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Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

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Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#91

Post by mpeg »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #89
patio11 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox. There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far i…

I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials an…

I think it takes more guts to do what patio11 says.

If you look at business as if it was dating, this just makes you seem needy; while getting an introduction through a mutual contact is always a better way to go...

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#92

Post by larrys »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #89
patio11 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step back from this conversation for a second and reread this, pretending it was from someone you don't know. Does this person who wrote this post sound like a winner who is going to make the next Dropbox? That's who YC wants in their next class. Be the winner who is going to make the next Dropbox. There is nothing wrong with making affirmative efforts to sound like a winner. This is a skill which will take you far i…

I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials an…

"I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time"

The problem is what you are trying to do lacks creativity and originality. And without that I would question whether you could in fact build the next "dropbox".

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#93

Post by dfc »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #76
dfc wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome, free grammar advice from someone who writes: "I have got a problem" Thanks for the LOLz...

I've got something for you to read. http://bit.ly/HcYIJS Edit: Also, while I stand by the correctness of my first statement, me being right or wrong wouldn't make that fragmented sentence a complete one. However, unlike the OP, my comment was not intended to catch the attention of Y Combinator to get an interview with the hopes of getting my start-up kick started. So I would tend to give posts like mine a little more…

What am I looking for? Formal written usage or informal spoken usage of the two phrases? Clear and succinct or acceptable?

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#95

Post by littlegiantcap »

cottonseed wrote: post #94

Why don't you spend the 72 hours prototyping your startup?

So Seedlauncher.com is a crowdfunding for equity site focused on investing in small businesses within your local community. So, we're pre-launch because we're waiting for the SEC to write the regulations regarding crowdfunding. We'd open up our site to a closed beta, but we don't want to jump the gun and fade into obscurity by launching 4 or 5 months before we can actually operate legally.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#96

Post by littlegiantcap »

Just in case anyone is curious about what we're working on I thought I'd give a quick description. Seedlauncher.com is a crowdfunding for equity site that focuses on investing in small businesses within your own community. If anyone has any questions I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#97

Post by jack-r-abbit »

dfc wrote: post #93
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got something for you to read. http://bit.ly/HcYIJS Edit: Also, while I stand by the correctness of my first statement, me being right or wrong wouldn't make that fragmented sentence a complete one. However, unlike the OP, my comment was not intended to catch the attention of Y Combinator to get an interview with the hopes of getting my start-up kick started. So I would tend to give posts like mine a little more…

What am I looking for? Formal written usage or informal spoken usage of the two phrases? Clear and succinct or acceptable?

Look for whatever category you think a comment on a thread on HN would fall into. I don't think that would be "formal" anything. You didn't specifically mention "informal written" but that is probably what I would classify it as since this is an informal setting and it was written not spoken. The top few results certainly put it in the "acceptable" category. General usage of the phrase in similar situations leads me to believe I don't really need to defend my usage of it.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#98

Post by dfc »

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #76
dfc wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome, free grammar advice from someone who writes: "I have got a problem" Thanks for the LOLz...

I've got something for you to read. http://bit.ly/HcYIJS Edit: Also, while I stand by the correctness of my first statement, me being right or wrong wouldn't make that fragmented sentence a complete one. However, unlike the OP, my comment was not intended to catch the attention of Y Combinator to get an interview with the hopes of getting my start-up kick started. So I would tend to give posts like mine a little more…

While admittedly childish on my part; the use of formal grammar brings up an interesting question. In a potst somewhere on HN I read that yc uses some sort of bayesian filter on applications. The details and my recollection are a little murky about the process.

It would be interesting to know if there was a correlation (+/-) between formal, colloquial or improper grammar and the success of applications.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#99

Post by macspoofing »

danielpal wrote: post #53

Why don't you just build something other people want? Don't focus too much on what YC partners want, focus on what other people want(conversely if you do that YC partners will want you, not vice-versa).

>Why don't you just build something other people want?

HA.

Re: Dear Y Combinator, we bet you we can solve a problem of yours in 72 hours.

#100

Post by fbuilesv »

littlegiantcap wrote: post #72
patio11 wrote: post #39

Life skill for you: putting a message into a bottle and then flinging it onto the Internet could get it read, but that isn't the way to bet. Here's a hypothetical for you: how many people do you think have social permission to contact a YC partner and say "X is awesome and deserves a look." I'd ballpark that in the hundreds to low thousand range. Many of them are accessible on the Internets and less overwhelmed with…

http://b.qr.ae/Hktlyv This explains our dilemma. Frankly, we are a bunch of "nobodies" in the middle of Iowa. We don't know any Y Combinator Alums, and even if we were to reach out the best we could hope for is a lukewarm they seemed "nice". We have a lot of drive and are trying to prove ourselves any way possible. That's what we're trying to do with this post.

Let me share my experience. Last year I decided to apply to YC with a project I had been working on for a while with a couple of friends. We were nobodies (from Colombia (South America)) and knew no one related to YC. We decided to get a decent demo of our product, wrote to 15-20 YC alumni to try and get some feedback. About 8 replied back and from those we got one to write a recommendation to the YC crew. We still don't know if that helped or not but we ended up getting an interview with the partners (who showed some interest in our idea). We totally blew the pre-interview talk with Harj on Skype.

Sadly, we were told that due to legal issues they had decided not to fund us (and we had to close shop a couple of months later due to these specific problems). If a group of three colombians with a not-so-great demo could make it, I don't see why you guys wouldn't be able to!

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