Why to Apply to YCombinator
37 comments
Hey, dude! You right. Never surrender.
I'm 21 from Novosibirsk, Russia. When I decided to start the startup it was REALLY hard to find co-founders. I thought that my friends will join me. But they was too scared about the need to drop out the college and do something cool and undiscovered. Other often very smart people in Russia already had thier reliable jobs....And one day suddenly I found not one but two co-founders! One of them found me from my ad at some RoR website. The second co-founder was found by me from his blog. The are really cool guys and I'm enjoying working with them. One of them from Denver and the other from Dublin, Ireland. So, we are distributed across the globe)
You right, I couldn't ever imagine where I'll find co-founders.
More. I met a lot of cool smart people in Silicon Valley and in the US. I even found one Russian guy who moved to US 9 years ago.
This SOOOO exciting! And the things become more and more interesting.
I hope we meet one day and eat that sushi)
Good luck :)
You right, I couldn't ever imagine where I'll find co-founders.
More. I met a lot of cool smart people in Silicon Valley and in the US. I even found one Russian guy who moved to US 9 years ago.
This SOOOO exciting! And the things become more and more interesting.
I hope we meet one day and eat that sushi)
Good luck :)
PG is an amazingly genuine guy and I think it is good to apply for those interested regardless of the result. Remember, the story of Reddit guys. Never loose an opportunity to learn from others and in this case, even by applying you will learn a lot from YC folks.
You join YC so you will be able to tell stories about how pg supplied you with cup-o-noodles for several months in exchange for 6% of your company.
It's like the story in the Bible where Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of lentils. Genesis 25: 30-34
It's like the story in the Bible where Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of lentils. Genesis 25: 30-34
It's not the money. It's the contacts.
Yes - indeed! It is not the money, but the contacts and the experience of working with passionate, like minded individuals in which you learn from!
not just contacts, they're experience no doubt comes in handy and also being able to focus on building your product while they take care of the boring legal part.
It's funny, I totally remember that air-high five and the teacher comment thing. I happened to be standing right there (probably hovering, trying to get my 30 seconds with you know who ;).
Anyway, thanks for the read. You trying again this time? Good luck.
Anyway, thanks for the read. You trying again this time? Good luck.
Me too. I totally remember waiting in line for a taxi and then offering you my place.
;) Seriously, though. Very nice post. Thanks.
;) Seriously, though. Very nice post. Thanks.
Thanks. Yeah, we'll try again each time until we're accepted, or until we take the plunge anyway. If you don't mind if I ask, what business are you building? It's always fun to learn what everyone else is working on.
When we realized that making something for public schools was a really bad position for a tiny startup to be in (if you've ever wondered why the technology tools that teachers use are so bad, it's because a public school's buying process is broken), we wondered what to do about it. All Emily and I knew is that we have a huge, overpowering desire to start a company. So I looked at my strengths to find something that I could be really passionate about. I've made random little video games for a long time, and I've held a job in the gamedev industry for the last two years, so I realized, "Hey, you don't have to work on a webapp. Just do what you really love."
Emily and I talked for awhile, and we realized that a lot of people want to create their own game, but don't want to deal with the complicated details. I don't blame them. Game art is complicated to create. And not only are most games created in C++, which is a horrible language for a beginner to use, but the complexities of the graphics libraries make it almost impossible to just create a cool little thing to show off to your friends quickly. Plus, cross-platform is really messy to accomplish.
So we're building something to make 2D game creation suck less. Making multiplayer Mario has always been a little dream of mine. And imagine a day when you can just read through some simple instructions and make something right away, then have your creation show up where your friends can play it. Or you're playing through someone else's game and spot a cool-looking character, so you press a button and you can use that character in your games, too.
But, one step at a time.
It's not concerning that it's a huge project. And Emily doesn't mind that she has no idea how to contribute. We're just working on it part of each day and saving up our money, and trusting that one day, with a lot of hard work, things will fall into place. And heck, our idea is for video games, something that YC has already said everyone and their brother tries to apply with. But we applied, even if our chances are nil, and had a lot of fun hammering out our application and doing our traditional loud ten-second countdown before submitting.
So however crazy your idea seems, let's apply anyway! If we all do, then at least one of us will get in, which is really cool.
What's everyone working on?
When we realized that making something for public schools was a really bad position for a tiny startup to be in (if you've ever wondered why the technology tools that teachers use are so bad, it's because a public school's buying process is broken), we wondered what to do about it. All Emily and I knew is that we have a huge, overpowering desire to start a company. So I looked at my strengths to find something that I could be really passionate about. I've made random little video games for a long time, and I've held a job in the gamedev industry for the last two years, so I realized, "Hey, you don't have to work on a webapp. Just do what you really love."
