41–50 of 93 posts
Maybe they are just better with b2b SaaS and other verticals, with crypto being exceptionally bad.
I work at Notion. I advise you to avoid the .so TLD - there’s a lot of institutional bias against Somalia’s TLD, like blanket blocks in many corporate firewalls. This problem will be worse if you serve public user-generated content from that TLD because the chain of communication from you to SomaliNIC might have a bunch of unknown third party intermediaries where an abuse report can get lost. Today Notion is large &…
I think the answer is that YC is a significant success factor, and if your company is a member of YC then many future objectives and challenges will become easier.
People who have attended certain universities gain many ongoing benefits from the recognition of the university. "Oh, you went to Harvard/Standford/Melbourne University? Yes please come talk to us."
People who have worked at certain companies many ongoing benefits from the recognition of the company. "Oh, you worked at Google/Facebook/Microsoft/Netflix/Apple? Yes please come talk to us."
"Oh, you're a YC company? Yes please come talk to us."
It's instant credibility and that really helps open alot of doors.
Dress well, be kind to people, go to a recognised elite university, start your career working at one or two of the top tech companies, get your startup into YC and you're likely to be able to pay your bills into the future.
I should say I did not go to an elite university, did not work at a top tier tech company and have not been through YC :-)
People question why startups are so focused on getting into YC. They ask the reasonable question "Why care so much about getting into YC? How about focusing on building a great product instead of optimising for YC?" I think the answer is that YC is a significant success factor, and if your company is a member of YC then many future objectives and challenges will become easier. People who have attended certain univers…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like the .so TLD. If enough people keep using it I don't see how that would still make people nervous. It's a nice sounding TLD and if people have a problem with Somalia they shouldn't take it out on an innocent suffix.
The question is "what control can the government of Somalia have on names that are registered under its TLD?" Can it seize the name? In 2010, it was regulated by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. In 2015 it was a different government and managed by Somali Network Information Center. In 2018 it was transferred to The National Communications Authority. Will the policies change? If the country cuts ties with…
> Our ideas were long and vague. > We had practically zero proof that we could execute our plans successfully. > And as a result, our interview with YC went terribly. If they were doing so badly, how did they even get an interview in the first place?
I work at Notion. I advise you to avoid the .so TLD - there’s a lot of institutional bias against Somalia’s TLD, like blanket blocks in many corporate firewalls. This problem will be worse if you serve public user-generated content from that TLD because the chain of communication from you to SomaliNIC might have a bunch of unknown third party intermediaries where an abuse report can get lost. Today Notion is large &…
This is obviously based on anecdata, take it with a healthy helping of salt, but from what I've heard from a bunch of founder friends who have applied to YC with varying results, I get the sense that if you want to get in, you might be better off applying before you even start working on your startup. Once you actually start, the bar for getting in seems to get much higher, because there's suddenly a lot more concret…
YC does offer a free version of their program open to anyone called Startup School ( https://www.startupschool.org ) that can be a good way to gain validation and judge interest. Applying to YC seems to be best for idea staged founders with impressive resumes and people skills or startups that have already gained some traction. If you are in the "Trough of Sorrow" stage as Paul Graham described it, then I'm not sure…
Ofc if an applicant made it past the "Trough of Sorrow" and reached PMF on their own, it's a no brainer, any decent VC would be throwing money their way at that point. For the rest of the applicants though, it just feels a bit backwards to me how YC seems to rather bet on founders with impressive resumes who have built nothing over similarly impressive founders who have proven that they can build something tangible, but need some help getting it past this infamous "Trough of Sorrow" that most successful startups are known to have gone through.
But hey what do I know. Surely they have the data internally to back that up right?