Christ, man, you're one of the most active users here, but you're always so unpleasant.

Yeah, most of us will be rejected. No reason to be a jerk about it.

Oh, and Santa doesn't exist.

If a kid asks "Is there a Santa?" you can tell him "No" and feel not-so-bad. But if he says "When will Santa come?", if your response is "Don't be silly, Santa doesn't exist," then you're being a jerk.

Don't be silly, YCombinator doesn't exist.

:O

Good luck, btw!

There is being a jerk, and then there is being realistic. Yes most people will get rejected, but most of them fit your basic mold. I dunno about you, but I haven't heard of pg backing a single non-techie founder...have you?

I have no clue, to be honest. I don't know half of the YC companies that exist.

Realistic is fine, but he's not saying "Do you think I have a chance?", he's saying "When will we hear back?" It's rude to answer a question that hasn't been asked.

We did once fund a pair of founders neither of whom were hackers. One of them had majored in physics in college though.

The auctomatic guys had studied PPE and Law I think. It wasn't till at or after YC that they merged with a hacker. Or maybe I get the details wrong...

I think you're right, Major. But those two had founded and worked on an eBay clone for students prior to that.

Does physics majoring help start-ups? Were they a physics-central startup? Or is it just proof of dedication, similar to how a math major would be?

Anyone who understands math will at least get what the issues are in hacking, even if they don't understand random details. They won't panic at the sight of formal notation.

physics is a pretty common major to lead to internet/tech startups, I know quite a few guys that made that transition.

Results?

I believe he's talking about Octopart. They were doing well the last time I checked.

No, Auctomatic. The Octoparts were physics grad students, but they could hack.

Auctopart, Octomatic, who can keep these things straight?

;-)

Yep this was Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar from Auctomatic, as far as I know they only met up with their hackers (Patrick and John Collison) once at Y Combinator. And Auctomatic was an extremely successful investment, I doubt we've seen the last of those guys.

You can't make good predictions based on a HackerNews profile, but let's pretend...

>>I am a 36 year old Rochester, NY based entreprenuer. At 25 I founded and bootstrapped a sales & marketing company to $9M in sales, 50 employees and >$2M in personal income.

If all we knew about this person was that: 1) They built a ~$10M company and earned more than $2M personally 2) They weren't a hacker

versus:

1) Some hacker

I would put bet person 1 would be a better investment.

I've always seen YC as a place that's not based on rigid requirements. There may be a trend, but what I've learned is that history does not always dictate what the next best thing will be based on. Just because he's not a hacker doesn't immediately give him a disadvantage.

YC is also a place to get feedback, constructive or just plain encouraging. Negative comments about someone's profile is pretty bad in YC, let alone in common decency.

What you read on the internet is never a good indication of who someone really is.

Good luck to all the applicants!

Since we're talking about jdileo's profile, here's a question: why apply for something like YC? Yeah, I totally get that YC isn't about the cash. But still, couldn't you buy way more connections and press than the YC companies get?

Alternatively, you could take like $500k to Demo Day and sink $100k each into five of the YC companies as an angel.

I just don't get why someone who had built that big of a company at 25 would go for YC. What am I missing?

No, you can't really buy the connections and press that YC companies get. You can buy mediocre connections and press, but YC companies get a lot of good access to good connections, and the press they get (many good links and discussion from established websites) is better than you can buy, certainly better than you can buy for ~$15,000

If you're a YC founder with the capital to do angel investing, you will probably get a substantially higher quality deal flow than someone just walking around with half a million to invest.

Being that you're addressing this question to me, thought I would answer.

YC's value extends FAR beyond the minimal dollar amount it gives each startup. If you really don't get that, you simply haven't been paying attention. SAD.

Whoa, dude...relax. I know you're on edge waiting for the results, but damn :)

If you read my comment above, you'll see where I said: Yeah, I totally get that YC isn't about the cash.

My point was that YC is worth far more than the cash it invests. But I still don't get why someone who had built a company worth millions and taken millions out of it would go back to the YC model. YC has always struck me as being more for single college-aged founders with no track record than for older, more established entrepreneurs with plenty of money to fund their future startups.

1. Per my profile, which you have read, I am a technology novice.

2. Any successful business owner will tell you that the biggest question need answered when entering a new verical is "what is it I don't know that I don't know".

Enter YC at average 6% give, worth every penny!

jdileo, your profile actually looks interesting, and I'm sure some of us hackers would want to talk to you. Please add your email address to your profile; note that the email field itself is not visible to others.

will do.