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Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

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Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#81

Post by Rapzid »

999900000999 wrote: post #27
_akhe wrote: post #23

Re: "won't get in" How do I balance this encouraging advice with everything I've heard online about YC basically being a post-Ivy League thing? Seems like there's basically a 0% chance a random person would get into YC. And often those who did get in went to Stanford, Harvard, etc. and don't even have a product - sometimes they don't even know what they're going to build yet. I wrote the idea of VC stuff off long ago…

I had ambitions of cranking out an MVP and pitching it to VCs in my late 20s. After a year of solid rejection ( including YC not even responding), I gave up. You end up spending alot of time trying to pitch your work. I've had a few idea guys expect me to build MVPs for free with an offer of like 1% or something silly like that. Never any pay, poorly thought out concepts. I've accepted I'm never going to be rich, it'…

I'm seeing a few "founding engineer" roles that pay pretty well and offer up to 1% equity for highly experienced candidates. Honestly some pretty unique opportunities.

But yeah, I'm not building out and MVP without pay for 1%.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#82

Post by Animats »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #72
Animats wrote: post #51

What happened? Not enough people applied? Here's the last batch.[1] Gives a sense of what's being funded. Ideas: - MoneyNow - leverages the new FedNow instant payment system. FedNow is run by the Fed and transfers money in seconds with a charge of just US$0.045 per transaction. And they mean seconds . If the money isn't there in 10 seconds, the transaction times out. Few banks support it yet, but some do. It needs co…

Unfortunately the rust game engine idea (as much as it kills me to say this) is a perfect example of not YC material. Every VC, whether early stage or late stage, must fund companies that have a chance of growing by 5% every week. It’s remarkably hard to start anything that can maintain that growth. https://paulgraham.com/growth.html is worth internalizing. But there’s a second caveat here: YC invests in people, not…

I know that. I just threw that in because I've been doing game work in Rust and the graphics stack suffers from too few devs.

Better school software is worth another go-round, now that we have large language models.

Somebody already emailed me offering to fund the MoneyNow idea. That's a bad idea for another reason. The big problem with money transfer is fraud. PayPal is mostly a fraud-management service. Money transfer and user interface are the easy part.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#83

Post by dang »

reducesuffering wrote: post #71

What’s the acceptance rate, 1%, most with cofounders? So if you’re making a video by yourself it’s like 1/500 ? Seems like a better use of time making a video and filling out the app once you have above average team and traction.

You don't need traction. Team is good because having a cofounder is statistically such a huge success factor. But YC does found solo founders, and you shouldn't make a team just to make your application look better - I'm pretty sure doing that would weaken your chances.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#84

Post by mlhpdx »

threeseed wrote: post #50
_akhe wrote: post #23

Re: "won't get in" How do I balance this encouraging advice with everything I've heard online about YC basically being a post-Ivy League thing? Seems like there's basically a 0% chance a random person would get into YC. And often those who did get in went to Stanford, Harvard, etc. and don't even have a product - sometimes they don't even know what they're going to build yet. I wrote the idea of VC stuff off long ago…

> Seems like there's basically a 0% chance a random person would get into YC This is simply not true. There are countless examples of people from outside the US or who went to non-Ivy league schools. Does it move the needle ? Probably. But it's easy to counteract it by having better answers to the other questions e.g. traction, team.

It’s not false, either. What were the stats on the last round? IIRC 20k applications and how many got there? It’s not zero, but it’s a small chance.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#85

Post by ultimoo »

Big fan of YC and pg. I'm waiting for some immigration related things to fall into place before I apply, but it's been several years. Potentially crass question: what is the age or industry experience distribution of a typical YC batch these days? Would a founding team in their early 40s be dinosaurs in a room full of young stars? Asking for a friend.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#86

Post by willsmith72 »

spxneo wrote: post #77
HaZeust wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as the YC app is gamed (based on winning applications I've seen from friends and strangers), alumnist is only one piece of the puzzle of a few.

im not saying you have to graduate from ivy league to get into YC but bulk majority of people in YC are. they are almost always going to favour people from their own league. im basing this off people who are coming from YC and telling me how it is. some folks applied to YC in the past, get rejected and then find some Harvard graduate running with their ideas they submitted.

isn't this just correlation vs causation?

2 people submit the same idea. 1 gets in, the other doesn't. yc, basing their decision on the founder themselves and not so much the idea, chose person 1, who had more of the founder characteristics (determination, ... i forget the rest).

maybe there's a higher chance that between 2 people, 1 from harvard 1 not, the harvard person has those characteristics. could be they "learnt" it there, or they had to use those same skills to even get into harvard, or whatever. but it doesn't mean they got in because of the harvard degree

apply that same logic of thousands of people, maybe it looks like they prefer harvard candidates.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#87

Post by JohnTHaller »

dang wrote: post #56
Animats wrote: post #51

What happened? Not enough people applied? Here's the last batch.[1] Gives a sense of what's being funded. Ideas: - MoneyNow - leverages the new FedNow instant payment system. FedNow is run by the Fed and transfers money in seconds with a charge of just US$0.045 per transaction. And they mean seconds . If the money isn't there in 10 seconds, the transaction times out. Few banks support it yet, but some do. It needs co…

No idea how many people applied but I'm sure there's no lack - I just felt bad for forgetting to put the usual footer at the bottom a month ago. And I worry about the comments I see on HN interpreting YC as just for credentialed-elite applicants. It's deeply not true and I have a personal feeling about the question - being one of the uncredentialed-unelite-self-doubting types who could have been dissuaded from applyi…

Forgetting something like the footer thing happens. Forgive yourself for it. Maybe set a calendar event now for one month out from the next batch. It's how my ADHD brain remembers things.

As for the 'uncredentialed' thing, there are a ton of forces at play and I'm sure there will be more credentialed folks applying due to financial and access reasons. I'm an uncredentialed person (state SUNY school) who got flown out for an interview for YC Winter 2020. I didn't get selected due to my proposal itself and shortcomings within it, not due to a lack of any credentials. I enjoyed the experience and learned a bit about it. I may apply again at some point for another venture I'm working on.

Re: Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

#90

Post by mlhpdx »

paxys wrote: post #38
sturgill wrote: post #33

I’ve always been intrigued by YC, but the commitment to relocate is hard to justify. I have three kids (with the oldest finishing up her junior year next month). So I’m not in a place where being in SF for the summer works very well for the family. I remember during COVID that there was a remote option, but I don’t believe that’s available now. So for someone more established (erm, no longer 20) that lives in the mid…

For better or worse, the relocation requirement is probably a good proxy for "can commit to their startup 24x7 without any other responsibilities standing in the way".

Maybe, but that’d be playing into a tired stereotype.
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