ever apply to YC". I would just get nervous if it seemed that someone was treating "getting into YC" as the goal, in and of itself - rather than just treating it as a stepping-stone.
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#7We'll work our asses off to get into Summer batch. How about just "work your ass off to make a great product that satisfies your users, and grow your company", where getting into YC (or not) is just a side effect? Pointedly working to get into YC sounds, to me, like a micro-optimization, that may or may not make much difference in terms of your end goal(s).
Still, many people work better with short term milestones. I would wager that making a great product is always on the top of the list. The process of doing that is what matters. If this company finds intense focus with the goal getting in the summer batch, I'm all for it.
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#8Are you creating a breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
Are you starting with a big share of a small market?
Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don't see?
I'm guess you've answered no to several of the questions above. That's why they didn't pick you.
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#9Thanks for the comments. We are fully committed to the project and trying to get into YC was sort of a clearing the vision and putting everything into one single document. It helped a lot. Though we'd do our best to get into summer batch we'll keep on doing on what we're doing regardless if we succeed or not. It is just another motivational element:) Trying to get into YC and making progress with customers and users are the same to me. The more we are attractive for YC the better are the chances.
Re: Got rejected to YC and now feel happy about it:)
#10Are you creating a breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements? Are you starting with a big share of a small market? Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future? Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don't see? I'm guess you've answered no to several of the questions above. That's why they didn't pick you.
I like Thiel's book and ideas as much as the next person, but it disturbs me to see them parroted, because some of these questions aren't even good. Especially these two:
Are you creating a breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
Will your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?
Did any of Uber, Facebook, Twitter, AirBNB, Dropbox, etc. have breakthrough technology? Meaning something no one else could copy? No, the first iterations of those products could have been built by nearly anyone, but wasn't. Technology is clearly not an important reason why they succeeded.