Our five failed YC applications and one successful one • Hacker News Board

Re: Our five failed YC applications and one successful one

#91

Post by rl3 » Fri, Sep 09, 2022, 9:40 PM UTC

mtVessel wrote: post #84

rl3 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would it not make sense for you to get user validation with a smaller scale poc than the herculean plan you outlined. Also your plan seem to focus too much on funding goals than user acquisition or product market fit. I used to think in those terms. Thing is, it's a multi-dimensional problem. Dimension one is a human resource limitation. One person pitted against a rapidly evolving technology landscape with very hi…

If your vision is truly so all-encompassing, maybe that's the thing you should work on selling -- but not to investors; to the people you want to work with. Solve your HR problem, get some co-founders, and get going.

That's more or less the plan. Convince some key people, maybe raise a seed round that pays for a couple years of formal pre-production, and very delicately snowball into a dream team contingent on further funding.

Co-founders can't work since I've been at it nearly a decade, but that's more for control/singular vision reasons and not equity.

In the mean time, I'm just thankful to be alive and working a full-time job to get there.

Re: Our five failed YC applications and one successful one

#92

Post by As_You_Wish » Sat, Sep 10, 2022, 10:20 AM UTC

bentlegen wrote: post #88

As_You_Wish wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this. Anyone can "be a founder." All you have to do is go down to the Department of Finance, file for a business and fictitious business name, and voila, you're a founder. Or, does "founder" mean something different? Does it mean that you start a company AND bring a company to $100 million revenue minimum or something? If that's the case, that's kinda weird to me, but ok boomers, er, sorry, milleni…

The YC badge is part of what distinguishes "everyday small business owners" and "credible tech founders®". This is part of what YC is selling; a credential that identifies you as being a tech founder worthy of respect in the Bay Area. (I don't personally put a ton of stock in this credential, but the reality is the tech world does.)

oh, so a "founder" is not a founder. A "founder" is only one that is blessed by YC, and nobody else is a founder of a company unless it is through YC?

If someone goes through some other incubator or program, it doesn't count? Like, you could get an MBA from Harvard, PhD is astrophysics from MIT, win the Nobel Prize at 18 years old, start a company and make $800 billion dollars, and you still won't be a "credible tech founder®"? I'm just trying to understand this here. YC is the only font of "credible tech founderhood®"?

Re: Our five failed YC applications and one successful one

#93

Post by bentlegen » Sat, Sep 10, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

As_You_Wish wrote: post #92

bentlegen wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The YC badge is part of what distinguishes "everyday small business owners" and "credible tech founders®". This is part of what YC is selling; a credential that identifies you as being a tech founder worthy of respect in the Bay Area. (I don't personally put a ton of stock in this credential, but the reality is the tech world does.)

oh, so a "founder" is not a founder. A "founder" is only one that is blessed by YC, and nobody else is a founder of a company unless it is through YC? If someone goes through some other incubator or program, it doesn't count? Like, you could get an MBA from Harvard, PhD is astrophysics from MIT, win the Nobel Prize at 18 years old, start a company and make $800 billion dollars, and you still won't be a "credible tech…

I think if you have all those things your title becomes “living genius” — no one will care about the founder part.