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Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

tomaitch.com

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Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#21

Post by axod »

david927 wrote: post #20
axod wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you feel you need Silicon Valley / culture / mentorship etc? If you have a good idea, just do it. Doesn't really matter where you are if you have the determination to succeed.

I live in Europe and there's not much in the way of concept level funding here. I completely understand the OP -- having any help, let alone a few months of funding, the mentorship and Demo Day is definitely worth getting excited about, especially if you're not already in a hub area. On a funny note: We just had TechCrunch party here in Prague over the weekend, and it was like an AA meeting. No investors, just startu…

It matters if you let it matter. If you feel you need to go the whole Angel->VC schmoozing route, then definitely location matters. But there's a lot of other ways to get started.

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#22

Post by tomaitch »

axod wrote: post #21
david927 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Europe and there's not much in the way of concept level funding here. I completely understand the OP -- having any help, let alone a few months of funding, the mentorship and Demo Day is definitely worth getting excited about, especially if you're not already in a hub area. On a funny note: We just had TechCrunch party here in Prague over the weekend, and it was like an AA meeting. No investors, just startu…

It matters if you let it matter. If you feel you need to go the whole Angel->VC schmoozing route, then definitely location matters. But there's a lot of other ways to get started.

It matters if your business is the type that can't prosper on determination alone. That kept us going for 6 years. Eventually we needed money and a supportive environment.

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#23

Post by puzzle-out »

eterno wrote: post #8

Is it just me, or do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy. If you care so much for third party approval from PG and folks (not that they are not nice/smart ppl) but then just go to a B-school dude and get that nice degree which will surrogate for your competencies in the real world. BillG didnt need no YC, neither did Google guys and neither did the ipod god - infact even PG didnt…

I always understand YC as an iconoclastic force (being disruptive etc), but its own success means inevitably it will become something of an idol.

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#24

Post by JabavuAdams »

eterno wrote: post #8

Is it just me, or do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy. If you care so much for third party approval from PG and folks (not that they are not nice/smart ppl) but then just go to a B-school dude and get that nice degree which will surrogate for your competencies in the real world. BillG didnt need no YC, neither did Google guys and neither did the ipod god - infact even PG didnt…

I'm occasionally irritated by this cliquishness, but it's all about access, access, access. Anyone can apply.

The fact that YC exists now, and the fact that it gets the attention it does make the YC brand a great one to be associated with if you are looking for investment.

The founders you mentioned didn't need YC, but if they were doing it again today, are you saying they wouldn't derive any benefit from applying to YC?

Also, blogging about a YC interview may be a way to get alternate funding back home. For instance, I got a job interview (in Toronto, Canada) in the mid nineties in part because I had interviewed at Microsoft, in Seattle. I didn't get the Microsoft job.

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#25

Post by JabavuAdams »

henryl wrote: post #19
zhyder wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing is _required_ but lack of a demo will make it much harder to convince an investor that your team gets the market and can build the right product, especially in 10 minutes. You'll have to compensate for that somehow. If it's a hardware gadget, can you produce renders of the device and mockups of the UI? How have you been able to convince others so far?

We had an old demo but we have since revamped the entire architecture. Would a video suffice?

"Required", "suffice". It seems you're looking for guarantees where none are possible. Think in terms of increasing your odds.

IMHO, a good demo can help you sell. You're selling your team. What can you do to help yourself convince investors that you are smart and can execute?

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#27

Post by randallsquared »

"I was already so convinced of how much better our product was than our competitors I’d forgotten the specifics of exactly how it was better in a way that could easily be explained to someone else."

I have this experience all the time (not just in this sort of situation). Thanks for telling us about it!

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#28

Post by coffeemug »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #24
eterno wrote: post #8

Is it just me, or do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy. If you care so much for third party approval from PG and folks (not that they are not nice/smart ppl) but then just go to a B-school dude and get that nice degree which will surrogate for your competencies in the real world. BillG didnt need no YC, neither did Google guys and neither did the ipod god - infact even PG didnt…

I'm occasionally irritated by this cliquishness, but it's all about access, access, access. Anyone can apply. The fact that YC exists now, and the fact that it gets the attention it does make the YC brand a great one to be associated with if you are looking for investment. The founders you mentioned didn't need YC, but if they were doing it again today, are you saying they wouldn't derive any benefit from applying to…

Access helps. But one thing I've realized is that everyone (well, almost everyone) is knowable if you're willing to make the effort. A little confidence, and a little intelligently done networking will open most doors you're looking for. YC is a great opportunity, but this is a good thing to keep in mind regardless of whether you get in. They can only give you so many shortcuts. Eventually, you'll have to do the heavy lifting yourself.

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#29

Post by yef »

eterno wrote: post #8

Is it just me, or do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy. If you care so much for third party approval from PG and folks (not that they are not nice/smart ppl) but then just go to a B-school dude and get that nice degree which will surrogate for your competencies in the real world. BillG didnt need no YC, neither did Google guys and neither did the ipod god - infact even PG didnt…

That's like saying "Thomas Edison didn't go to college, so nobody should be excited about going to college".

YC is in the business of creating entrepreneurs, which I'd expect most people here would agree is a noble (and profitable) cause. You don't have to read the interview writeups if you don't want to. :)

Re: Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

#30

Post by plinkplonk »

tomaitch wrote: post #16
tomaitch wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To some degree I'd agree with you more now having done YC than before. If you live in the USA and have ways of working yourself into Silicon Valley or some other startup culture, or have some other kind of access to seed funding and mentorship, then you don't need YC to succeed. For us here in Melbourne, it was much harder. There's a few successful tech entrepreneurs from the 80s and 90s but they don't really get the…

I should add that what we gained from YC more than anything else was confidence. With what we know now, we realise we possibly could have come to Silicon Valley and successfully launched our startup without YC-backing, although it still would have taken much longer. But we didn't know anyone who could introduce us into the culture, and we had no way of knowing how much potential we had and how reasonable it was to be…

"if you are already confident you don't need VC"

Eterno said "do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy." and "please stop this gushing/blogging over your yc interviews". I think his ire was targeted at the "gush" factor vs the more rational question of whether a YC acceptance would be useful (I imagine it would be).

I have some sympathy for this view point. The blog entry certainly seemed to have an element of "gush" to it, along the lines of a Biz school admission process. That said, hey if two entrepreneurs find every detail of the YC interview process worth gushing about, what is our problem? :-).

If i were ever to apply to YC (and I probably will once I come (back) to the United States), my reading is that except for the actual presentation preparation most of the other thinking should have been done while a startup is being conceived of , well before YC acceptance becomes a factor.

"How will you distinguish yourself from your competition" for example is (I would think) an obvious question entrepreneurs have to answer well before a YC interview. Preparation for the YC interview would more or less be just be figuring out what to fit into the 10 minutes I get. It should take about an hour or so I imagine.

I didn't quite get the ecstasy/depression/all-consuming preparation vibe in, for example, "We walked back towards downtown Mountain View, talking a little but not making much sense, as the intensity of the experience dissipated. As my composure returned," This sounds like someone coming down from a drug high!

In my (undoubtedly too cold blooded for some) view, PG, Trevor, Jessica etc are just very talented, nice, well connected people, not demi-gods to be worshiped or placed on a pedestal to the degree where their approval (perhaps in the form of a YC acceptance) invokes some kind of mind fogging ecstasy and their disapproval a corresponding level of disappointment, which is a bit of the vibe I got from the post.

So I understand what the OP meant by (paraphrasing) "you are entrepreneurs. Don't gush!", but hey it is your blog write what you want! :-)

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