11–20 of 69 posts
It doesn't seem surprising that someone with an entrepreneurial drive but only an embrionic vision would want to join the cool kids club. I mean, you gotta do something with your life even if you don't have a grand vision.
Getting into Y Combinator for the sake of getting into Y Combinator seems to be quite common; I wasn't too surprised at that. Could there be scope in the application for a question along the lines of "What do you want to achieve by being a part of Y Combinator?"?
This highlights part of the HN/YC culture that just doesn't resonate with me at all. I like coming up with creative ideas and working on fun stuff, but it seems totally backwards to me to repeatedly try to conjure a startup out of thin air in the hopes of getting funded. One of the parts that gave me pause was the idea of somebody furiously learning programming to facilitate building an app to teach others to program…
This is certainly not universal, but it seems like a bunch of YC funded startups exist solely to attempt being acquired. I understand that 'exiting' is a marker of some form of success, but doesn't this notion sort of contradict some of the hacker mentality and startup culture that created it in the first place? I mean, you just poured your heart and soul into a company for the past several months, if not years, and you're just going to let some mega corporation purchase it and grow even larger? And yet the vast majority of these companies just sit there and eat through their funding... what's the point?
It really feels like the web bubble all over again, but like I said, maybe I'm just missing something.
I don't buy the "do whatever your passion is" bullshit. I just don't. I think that people that win are people that WANT to win. Of course, some times you see some guy who's passion was building boats all his life (or something) and he happens to get on CNN and get some major coverage and his business booms (when he's like 60); my argument is that those are largely exceptions.
If you want to win, you need to focus on winning (like the OP is/was doing). Winning in the start-up world is largely contingent on two things: VC and media coverage. YC can bring both home. I see absolutely nothing wrong with OP's attempt to enhance his application (heck even "leveraging" a woman co-founder is fair game).
Here's a (somewhat poor) analogy: I have a large number of friends that go to law schools (or have already graduated). In many cases, the most ambitious ones will not even consider a sub-T14 school. If they don't get into a top law school, what's the point of paying for a degree and practicing law at some sub-par firm?
Of course, the romantics in us don't really appreciate this cold-hearted realism (if you really really like law, you can succeed! see Erin Brokovich!) But real life doesn't work like that. YC is, in many ways, prime real-estate for new start-ups. I see no reason why you WOULDN'T cater your application and idea to trying to get in. Heck, that's exactly what people to do when trying to get Fullbright scholarships, Ivy league acceptances, etc.
YC is not some kind of beauty pageant and it's not a make or break situation for your business. Posting up the rejection letter in your office? Don't be obsessed with Ycom. If you make it, that's great, you can get a lot of good resources and you've essentially got the seal of approval from angel investors. If Not? No big deal! Build the product, bring it to market, get active users and make sure that it's a profitable business that can stay profitable even at a scaling point. If you do this much, you'll get good attention and will find yourself raising seed money.
This all seems so misguided. "I'm going to come up with something so I can get into this club and I'm going to sit in protest until they let me in! And if that doesn't work, I'll just keep trying." Reminds me of Rudy... Instead of working on an idea in hopes of getting into YC, focus on an idea/market you care about and don't give a shit whether you get into a special "cool kids" club. That will get you a hell of a l…
That was his conclusion too.
This all seems so misguided. "I'm going to come up with something so I can get into this club and I'm going to sit in protest until they let me in! And if that doesn't work, I'll just keep trying." Reminds me of Rudy... Instead of working on an idea in hopes of getting into YC, focus on an idea/market you care about and don't give a shit whether you get into a special "cool kids" club. That will get you a hell of a l…
In case you did not get the reference, the story of Rudy is a famous, sensationalized true story of the power of perseverance.