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The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

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Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#61

Post by jlees »

chrischen wrote: post #55
wheels wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trevor talked about this in the comments to my article on applying to YC: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=854088

I guess what my situation was that I could balance school and the application, or school and the prototype. While I had an urge to work on the prototype I always felt guilty because frankly the application has a deadline, the prototype does not. Actually after the application deadline I was able to get back to the prototype.

If you get an interview, unbalance school to get the prototype ready - 'don't worry be crappy' - for the interview.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#62

Post by chrischen »

jlees wrote: post #61
chrischen wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess what my situation was that I could balance school and the application, or school and the prototype. While I had an urge to work on the prototype I always felt guilty because frankly the application has a deadline, the prototype does not. Actually after the application deadline I was able to get back to the prototype.

If you get an interview, unbalance school to get the prototype ready - 'don't worry be crappy' - for the interview.

Oh definitely. In fact I did that the last time I prototyped a site and not only was I not doing it for any investors, I had finals the same week.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#64

Post by anateus »

hussong wrote: post #4

Heh, waiting for the post-interview phone call was a real nail-biter, we basically spent the entire evening waiting for the phone to ring. But it didn't. It didn't even occur to us that they might call our land line back home until we got the email the next morning. Remotely checking the answering machine was fun too, hadn't used that feature in ages and the code didn't work (turns out you can't send DTMF tones when…

I know people who have sent DTMF over skype. You just need to...try harder :>

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#65

Post by anateus »

leelin wrote: post #54

Did you guys happen to do much mingling in the waiting area just before or just after your interview? We got to the interview super early and ended up chatting with Kate (we asked her how to get to In and Out), Skysheets Dan (saw his demo), and two other interviewing teams that were accepted. Then there were two less social teams who sat in the corner with their laptops, I guess nervously testing their demo one last…

They did. I remember them as the first other YC team we talked to.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#66

Post by kam »

pmorici wrote: post #63
endlessvoid94 wrote: post #30

I just spent 10 minutes playing with the flash visualization on your homepage. Good luck!

Is it flash? When I right click it lets me save the graph image as an image... what are you guys using to do this? It's really neat.

It's a element.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#67

Post by theli0nheart »

pg wrote: post #60
mahmud wrote: post #14

Anyone know if YC is doing traditional companies? i.e. advertising and real-estate. Don't need the money but could really use the "blessing". They have some of the most enviable media contacts in the industry right now.

We'll fund anything that scales like a startup. We had a very promising startup doing real estate two cycles ago, but they fell apart due to disputes between the founders. I still think it was a great idea.

What company was this?

edit: why am I getting downvoted?

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#68

Post by n-named »

pg wrote: post #44
sailormoon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not obvious to me at all. I admit I have difficulty conceiving of advice so compelling I'd travel to America to receive it. Fair enough I guess. People pay what they think it is worth. That's capitalism; no argument from me. I am not trolling. Carry on.

It shouldn't be that difficult to imagine. It's a very old tradition to travel long distances in search of specialized knowledge. Practically every famous medieval scholar did. But of course the tradition is way older than that. In the mid 6th century BC Pythagoras went to study in Egypt, and his biographer Porphyry said "It was from his stay among these foreigners that Pythagoras acquired the greater part of his wis…

From wikipedia:

"""It is not easy to determine how far Pythagoras was indebted to the Egyptian priests, or indeed, whether he learnt anything from them. There was nothing in the symbolical mode of representation which the Pythagoreans adopted, which bore the distinct traces of an Egyptian origin."""

And further: """The philosophy and the institutions of Pythagoras exhibit what might easily have been developed by a Greek mind exposed to the ordinary influences of the age."""

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#69

Post by drusenko »

sailormoon wrote: post #22

I am sorry if this is completely obvious and I am missing something. But I just do not understand, not one little bit. Why did you fly to America to get $5000? It is not a large amount of money. I am surprised it covered your air fares. So why? I do not feel the need at all. You did. I would like to here why. Did they really say something in the interview that justified all that time and expense? update: I have no id…

I'm sorry, but even though the money is the least part of the package, I need to correct you on this one: it's not $5,000, it's at least $10k (2 founders) and probably $15k.

Saying it's just $5,000 is disingenuous.

Re: The “Interview” with Y Combinator That’s Not

#70

Post by ghshephard »

theli0nheart wrote: post #67
pg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll fund anything that scales like a startup. We had a very promising startup doing real estate two cycles ago, but they fell apart due to disputes between the founders. I still think it was a great idea.

What company was this? edit: why am I getting downvoted?

From: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. "

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