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The YC Rejection thread

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: The YC Rejection thread

#131

Post by slpsys »

sam_in_nyc wrote: post #129
davidw wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A waitlist would imply that people were basically good enough, whereas pg has always said that if they like a group, they'll take them - it's not as if there is a number of accepted groups that is set in stone.

Wow, fine, whatever. Then use your god damn imagination as to what the strata could be. My point is that they could have prepared more than one type of rejection e-mail. That's the significant thing I'm adding to the discussion, so please respond to that, rather than trying to disprove some other minor point I'm not even trying to make. If I sound like I'm pissed, it's because I am. This happens all the fucking time…

Uh..ease up. He's pretty much just repeating their criteria verbatim, which are relevant regardless of what the strata names are. If they're prepared to fund 1,000 companies they think are _really_ likely to make it, I think that implies there's no need for strata. The only way 'close' would make sense is if there were a cap, otherwise I'm sure they'd still accept a not-quite-ready idea they really, really liked.

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#132

Post by kevinherron »

Zev wrote: post #63
sam_in_nyc wrote: post #20

I wonder if all the rejection e-mails had the same text. Mine started with "We're sorry" and ended with "Y Combinator Staff" and has the following MD5: f459a7d636ac85cdcd680b135bcfc521 Edit: easy multi-line md5 here: http://www.webhost.org/widgets/md5encrypter

Thats the MD5 we got as well with the website. Oddly, when I did `echo "We're sorry … Y Combinator Staff" | md5`, I got a different sum (f807496243cc18b53929b313c410f64a). //edit: The website seems to strip out blank lines, while echoing it doesn't. Solves that (trivially minor) issue I suppose.

Try `echo -n ...`

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#133

Post by sam_in_nyc »

slpsys wrote: post #131
sam_in_nyc wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, fine, whatever. Then use your god damn imagination as to what the strata could be. My point is that they could have prepared more than one type of rejection e-mail. That's the significant thing I'm adding to the discussion, so please respond to that, rather than trying to disprove some other minor point I'm not even trying to make. If I sound like I'm pissed, it's because I am. This happens all the fucking time…

Uh..ease up. He's pretty much just repeating their criteria verbatim, which are relevant regardless of what the strata names are. If they're prepared to fund 1,000 companies they think are _really_ likely to make it, I think that implies there's no need for strata. The only way 'close' would make sense is if there were a cap, otherwise I'm sure they'd still accept a not-quite-ready idea they really, really liked.

Thank you for explaining what his post said. And thank you again for then paraphrasing his post. And, a third thanks, for ignoring the main argument in my last post, and continuing to nullify the types of e-mails that I pulled out of my ass, specifically, the "close" e-mail.

And, yet, I'm still at a loss as to why it is unreasonable to think that there could be different generic e-mails sent out to different groups.

>>If they're prepared to fund 1,000 companies they think are _really_ likely to make it, I think that implies there's no need for strata.

Only if every company not accepted was rejected for precisely the same reason, and this reason could not at all be broken down at all. Do you think that is likely?

Perhaps somebody could list out all of the YC philosophies of acceptance, and every type of generic e-mail that wouldn't make sense to send; then we could use deduction to solve this mystery of no stratified rejection e-mails.

All I set out to do was test the hypothesis: Were there different rejection letters sent, because it seems pretty reasonable that there would be. Maybe some letters would contain feedback, albeit generic? After all, they need to make a conscientious decision to accept/deny, why not have a few reasons for denying? I even proposed a method to test out this hypothesis.

Thank you to everyone who did the MD5 to verify that there was only 1 type of e-mail sent. That's what I was looking for.

But when I get in return, and not just on this thread, are people talking about the YC acceptance process as if they are part of YC, or (in this case) paraphrasing the fucking rejection letter or YC application notes, I find that to be really annoying. I can read and understand things myself. It would be a disservice to myself if I didn't express that annoyance.

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#134

Post by sam_in_nyc »

davidw wrote: post #130
sam_in_nyc wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, fine, whatever. Then use your god damn imagination as to what the strata could be. My point is that they could have prepared more than one type of rejection e-mail. That's the significant thing I'm adding to the discussion, so please respond to that, rather than trying to disprove some other minor point I'm not even trying to make. If I sound like I'm pissed, it's because I am. This happens all the fucking time…

I wasn't trying to be snarky. They apparently feel that "you didn't get in" is all that needs to be said.

I apologize.

