Reality Check. Anyone who was half serious about this application is hurt somehow. The reason why it sucks is not so much due to the fact that you are not going to hang out with "startupreneurs" and PG but because this was a competition and your product was judged not as good as those that made it. That is what hurts. Maybe you can take a step back today and take a look at what you are doing and ask yourself "How can I make better, more simple and scale it?" or "How can we make people see that this is better than other products out there and a business can be built around it?" because if you believe it is great, than maybe you fail to present it the proper way. Take the rest of the day off. Get a drink, socialize, shut that computer down and relax. Tomorrow your head will be clear and you can start working on your startup again. Not because it will make you a millionaire, or because it will get you respect, but just because that is what you love to do and without it your Puzzle is just not complete. Ciao'

Agreed.

Failure is only a stepping stone toward success. Startup founders, consider yourselves one step closer.

wisdom

To all ya'll shouting "rejection", best thing in my view you can do is START YOUR START-UP.

YC or any kind of funding is a very helpful aide but at the end of the day most startups are born out of few guys making something great and THEN seeking outside help.

Can't wait to see the Valley at last!

Rejected. Kind of felt like college applications all over again.

Congrats and good luck to those accepted.

I look at this rejection not as failure, or as any sort of inferiority, but rather an opportunity to work even harder/efficient/cheaper.

Thank you Y Combinator.

I'll be the first to say that we got rejected.

I'm going to work tonight and it's going the be the best code I've ever written.

Who heard back?

Sorry to hear, Omar. I was rejected, too!

I submitted my application on April 6th after I specifically nulled out my entire application before because I didn't want to be in Boston this summer, because I got an e-mail that said "you had started an application but never clicked Submit. Please go in and submit it." When I went via the special link in the e-mail, I saw that half of my application was still there, even though I specifically had previously deleted each field and saved it blank because I didn't want to apply or to share my information. So, I said, what the heck, they contacted me, and it seems my details were recovered from their database even though I deleted the fields, and I could say I was special if I both got in and had applied late on the 6th via a special e-mail link, so that made it interesting; so, I clicked Submit. I'm also a single founder who has a pre-existing corporation, so I guess I struck out on all the important fields that matter. :P Finally, I also knew from some post here that they say "please laugh at us if we were wrong to reject you", so I knew that even if I received such a letter, it would be fun to take them up on the offer. :P

The best part about YC, and one I will always be thankful for, is the chance to attend the Startup School. So, whether you are specifically selected for YC or not, it's good that there are many entrepreneurial peers in Cambridge and Mountain View who you can associate with, thanks to YC. Second, the articles on this site. Third, this news.ycombinator.com web site. Fourth, meeting great people.

The 5K+5K per person is great regardless of whether you are selected or not. I'm rooting for as many teams as possible get selected, versus for any one specific team, because we all benefit from a huge number of peer startups, regardless of who specifically it is. It's very lonely for those who aren't in those startup hotspots, and news.yc does something in additional to PG's articles--allows people to feel like they're part of the scene in YC, whether they are selected for YC or move to one of those areas themselves, without feeling like strangers. But, that money isn't going to make or break a startup, and if you decide not to continue because of it (or you haven't already started your idea), time is ticking.

Are you still going to get an apartment in Boston/SF and get on with it anyway?

Yeah we are going to be in Boston. Anyone else working on stuff gonna be around here?

I'm in Boston and working on a startup.

yep, we got rejected too.

Bummer to get rejected - just not meant to be for us. Fortunately we are self-funded and bootstrapping it. YCombinator is really the only funding we would consider, since it would be much more than just the small funding.

The one relief I have is not having to think so much about an exit. That was my main concern with taking investment. I really don't have much interest in thinking about exit strategies. We're much more focused on building a profitable private company like 37Signals or SmugMug. That may change someday, but for now that's our sole focus.

Even for those they don't fund, YCombinator puts out a TON of value for early startups: Paul's essays, Jessica's book, Startup News, Startup School, etc. That generates huge good-will for them and is a great example for other seed-funders and VC's to follow.

Thanks YC and thanks to all the contributors here ;)

Congrats to all the winners. And to those that didn't, here's a great link:

http://www.bvp.com/port/anti.asp

We're all lucky to even have the opportunity to work on our startups, in a country that actually rewards people for working hard.

As Steve Jobs said..."Stay hungry. Stay foolish." Have fun!

Is anyone else more motivated by rejection than acceptance? A passion to prove yourself and your ideas maybe?

Definitely. It also settles the fact that I need to find a day job immediately rather than possibly 3 months from now. :-)

I was pretty certain is was going to be a no the second I had to put two names in the founders box and one in the "moving to boston" box. Not that I'm sure that was the only issue, but timing's a bitch. Good luck to anyone going to Mountain View.

yep, same here.

Yea, one of our members couldnt, but o well. Maybe next year.

Good luck to all who got rejected and congrats to those who made it to the next step. We got rejected also, kind of expected since admittedly we were more interested in seeing what startup life was like than our actual idea.

My partner and I are off to Silicon Valley anyway for jobs, however the Y-Combinator process has made us hungrier then ever to ultimately do something on our own.

I'm going to make sure Google doesn't remain a "blackhole" as PG described it :)

Hey, where are you networking to find jobs out there?

I have a lot of experience, but not a complete degree. I live in Texas currently, so I have no real "ins" out in Silicon Valley.

I want to get into either a startup or a job less time-consuming than my current one. The first gives me startup experiences, while the latter gives me time to work on my own projects.

Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated.

If you're a programmer, there's no need for having an 'in'. There's plenty of work. Just show up.

And when it comes time to negotiate salary or rate remember that they need to be paying you quite a lot more than you were making in Texas.

Same here. Bummer.

Congrats to the winners! And to those who weren't accepted (like me) - go kick butt anyway.

Rejection here too.

Here three.

Here four.

me five. but you guys were great. so it doesnt figure.

Same here

Rejected :-(

Now I have a decision to make between trying to bootstrap my startup in my spare time, or accepting a job offer from another startup.

Somebody should start a network for YC-rejects. You could even turn it into an idea that you apply to YC with!