It would be great to see examples of successful applications, and why they stood out. Seeing how the initial presentation of the idea is different than the company today would help applicants be bolder. There's the Dropbox application which is used as an example, but are there more examples?

This page has some links: http://yourstory.com/2014/10/guide-list-y-combinator/

Wow...that's comprehensive. Great find!

There are a few links to applications on this Quora thread: http://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-some-sample-YCombinato...

I'll see if I can dig up a few more.

The Dropbox one is a fine example though and you'd still be served well by it even though it was originally submitted years ago.

Thanks, will check out quora links. Follow up question: is it advisable to get application feedback from other YC companies? In my head this only makes sense if the product made by applicant can be used by the startup you want feedback from, but not sure if this is the best kind of feedback.

It's very advisable to get feedback from other YC companies. Regardless of whether they could be a customer. Almost all the applications I reviewed would fall into that bucket.

we've had our application reviewed by a YC company that would probably derive zero value from our product. the advice was cogent and helpful, both with respect to getting into YC and the company generally.

If you don't mind sharing, may I ask how you knew/ approached these other YC Companies? Perhaps I'm naive, but I suspect a cold-email/ contact won't get me very far, especially since I'm not based in the Bay Area.

We approached a YC founder in our city via cold email.

I think that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to get comfortable with writing cold-emails and getting lots of rejection. It's just part of the game. Plus, it's not that cold of an email: you want to do YC and the founder has done YC. You already have a shared interest.

I appreciate the response. I've done my fair share of cold emails, however I find that there's a threshold that I cross above often in which I won't receive a response.

It's tough to build credibility in a few short lines, but I appreciate the "shared interest" suggestion. I hadn't considered that this even counted. Thanks!

I had a personal connection to most, but did a couple out of cold outreach. Be bold, reach out, if you don't get a response, you're still in the same position you were before...and no worse.

Thanks!