Emily and I talked for awhile, and we realized that a lot of people want to create their own game, but don't want to deal with the complicated details. I don't blame them. Game art is complicated to create. And not only are most games created in C++, which is a horrible language for a beginner to use, but the complexities of the graphics libraries make it almost impossible to just create a cool little thing to show off to your friends quickly. Plus, cross-platform is really messy to accomplish.
So we're building something to make 2D game creation suck less. Making multiplayer Mario has always been a little dream of mine. And imagine a day when you can just read through some simple instructions and make something right away, then have your creation show up where your friends can play it. Or you're playing through someone else's game and spot a cool-looking character, so you press a button and you can use that character in your games, too.
But, one step at a time.
It's not concerning that it's a huge project. And Emily doesn't mind that she has no idea how to contribute. We're just working on it part of each day and saving up our money, and trusting that one day, with a lot of hard work, things will fall into place. And heck, our idea is for video games, something that YC has already said everyone and their brother tries to apply with. But we applied, even if our chances are nil, and had a lot of fun hammering out our application and doing our traditional loud ten-second countdown before submitting.
So however crazy your idea seems, let's apply anyway! If we all do, then at least one of us will get in, which is really cool.
What's everyone working on?
> ... we realized that making something for public schools
> was a really bad position for a tiny startup to be in ...
Well, the question is: "Who is un(der)serviced in this market?" If the public schools are bad, it is probably the parents and students. I don't know much about your product, but one approach might be to see how it can be sold to parents who want to improve their children's education.
Well, the question is: "Who is un(der)serviced in this market?" If the public schools are bad, it is probably the parents and students. I don't know much about your product, but one approach might be to see how it can be sold to parents who want to improve their children's education.
We're building an easy-to-use tool for making web apps. It's interesting, although we're not competitors, we're both empowering individuals by letting them make something which would ordinarily require programming skills.
Interesting. You're probably a competitor of us. We're working on basically the same thing. ;-)
Cool! I thought so, from Diffle. Toss me an email at [email protected] if you want to compare notes.
P.S. Anyone interested in game development should come hang out with the Gamedev crew at irc.afternet.org, channel #gamedev. They're really smart and they'll help you with any problems you're running into.
P.S. Anyone interested in game development should come hang out with the Gamedev crew at irc.afternet.org, channel #gamedev. They're really smart and they'll help you with any problems you're running into.
have you heard of torque? its a great game engine that a lot of schools use, like ITT Tech Green Bay. A friend of mine http://justinbosar.net has started some development in torque. he does post production for hollywood movies.
My goodness, you have an inspiring attitude. Thanks for the great post!
Awesome post! I really feel good about submitting my application now.
Nice post.
I'll always remember watching Monty (the less-famous robot) grab a beer bottle from someone's hand at the pre-startup-school reception. That really was like being in the future.
I'll always remember watching Monty (the less-famous robot) grab a beer bottle from someone's hand at the pre-startup-school reception. That really was like being in the future.
...or being on Futurama
Thanks for sharing your inspiring and uplifting story. It makes me hope to be lucky enough to be chosen for the interview stage. =)
A homework generator seems like a nichey thing that you could do on your own, without investors.
This criticism doesn't apply to palish more than many other things YC has funded. I assume a homework generator was just the starting point of making things easier for teachers.
I'm not criticizing anything. Not needing funding is a good thing.
Few people need YC's money but it takes a lot of confidence to think that their support won't help.
Few people need YC's anything.
Quit arguing with me. Jesus Christ. I was trying to be encouraging, as in "You can sell your product without pg and company."
Quit arguing with me. Jesus Christ. I was trying to be encouraging, as in "You can sell your product without pg and company."
It was encouraging. I appreciate it.. Thank you!
And yeah, we're saving up money. One day, we'll go full time regardless of what our situation is. But we'd love to work alongside a group of really talented people. Plus applying to YC is fun, regardless of the chances of getting in.
And yeah, we're saving up money. One day, we'll go full time regardless of what our situation is. But we'd love to work alongside a group of really talented people. Plus applying to YC is fun, regardless of the chances of getting in.
If he stopped doing it after the rejection, then the criticism is hugely valid.
excellent post - it takes a lot of guts to jump into an experience like this full force: create a demo, complete the app, fly off to CA - maybe it didn't click that time but your on your way bro!
Just resubmitted the application, again, after reading your awesome post. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I found this post quite inspiring as I put the finishing touches on my application. Thanks, dude.
Great story. I hope you continue to develop this idea, even without YC.
Way to be. :D
Thanks for this excellent post.
I've prepared my application ;)
thank you.
[deleted]
I first wanted to apply to YCombinator's Summer 2007 cycle with the intention of making teachers' jobs a little easier. I was going to make an exceptional homework creation tool, one that would be intuitive to use. But wait, I could code it, but I didn't have any cofounders. Without a cofounder, I had no hope of getting in.
