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Question to YC: trends in summer founders applications, demographics

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Re: Question to YC: trends in summer founders applications, demographics

#11
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This is a question to PG and other people involved in looking at startup applications. Can you reveal anything about the number of applications you've received this time, as compared to other funding sessions? I suspect that it's much higher than the number of proposals for WFP, but have you seen a large increase in the number of apps compared to last summer, because of all the publicity you're getting? Also, if this…

We got 421 applications. That's more than past cycles, maybe because we're getting better known. This will be the last time we disclose application numbers though. Now that we have competitors (or at least imitators), we don't want to get into a number-of-applicants contest. It's easy to inflate that number, by encouraging undergrads and single founders to apply, but we don't want to go there. The big difference this…

Does the fact that other companies have started imitating Y Combinator bother you? In one sense, I know this will make it harder for you to get people with the best ideas (but I wouldn't worry about that for at least a few years - you're way too far ahead of anyone else). But for the community, having the ability to get a little funding for a larger number of startups could turn out to be a good thing.

Even if you can work with 30 startups in each session, that is still a tiny fraction of all the applications you're getting. There must be projects beyond the ones you will accept that still have a shot at becoming successful. If other people are willing to give funding/advice, couldn't that be a Good Thing?

Re: Question to YC: trends in summer founders applications, demographics

#12
post #6
post #2

This is a question to PG and other people involved in looking at startup applications. Can you reveal anything about the number of applications you've received this time, as compared to other funding sessions? I suspect that it's much higher than the number of proposals for WFP, but have you seen a large increase in the number of apps compared to last summer, because of all the publicity you're getting? Also, if this…

We got 421 applications. That's more than past cycles, maybe because we're getting better known. This will be the last time we disclose application numbers though. Now that we have competitors (or at least imitators), we don't want to get into a number-of-applicants contest. It's easy to inflate that number, by encouraging undergrads and single founders to apply, but we don't want to go there. The big difference this…

Thanks for sharing that info .... it gives us an idea of what you have to go through to screen the applications... does every application get a reply?
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