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#135

Post by froo »

dbul wrote: post #5

As far as we're concerned, they've failed an IQ test. ;)

I understand that you're probably angry, perhaps a little confused too - but insulting the intelligence of people who have in the past proven that they are anything but stupid, isn't going to earn you any brownie points.

I see YC as a tool to be used in helping your startup achieve it's goals, there are many others out there of varying qualities - you shouldn't see it as the destination of it.

Personally, I'd love to hear about your startup in 6-12 months time (if you've continued with it) and how well you're doing, so if you do continue with your idea and you're a squijillionaire by that time, drop me a line. My email is in my profile. Feel free to call me all sorts of four letter words and tell me I was wrong :)

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#136

Post by dbul »

froo wrote: post #135
dbul wrote: post #5

As far as we're concerned, they've failed an IQ test. ;)

I understand that you're probably angry, perhaps a little confused too - but insulting the intelligence of people who have in the past proven that they are anything but stupid, isn't going to earn you any brownie points. I see YC as a tool to be used in helping your startup achieve it's goals, there are many others out there of varying qualities - you shouldn't see it as the destination of it. Personally, I'd love to…

It was rather tongue-in-cheek:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=As+far+as+we're+concerned%2...

And I will report back about my startup on demo day in August -- I'd rather it be a "you can succeed if you weren't accepted" story rather than a "told you so" one, because frankly I think pg et al. are perfectly confident with the startups they have chosen. Unfortunately I have two very challenging startups at the same time, but fortunately both are well under way!

Edit: None of the websites in my profile are my startup unless it explicitly is prefaced with startup:.

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#137

Post by froo »

dbul wrote: post #136
froo wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that you're probably angry, perhaps a little confused too - but insulting the intelligence of people who have in the past proven that they are anything but stupid, isn't going to earn you any brownie points. I see YC as a tool to be used in helping your startup achieve it's goals, there are many others out there of varying qualities - you shouldn't see it as the destination of it. Personally, I'd love to…

It was rather tongue-in-cheek: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=As+far+as+we're+concerned%2... And I will report back about my startup on demo day in August -- I'd rather it be a "you can succeed if you weren't accepted" story rather than a "told you so" one, because frankly I think pg et al. are perfectly confident with the startups they have chosen. Unfortunately I have two very challenging startups at the same tim…

Ah gotcha, well then I shall retract my previous statement.

I wasn't aware of the quote :)

But still the offer stands, I love talking to people about their startups (as well as my own) and discussing various perspectives. I think lines of communication are important!

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#138

Post by dbul »

froo wrote: post #137
dbul wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was rather tongue-in-cheek: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=As+far+as+we're+concerned%2... And I will report back about my startup on demo day in August -- I'd rather it be a "you can succeed if you weren't accepted" story rather than a "told you so" one, because frankly I think pg et al. are perfectly confident with the startups they have chosen. Unfortunately I have two very challenging startups at the same tim…

Ah gotcha, well then I shall retract my previous statement. I wasn't aware of the quote :) But still the offer stands, I love talking to people about their startups (as well as my own) and discussing various perspectives. I think lines of communication are important!

Well actually I'm glad you pointed it out. I'm sure several people had thought/would have thought it was an arrogant quote.

Yes, there should be a way of communicating more easily. Why isn't chatterous embedded in HN? I've been tempted to create a portal that keeps track of startups (techcrunch and wikipedia are no good for this). It would probably be a waste of time... or would it?

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#139

Post by froo »

dbul wrote: post #138
froo wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah gotcha, well then I shall retract my previous statement. I wasn't aware of the quote :) But still the offer stands, I love talking to people about their startups (as well as my own) and discussing various perspectives. I think lines of communication are important!

Well actually I'm glad you pointed it out. I'm sure several people had thought/would have thought it was an arrogant quote. Yes, there should be a way of communicating more easily. Why isn't chatterous embedded in HN? I've been tempted to create a portal that keeps track of startups (techcrunch and wikipedia are no good for this). It would probably be a waste of time... or would it?

there's always #startups on IRC (irc.freenode.net)

Re: The YC Rejection thread

#140

Post by khangtoh »

nostrademons wrote: post #113
iamelgringo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you enjoy your move to the Bay area. It's delightful. And, if you want to get to know some people in the Hacker community, http://HackersandFounders.com gets together every couple of weeks. Let me know you're coming, and I'll buy you a beer. :)

Cool, just joined. :-) I've been looking for groups like this...just moved out to the Bay Area about 3 months ago.

Where's the best to stay in the bay area.

My concern is good neighbourhood, is closed to tech events and of course has to be ramen-affordable too! I know it's possible to find the best of everything.

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