Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend for S24

Re:Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend... by eggbrain on Friday April 19, 2024 @06:45PM (#40092758)

I'm going to post something vulnerable, but I hope people take my comment in the right light, as in general I love YC and what it has done for the startup community.

I've been building startups for a long time, and have applied to YC several times, mainly with the same idea (although I've always listed 4-5 other ideas I'm interested in as well). I have always gotten rejected, and while that was disappointing, I 100% understood that getting into YC was the exception rather than the rule, as YC had a smaller acceptance percentage than Harvard.

After a few batches of these rejections, I decided to take a break from applying and instead build up my startup experience more by working at growth-stage startups, and just in general started focusing on my career as well.

Fast forward a few years, and about a year ago YC reaches out to me (via automated email) saying they had identified me as being in the top X% on the Cofounder matching platform, and encouraged me to apply to their next batch cycle.

I was reluctant to do so -- I hadn't been thinking too deeply about any new startup ideas in the past few months (so I'd most likely have to apply with a previous startup I had built), but after encouragement from friends and family I decided to take a chance anyways and apply once again.

I went all out on the application -- I reached out to some YC friends and mentors to get their recommendations, and had them help me edit and perfect my application as well. I even traveled for a month to San Francisco, just so I could absorb more of the ecosystem, network with as many entrepreneurs as possible, and help give back to the community if I could.

I submitted my application, waited for the fateful "interview email" day, and when that day came -- I got the standard "...we're sorry, we're not going to move forward with your application".

I'll admit -- getting that email stung. I know looking back there were a lot of things I could have done better (e.g. not applying with the same idea as previous applications, among other things), and just like when I applied years ago, I knew that the chances of getting to the interview stage were slim to none.

But yet somehow, that rejection hurt more than any of the others.

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Re:Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend... by sevagh on Friday April 19, 2024 @06:57PM (#40092829)

Sorry to hear that experience.

I've come to discount any form of flattery in intro emails. E.g. when a FAANG recruiter emails me "wow, we were impressed by your public project!", I used to believe it.

Now I know it's just a synonym for "join the back of the line of 17,639,838 applicants."

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Re:Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend... by selfie on Friday April 19, 2024 @07:14PM (#40092937)

Yeah, if PG takes me out for a steak, I will believe it :-). An email that cost $0.000001 on SES, nah!

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Re:Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend... by thih9 on Saturday April 20, 2024 @05:36AM (#40096050)

$0.000001 plus some credibility

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Re:Tell HN: Ever think of applying to YC? Do it this weekend... by reagan83 on Friday April 19, 2024 @11:00PM (#40094357)

I love a lot of what YC has done but their application process is fundamentally broken and has been for years. It appears to just be a just a factory and numbers game now, all clinging to previous successes from when PG and Jessica used to run things.

[ Parent | on HN ]