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We Make Mistakes

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: We Make Mistakes

#191

Post by [deleted] »

downandout wrote: post #61
tomasien wrote: post #50

I never got into Y Combinator (I think I applied 4 times but I'm not sure) but I'm now the CEO of a rapidly growing, well funded startup that actually SERVES an increasing number of YC companies. The way I always thought about YC was that it is ALWAYS worth applying because the exercise is good and the upside is high (and the downside minimal) but getting into YC should never be "part of your plan" - there are too ma…

>I never got into Y Combinator but I'm now the CEO of a rapidly growing, well funded startup that actually SERVES an increasing number of YC companies This this kind of thing always feels like a bit of a victory. I never came close to being admitted to Stanford, but years ago found myself on the campus, hiring a professor as a consultant to a startup I co-founded. As we walked around the campus and then sat in his of…

[deleted]

Re: We Make Mistakes

#192

Post by ig1 »

birken wrote: post #85
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 s…

It's far from black and white when it comes to feedback, once you're at the point where an investor is spending real time with you they're much more likely to give you feedback if they think you're able to react to that feedback effectively.

For example if they think you need to prove out certain assumptions then they'll tell you those assumptions, because it's in their interest. If they think you personally as a founder are uninvestable then they're unlikely to tell you that because there's no advantage in that for anyone.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#194

Post by ig1 »

AustinPythonFTW wrote: post #106
jl wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been doing pretty much the same things since we started in 2005: we've never given specific feedback about rejections at the application stage (it wasn't going to scale even when we only got a few hundred applications). We funded 8 startups in our first batch, which was roughly 2-3% of the total applications. We definitely fund people who have no connection to folks we already know, or Silicon Valley for that m…

thanks for the comment. YC is definitely great about being very respectful to applicants in its process and blog posts, so don't get me wrong. I'm just wondering if there's a way for people to understand what their chances are. For example, if 0.01% of people that have lower than a 650 GMAT get into Stanford, then that would be useful information to know (for hopeful applicants). Similarly, if the "has revenue" cohor…

The curve is far less uniform than you might imagine.

There are going to be a few companies which are obvious superstars (great team, market, execution, traction, etc.) which will be obvious yeses. You're either in this group or your not.

There are many many companies which are obviously bad: weak team, bad market, poorly thought through idea, pre-product, etc. These companies would get rejected regardless of how many companies applied.

Then you have the companies in the middle. That's where the competition is. It doesn't really matter how many companies are in the previous groups, what matters is how you rank compared to the "maybes".

Re: We Make Mistakes

#195

Post by gohrt »

coffeemug wrote: post #132
lubos wrote: post #121

If you want to get into YC, it's quite simple. You have to optimize for what they want and considering how transparent the application process is, it's actually quite easy. PG's essays are step-by-step guides on how to "tick" all the right boxes. They even give you the list of ideas they wish to fund. How nice of them... No wonder YC has announced that quality of applications is increasing. It's not increasing becaus…

Optimizing for what you think YC partners want is a sure way to not get into YC. You're not a mind reader; what you think they want is almost certainly different from what they actually want. More importantly, they read thousands of applications, and you're only working on one. They can smell people who are trying to game them from a thousand miles away. Just doing what you do is the only thing that matters and will…

Your theory seems to apply to SEO as well (just make the best content, and google will rank it highest for relevant terms), and yet the whole SEO industry exists, and most of journalism has changed the way it uses language so that it is more parsable by googlebot -- Google Standard English.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#196

Post by flipside »

aliakhtar wrote: post #187
flipside wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 years in the company, 10 months on this product. It absolutely looks like a "bad idea", but all its deficiencies can be compensated and its strengths are unmatched.

sorry to tell you this, but he's right, i wouldn't ever tug on a line while i'm watching a video. clicking a smiley / angry face, may be.

neither would i ;)

Re: We Make Mistakes

#197

Post by hessenwolf »

hnriot wrote: post #178
hessenwolf wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a reply from a financial engineering consultancy HR person on Friday to say that they would not be able to process my application until I had submitted my high school results. From 1997. I have several applications on the go right now, so I do not have time to go historical for them. They miss a candidate.

that's not unreasonable, when applying for job you need to get your stuff together. So many companies have later found out employees claimed degrees they never got. HR protects against that.

I had a phd and three degrees included.

Re: We Make Mistakes

#199

Post by aliakhtar »

flipside wrote: post #185
stevephillips wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should blog about what you learnt at each iteration

I absolutely should, but I haven't figured out a system for blogging that doesn't take too much time.

Just start posting it in self posts here or on reddit. I'd read it.
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