So I looked around for one. Everyone at work had families, so they were out. But I had a wonderful, supportive girlfriend. Why not her? What a strange idea, to start a company with your girlfriend! But I talked with her about it, and we started working together. Then something pretty amazing happened. It never mattered that she had zero technical knowledge. She knew what worked and what didn't, what made sense and what didn't. So we created something and ran it by my father. He said, "This is a little hard for non-technical people to use. I'll work with you on it." Now all of a sudden, I had two cofounders.
In the meantime, I received an invitation to Startup School. Not only that, but I was invited to the dinner at YCombinator beforehand. Wow! That was a wonderful feeling to be invited to something like that. I was all smiles the rest of the week. I was going to California!
.. And it was approaching fast. I asked off work for that Friday and Monday, then everyone pulled a few crazy all-nighters to get the demo done and our YC application in top shape. I'll always remember everyone doing a ten-second countdown right before we hit the 'Submit' button. That was hands-down the most fun I've had in one night.
Since we worked so well together, and since we had a deadline to meet, we'd ended up with an excellent demo. And had a lot of fun all around.
So I was off to California. Weebly happened to fit in nicely with what we were doing (teachers could use Weebly to build their sites), so I met with Chris, Dan, and David. They're really fun to talk with! They had framed a little circuit and hung it on the wall that displayed a count of how many users they had. The geekiness of that had me chuckling. And the view from the YScraper was absolutely spectacular.
Up next was the YCombinator dinner. It was amazing to see Dexter in person. I couldn't get over that I was staring at an actual life-sized robot that was balancing on its own. I noticed a claw on another robot, so I asked Trevor to squeeze my hand with it. Yeowch! But now I'm a part of a small group that can say they've been attacked by a robot.
I met the Zenter guys, Wayne and Robby. I showed our demo and they thought it was excellent, which is really awesome to hear from rockstar coders like them. Then I saw Zenter and was put to shame :) It was great to see all the amazing stuff they did. After talking for a little bit, I was amazed to learn that Wayne had a kid on the way. Wowza, that's pretty brave to still do YCombinator! But we all know how Zenter worked out.
The night wore on, and at one point Paul seemed to look at me and do a high-five gesture, so I high-fived back. Then I looked behind me. Whoops, he was going to high-five someone else. Everyone laughed. He asked me what I did, and I replied without thinking, "I'm making teachers' lives a little easier. I'm making a homework creation tool that even teachers will know how to use." "Don't use that as your tagline, or you'll alienate all your customers," he said and grinned. D'oh, I didn't mean it like that, but everyone laughed again. Looking back on it, that whole encounter was pretty amusing.
Up next was Startup School, which was a blast. Afterwards, I had some time to kill before catching my jet home, so I hitched Caltrain into San Francisco and waited in line to catch a taxi. I talked with the guy in front of me for awhile. He was from the midwest and came to San Francisco on a business trip. He was interesting to get to know, but then a taxi pulled up. To my surprise, he offered me his place. "Thanks!" I said, and hopped in. "Do you know any great places to get Sushi?" I asked the taxi driver. He nodded, and we were off. "Hey," he said, "That guy gave you his seat. Why'd he do that?" "I dunno, I guess you just need to be nice to people and they'll do stuff like that." "You Christian?" he asked. "No sir, just on vacation."
The sushi was amazing, but the oysters were pretty terrible. I caught a taxi back to Caltrain, and the taxi driver was as bad as I was with directions. She and I got lost about three times, and we laughed about it. She was probably taking me for a few extra bucks, but I prefer to think she was just new on the job. Anyway, she was nice enough that I didn't care.
I flew back home, and everyone anxiously awaited YCombinator's response. All of a sudden, it showed up. No dice. Oh well.
It must've been quite an amusing application. Some nineteen year old and his eighteen year old girlfriend with his fifty year old father. And I let the rejection get to me for a day or two, but then I felt stupid. If I didn't apply, I would've missed out on one of the best experiences of my life. I wouldn't have applied to Startup School, or talked with the Weeblies or the Zenters, or made a fool of myself in front of Paul, or been clawed by a giant robot, or stayed up late with everyone working on a Really Cool Idea, or done a loud ten-second countdown before hitting the Submit button, or eaten San Francisco Sushi, or astounded a taxi driver when some random stranger gave me his seat, or felt really good about working as hard as I could on something to show someone else, or a hundred other little things. And all those, I think, are reasons to apply to YCombinator. So go ahead, don't apply... But you might be missing out on a whole lotta fun.
But if you don't care about the fun, there are plenty of other reasons. Since you have a deadline, you'll get more done than you ever thought possible. You'll find cofounders where you thought you didn't have any. And you just might get accepted, even if you think your chances are nil. So hurry up, you still have time.