Re:How to get into Y Combinator according to the founders th...
by SkyMarshal on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @02:27AM
(#20925579)
Did you account for survivorship bias? Eg, did you also ask a bunch of folks who failed to get in what they did, and examine whether they did all the same things as the successful applicants but just got unlucky?
Re:How to get into Y Combinator according to the founders th...
by threwawasy1228 on Monday September 09, 2019 @06:08PM
(#20923014)
You know what would be 10x as useful as this AND account for survivorship bias? If you did this same format but instead only talking to founders who failed one or even multiple times before eventually getting in. Then they could compare and contrast what they did wrong originally and how they corrected it. That would be much more useful to me, and wouldn't stink of survivorship issues.
Re:How to get into Y Combinator according to the founders th...
by new_realist on Monday September 09, 2019 @06:40PM
(#20923274)
I would like to see a list of per-company YC outcomes vs. outcomes with traditional VCs. Is it worth “getting in?”, or is it just a low paying job with long hours, with nobody winning, on average, except YC itself?
Re:How to get into Y Combinator according to the founders th...
by foti-panagio on Tuesday September 10, 2019 @01:58AM
(#20925433)
This series was intended to be an expose' on the patterns of those that got in, some on first try, most on their subsequent attempts. Nothing more, nothing less.
Re:How to get into Y Combinator according to the founders th...
by grumpy8 on Monday September 09, 2019 @04:19PM
(#20921999)
> How much time and effort did you put into the application?
Spent a whole week on it because the questions were really good and had to do a lot of thinking and research.
> Do you need traction to get into Y Combinator?
At its core, to get in YC you need an insight to build something that has the potential to be a $1B+ company. Having traction is great because it shows that this insight is grounded -- but this isn't required.
If you have no insight and no traction, then you need something else exceptional to convince them to invest in you rather than the idea.
> What are some tips for writing the written application?
Don't bullshit and get a founder from YC to review the application. Unlike most people, you don't need to "bullshit YC" to get in.. they actually want to fund you as long as you can prove that your insight is grounded and made significant progress relative to where you were a few weeks earlier. Also, be concise because they're reading thousands of applications.. if as the CEO you can't be concise, it's kind of a red flag against you that you won't communicate properly to customers, employees and investors.
> Bonus tips on how to get into Y Combinator
Don't read too much into "How to get into YC" things. Be ruthlessly focussed on working on your product and talking to users. Better to fail fast and move on to a different product if users don't love it or you're not solving a major pain point.
Re:How to get into Y Combinator according to the founders th...
by JMTQp8lwXL on Monday September 09, 2019 @07:39PM
(#20923715)
I've applied before but, looking back, my idea likely wasn't a $1B idea. For those of us with ideas in the $10m-$100m's range: What is our best avenue? I think those of us that have business ideas in that range, you know, we still have something valuable to offer society, even if it doesn't get an investor a very big return.
What if I just reached out to the founders that actually did get in, and just straight up ask them the nitty gritty questions of how they did it?
So I proceeded to do exactly that.
3 months later, countless hours of interviews, transcribing, and editing, I'm finally done.
https://www.growthmentor.com/blog/post_series/y-combinator/
There are 12 interviews live now but will be adding a few more over the next couple of weeks.
For anyone applying to this next batch, I wish you the best of luck.
Really hope this helps!
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
Spent a whole week on it because the questions were really good and had to do a lot of thinking and research.
> Do you need traction to get into Y Combinator?
At its core, to get in YC you need an insight to build something that has the potential to be a $1B+ company. Having traction is great because it shows that this insight is grounded -- but this isn't required.
If you have no insight and no traction, then you need something else exceptional to convince them to invest in you rather than the idea.
> What are some tips for writing the written application?
Don't bullshit and get a founder from YC to review the application. Unlike most people, you don't need to "bullshit YC" to get in.. they actually want to fund you as long as you can prove that your insight is grounded and made significant progress relative to where you were a few weeks earlier. Also, be concise because they're reading thousands of applications.. if as the CEO you can't be concise, it's kind of a red flag against you that you won't communicate properly to customers, employees and investors.
> Bonus tips on how to get into Y Combinator
Don't read too much into "How to get into YC" things. Be ruthlessly focussed on working on your product and talking to users. Better to fail fast and move on to a different product if users don't love it or you're not solving a major pain point.
I am not really paranoid about 5-10 partners reviewing my application. But i would not want to be permanently google-able