Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#71

Post by carterschonwald » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 4:57 AM UTC

xenoterracide wrote: post #46

aschobel wrote: post #29

Just got the "rejection" letter, I'm a bit disappointed I couldn't get the team reviewing the proposals as passionate about the project as I am. I think being a solo founder hurt me, but I've been working on the project full-time for four months (over 12k lines of code). This won't slow me down. =) What is your company going to make? We make it easy to jot something down from any device and then share that note with…

I am working on building an online pencil and paper rpg play system. It would support a character database, dice rollers, major P&P systems, the usual forums, npc character search, all sort's of toy's for players/ST's,GM's,DM's, and a chat system. And eventually support for a subscription service for the books. Much like O'Reilly's Safari.

thats pretty cool. One project I'm working on is designing a much of tools for algorithmically determining when either a game design or a map for a game is "fair", for various notions of fair.

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#72

Post by attack » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 4:59 AM UTC

alaskamiller wrote: post #45

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=68598 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=113610

http://theburningbiscuit.com/Pictures%20for%20site/Demotivat...

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#73

Post by xenoterracide » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:03 AM UTC

lpgauth wrote: post #26

I'm planning on applying next summer when I'm done my CS degree and have a bit more experience under my belt, but I would love to know what are usually the reasons of rejections? As for now I'm looking for a cofounder and a great idea, but I would love to improve on possible weaknesses I have that are import to the eyes of YC.

what's wrong with the idea you applied with?

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#74

Post by fallentimes » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:06 AM UTC

Readmore wrote: post #56

fallentimes wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Readmore I think your application is a good idea. Have you considered letting people choose their own charity instead of the preselected ones you have listed? Or even better, people could choose their own cause (whether it's a charity, fundraising event, boyscouts, girlscouts etc etc) and could encourage friends, family and acquaintances to use the site to raise money for their cause.

Thanks! I've thought along those same lines, and I'm hoping to make that an option in the future. Currently I'm not confident that I can track everything well enough to attribute purchases to an individual user. I didn't want to say a user could pick their own charity and then not actually be able to donate the money for them. As I get traffic I'm hoping to find a way to pull that off.

Maybe you could set something similar to what ebates.com has done? Each user has an individual login and everytime they go to an affiliate site they are provided with a tracking ticket. It's a really cool system and I've made over a few hundred dollars with them related to business trips for my "real job". If your site ever starts marketing towards fundraising groups, a user could be asked to enter a simple identifier code to tell the system that all proceeds should be directed to XX cause OR the group could be provided their own sign up link which automatically associates the user with XX cause.

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#75

Post by fallentimes » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:07 AM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #68

Got invited for an interview! :) This was actually my third time applying to YC. First time I applied (last summer) the application and idea were pretty crappy, so we never came close. We had a slightly better application during the winter round and almost got an interview. I guess the third time was the charm. This is great news of course, but it only increases your chances - the real test will be at the interview.

Congrats Marty! Just curious - how do you know that you almost got an interview during the winter round?

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#76

Post by ericb » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:08 AM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #68

Got invited for an interview! :) This was actually my third time applying to YC. First time I applied (last summer) the application and idea were pretty crappy, so we never came close. We had a slightly better application during the winter round and almost got an interview. I guess the third time was the charm. This is great news of course, but it only increases your chances - the real test will be at the interview.

congrats!

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#77

Post by keating » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:11 AM UTC

ubudesign wrote: post #28

it's funny they miss spelled one of our founders email. The domain was la-fem.com instead they send it to la.anybots.com I wonder why

Anybots is Trevor Blackwell's company.

Wild guess: the parsing barfed at the hyphen in name@la-fem.com and sent it to name@la -- and the email system will fill in the local domain name if you don't use a FQDN. They sent it through anybots.com's mail system so it got filled in as la.anybots.com

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#78

Post by aschobel » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:11 AM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #68

Got invited for an interview! :) This was actually my third time applying to YC. First time I applied (last summer) the application and idea were pretty crappy, so we never came close. We had a slightly better application during the winter round and almost got an interview. I guess the third time was the charm. This is great news of course, but it only increases your chances - the real test will be at the interview.

Congrats! Good luck with the interview.

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#79

Post by icey » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:18 AM UTC

keating wrote: post #20

icey wrote: post #10

Some advice to people who got a no: I've never applied at YC, but I've got a couple of failed startups under my belt. If you got a no, think about why, and consider it free advice from someone whose opinion you trust. If you disagree, then use it as fuel to work hard - as hard as you can; and show everyone else that when you were down on your luck you put your nose to the grindstone and made it happen anyways. That b…

> If you got a no, think about why, and consider it free advice from someone whose opinion you trust. I honestly think they are just too pressed for time to do a thorough review. Applicants can check their web logs and see if YC even looked at their stuff. Submitting early is probably a major advantage if it means they (YC) actually have time to take a gander at what you did.

"Too pressed for time" is a valid reason for a rejection. If it doesn't sound compelling enough after the first sentence then you probably need to work on your pitch.

Re: Tell YC: Summer 08 decisions out

#80

Post by xenoterracide » Thu, Apr 10, 2008, 5:22 AM UTC

martythemaniak wrote: post #68

Got invited for an interview! :) This was actually my third time applying to YC. First time I applied (last summer) the application and idea were pretty crappy, so we never came close. We had a slightly better application during the winter round and almost got an interview. I guess the third time was the charm. This is great news of course, but it only increases your chances - the real test will be at the interview.

just show's everyone that just because you fail with the first application doesn't mean you should quit.

Out of curiosity what was the first crappy idea?