Y Combinator Fellowship 2015 Application Videos • Hacker News Board

Re: Y Combinator Fellowship 2015 Application Videos

#61

Post by rajington » Wed, Jul 29, 2015, 6:30 PM UTC

danr4 wrote: post #11

It baffles me that some people put so much into the video but don't actually put effort to read or adhere to the guidelines [1] for it. They clearly ask - no script, no background music, no postproduction. Good luck to everybody though! [1] http://www.ycombinator.com/video

I tried it doing it a couple of different ways and in the end the one I did with talking points felt the best to me, it wasn't scripted but it definitely was hard to have a natural one-way conversation (solo founder).

I wish I could've covered everything I wanted to cover naturally but in the end I felt a disconnect between what I wanted to say and what I was able to say. Then again maybe that makes me a worse candidate, but I hope I get a chance to show I'm not in interviews.

Re: Y Combinator Fellowship 2015 Application Videos

#62

Post by peterkaoud » Wed, Jul 29, 2015, 10:00 PM UTC

Thanks everyone for comments bugs have been fixed we really appreciate your tips and envolvement you guys are awesome

Re: Y Combinator Fellowship 2015 Application Videos

#63

Post by richardbrevig » Wed, Jul 29, 2015, 11:22 PM UTC

giarc wrote: post #44

I'm confused - I've watched the top two videos and neither really talk about the product at all. CauseSignals is more of a video resume for the team and doesn't even mention the product. I never really read the instructions but was the video to introduce the team and not the product?

The content of the video is left to the founders, they could reasonably talk about whatever they want. Restricting the video to a minute forces concentration.

Re: Y Combinator Fellowship 2015 Application Videos

#64

Post by rdl » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 12:25 AM UTC

tprophet wrote: post #56

danr4 wrote: post #11

It baffles me that some people put so much into the video but don't actually put effort to read or adhere to the guidelines [1] for it. They clearly ask - no script, no background music, no postproduction. Good luck to everybody though! [1] http://www.ycombinator.com/video

We found out about this at the last minute, already had the video, and didn't have enough time to make new demos and videos. So, YC got the same video we submitted for TC Disrupt. Note that startups apply for a _lot_ of stuff, and we have seen a pattern that teams that look more professional are more likely to be selected (regardless of stated criteria). We're also based in Hollywood, so the kind of video stuff we ju…

Not true of YC, in my experience. A 1 minute video, done with ~5 minutes of preparation, is much better than a video from something else with high production values.

Spending hours on the video is probably worse, too. The peak is maybe around 15-30 minutes, from the videos I've seen of YC teams. Talking points, decent lighting, decent audio (phone headset is fine), not a memorized script, maybe a couple takes if you really fuck up.