I like National Geographic:

pangolins http://youtube.com/watch?v=r2cyp8k8uuM

pygmy seahorse http://youtube.com/watch?v=k4q3sBuCkRQ

critter cam, turtles: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_D51Ui_XMI

These things calm me.

Yeah, exactly. Cute overload. nature does it better.

haha! Thank You!

Late tonight probably.

The emails are going out now. Thanks for your patience (and please check your spam folders).

The applications were really good this time. We invited more groups to interviews than we have in the past, but we still had to turn down a lot that are probably good.

How much do you look at the news.yc username correlation in your decision making?

It's hard to quantify, but it definitely helps when you feel like you know what someone's like from reading their comments.

A text application form is such a low-bandwidth source. Reading the applications, we feel like we're just starving for information about what the people are really like. So any additional context helps a lot.

Would it be possible to specifically mail those who were rejected?I do understand it would be time consuming for you guys, it would be really helpful to all

It would be less helpful than you might think. Strange as it sounds, there's often no answer to the question of why groups are rejected. I tried to explain it here: http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html

Thanks.

My recommendation: go out and get a cool drink from some hippy juice bar, relax, and then go to bed before midnight. Read a book or watch a movie instead of checking until tomorrow morning. (I'm not being sarcastic; that's what I'm planning on doing. Blueberry-orange-pineapple smoothie ahoy!)

Finding out about the results sooner won't alter them, and the anticipation/worry is almost always worse than the reveal of whatever you're waiting for. If you resolve not to check until tomorrow morning, you'll have a more pleasant night, and be well rested to find out what's up in the morning.

Or better yet, just assume you're not getting it, because even if you get invited, you statistically still probably aren't going to be accepted. Keep building your application, chasing up contacts, figuring out the next step and planning on taking over the world with or without YC.

A year ago they kept 2 out of 3 invitees IIRC.

Yes, if you make it to the interview, your odds are excellent. In our batch roughly 50% of interviewees made it, and that number increased in subsequent batches. I've suspected that the application phase is where all of the downward pressure comes in--since they get so many, and the interview weekend only has so many slots available for talking to people. The quality of the applicants that make it to the interview has probably gone up remarkably. This time around, pg has enlisted the help of prior founders to get a better feel for applicants (and give the applicants a chance to ask all the questions they have about YC of folks who've experienced it), so it seems likely that those that make it to the interview are even more likely to be accepted.

But you still shouldn't bet on it. That was my point. It wouldn't matter if the odds later on were 90% or 10%, that's still several potentially wasted weeks. Just keep going.

I absolutely agree.

The teams most likely to get in are also the ones most likely to be working on their startup already. If you're not going to be working on your startup with or without YC, I suspect your odds of getting in are significantly lower (and probably moreso as time goes by, given the number of applicants and the number that are already started on their project--at least two that I talked to had applied and interviewed previously but not gotten in...they'd been either working on new ideas since then, or had gone on to launch something, and were back for another swing at YC with new or evolved ideas). I suspect at least one of those teams I talked to will get in this time. Stubbornness, self-confidence, risk-taking, and simple hard work are all things that YC appreciates...and they appreciate them because they're traits that lead to successful startups.

Haha. That's terrible advice! :)

How about just checking your email once every few hours or when you feel like it? That seems to be a less extreme reaction.

Many people who took the application seriously will have been working like crazy the past couple of weeks, and the very serious entrepreneurs have months or years more of it ahead. A "night off" would probably do a lot of good for some of the applicants.

Getting a relatively healthy drink, enjoying some leisure time, and going to sleep at a reasonable hour... I can think of much worse advice. :P

Go out with your team and eat something tasty or drink a couple of nice beers. There should be an endless amount of things to talk about regarding your startup that don't depend on yc.

Come back and check your email around midnight, then decide what your next step will be.

(this is exactly what I'm doing)

Just put it in the back of your mind and continue executing everything you wrote about in your application.

Shot down in flames a few minutes ago. At least they sent a well crafted email. I would love to see the specific negative feedback as to why they rejected us, but I understand that it would add to their workload.

Anyway, for me the best part of the YC process was the exercise of completing the application. It was much less daunting than sitting down to write a business plan. It forced me to codify my plans in broad terms, and that has been very helpful.

Now, back to the races.

Good luck to everyone! I admit, I joined with little hopes of getting picked, so just the pleasure of learning about start-ups made it worthwhile.

Thanks YC!

Thanks for reminding me. I don't even remember that they will give out the interviews today. Take it easy.

I'm curious what part of this sentence says notifications will be sent by April 9th. "We'll review applications by April 9 and invite the groups that seem most promising to meet us in Mountain View on the weekend of April 25-27." I kid, I kid.

Don't forget to check your spam filters just in case! =P. I asked my friend who got accepted and he said that they sent it pretty late and that the email only goes to the leader on the app. Goodluck to everyone!

FWIW our rejection was sent to all founders emails.

A watched kettle never boils.

It's so true. Apparently 'a refreshed inbox never changes' also holds true.

At least everything works asynchronously now. Waiting for a phone call used to be excruciating, before voicemail. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about someone "tying up the email" while we wait.

While a watched kettle never seems to boil, my ruby script that scanned for a pg comment did signal.

I have one of those new fast ones. I watched. It boils.

You gotta share that script or give it a web address

hooande

http://pastie.caboo.se/178157

just replace the to and from number and excuse the lack of any error correcting. go out, get a beer, and wait.

You know that you can scan for his replies on any thread by using the http://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments link, right? Just in case someone starts another "YC e-mails are out!" thread?

I did not know about that feature. Thanks.

oh, i guess i should mention. it sends a SMS to a sprint phone via Sprint's www interface. i do not know (nor do i care) if it works for other cell phones. you can see if it does by setting the starting_count variable to 0.

So if I make a user called "pgfake" can I make your script send you text messages? Neat.

Well, actually, if you wanted to generate a false positive, all you had to do was paste the regex text, but why?

about that... http://xkcd.com/357/

Yes, go the Alpha-beta pruning approach. Assume you were rejected and don't wait till too late to find out how screwed you are. Continue working and launch 1 day earlier ;)

To make the waiting easier, I assume it's going to be after midnight. That way, insanity is held at bay.

Oh was suppose to be today? slipped my mine

patience is a virtue and a necessity in our trade.