I wanted to jump in here and to caution that finding a cofounder with the specific intent of applying for this round of YC would be a bad idea. Keep in mind that a co-founding relationship is very much a relationship, and you have to "date" a bit before you get married — having a startup is like having a child, you want to know a potential cofounder is the right person to found a startup with first.
That said, be inspired to try finding a cofounder now, work with them for a few months and keep S13 in mind — it might all fall into place by the time the next round comes around. And if you can't find a cofounder, don't be afraid of being persistant and just learning the skills necessary to build and launch startup solo, since a great cofounder is likely to come along if you already have an intriguing product launched.
I completed & submitted the form but there's no way to see other entries, just to create a new form or submit a new entry. Do you have a link to the completed doc? Thanks.
I've been a long time lurker on HN and just signed up because of this survey. I appreciate you posting this and hopefully I'll run into someone with similar goals/mindset as me.
EDIT: I just noticed that after filling out the form, I never actually get a hyperlink to the google document. Can you post this?
It was very useful for me when faux-applying to have the dark glow of vim instead of the YC page's harsh white, and I thought I might put it out there for others to use.
There is a whole spectrum of vision impairments (pun intended) involving
excessive sensitivity to bright light. As you might expect, there is no
single answer to all of them. A lot of people have trouble with white
background and dark text normally seen in applications and on the web.
The best answer is knowing how to configure your software. There's
actually a reason for the ancient phrase "User Agent" which predates the
web by decades; your software should be an agent for you and handle the
details for you much like a Hollywood agent takes care of the details
for a star.
You can configure some web browsers to take care of the pesky details
for you like fixing dark text on white background:
For me, with my config, every website looks basically like that. The
web would be nearly unusable for me otherwise.
I can hear the "artistic designer" faction gathering their torches and
pitchforks due to me offending their skilled sensibilities with
something so ugly, but when you have a disability, often your only
choice is between something less cool and nothing at all.
The previous time we applied, we pasted the text version on a google doc and created two versions (main and redacted versions), which we were then shared with the team and our app-reviewers (for the app-reviewers, disable editing and allow only for comments). We found this strategy to be really helpful in gathering feedback and more importantly it helped speed up filling up the app.
For such things I invariably use WriteRoom. I find formatting and futzing with a web app to be built in procrastination mechanisms. It's generally trivial to spend a few minutes copying and pasting once the actual text is done.
PG: What would your advice be to someone with no co-founder? Apply anyway and see what you think, or don't even bother and wait until you've found someone to work with?
I appreciate the issues with single founder companies however am finding it hard to locate someone with the required interest and skill in my area.
Get a cofounder. If your startup succeeds, you could spend 5 years or more working on it. It's rounding error to spend 6 months making a concerted effort to find a cofounder first. And while it can be hard to find a cofounder, it's not as hard as starting a successful startup.
As someone who applied as a single founder (and got in), just apply anyway. However, ensure that you get across that you are indeed open to finding a co-founder.
Even if you manage to get in without a co-founder, you'll probably still want a co-founder. I've talked to several YC alums without a co-founder looking to hire an employee who can serve as a co-founder.
Drew Houston originally applied as a single founder (and then lined up a talented and committed co-founder) and turned into one of YC's two biggest successes so far, so take heart.
PG, if my co-founder and I are currently bootstrapping a company and starting to work with a law firm to go through all the formalities of incorporation, would you recommend holding off on that for a few months in case we are accepted into YC? It's not cheap (by far) to pay for that stuff out of pocket, and I imagine YC has a lot more experience guiding young companies through the formation process, so curious about your opinion. Thanks.
PG - My cofounder and I have a product already (about to launch). But we have doubts that we may not be able to get in with that idea based on the previous ideas that got selected for YC. Should we apply with our current idea, come up with a completely new idea, or apply as a no idea?
I've been interested in applying to YC for quite a while, but recently I graduated and moved to the south bay (near Mountain View) for work. It really stood out to me this time that $11,000 + $3,000n is not a lot of money. With 3 founders that's $20,000. 3 founders working in the tech industry can make $20,000 PER MONTH on typical salaries. It seems like it would be more appealing to people without good paying work, or who are interested more for the connections (which maybe applies to me, I'm thinking about it). Assuming all 3 founders cohabit (which I think is standard), this is a reasonable amount of money to live on, but it would be fairly bare bones if my quick mental math is right.
It's not about the money, it's enough to survive. The founders of Reddit after selling their company for tens of millions went through YC again for Hipmunk. It's not about the money, its about the people.
"It seems like it would be more appealing to people without good paying work"
Good paying work is golden handcuffs.
Many of the people who started on the net (90's) were able to do so because they had nothing else significant going on at the time. If they had a high paid corporate job, or even a "normal" paying job, were an attorney, or even ran a small business, they had neither the time nor did it make sense to take chances.
If you have nothing, as Dylan said, you have nothing to lose.
(2) As founders, you should NOT be paying yourselves real salary until you raise significant money. Even then, you should be paying yourselves on the order of $50-60K/year, modulo a few edge cases if you have a family, mortgage, etc.
I've always looked at the yc program not as a means to get funds but rather as a sort of exclusive community where you get very good advice for your startup. if money is crucial for starting your business then you might indeed be better of with more traditional VCs.
As a startup founder, you should NOT be paying yourself anywhere near $20k/month - that's why you have equity. If the company does well, you'll make a lot when you get bought or IPO.
One thing I noticed while in YC was that the most successful people I met (founders, investors, etc) weren't primarily motivated by the financial rewards. Money is a result of a successful venture, not the main objective.
Point is, founding a startup doesn't actually make sense from a financial perspective. Most often you will be more profitable having been employed.
As some might know the H1 for this year has been used up (unlike in the past 4-5 years), will YC still be ok accepting ideas/startups that cannot be on h1?
Some clarity on this front will be very helpful for immigrants :)
If you are in an immigration limbo (came to the states as a young kid, have no SS#) are you able to apply? Basically I'm in the same position as Jose Vargas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Antonio_Vargas)
Note: I co-founded this up after not finding a co-founder for an earlier idea myself. Somehow this idea of building a match.com for co-founder seems to have filled a need and now there are 10,000 or so incl. current and ex- Googlers, Apple, etc.
I love the topic of co-founder finding. Also because some people have surprisingly strong opinions about whether a service like this can be possible at all or if you need to go way back with your co-founder.
As was said earlier, the Dropbox co-founders did not know each other long before... I think anything is possible. It depends on the co-founders ;)
If there are any teams who want to do security or network/server/cloud infrastructure stuff for S13, I'd be very interested in talking with them -- I know a lot of YC founders and might be able to give you useful advice.
Hey I'm looking for a technical co-founder for summer 2013 or later. I won't be ready until then. I don't know much about the business side of things so if you could bring that to the table, awesome.
About me:
I've been programming since I was 14, I'm 22, just graduated from college, and working at a big company in the valley (think Google/Microsoft/Apple). I have a few ideas and would be interested in hearing yours.
I'm not ready to apply for YC yet, but if anyone is based in Atlanta, please touch base.
My areas of expertise include CS and biochem. I'm starting to hack around with lasing now, too. I'm very interested in edutech, bioinfo, and cheminfo. I'm also in the process of exploring two "novel" (read: absurd?) market spaces right now and I'd love to chat about it.
Out of curiosity (since nobody every mentions this), do successful entrepreneurs every apply (and get in?). Obviously someone with a previous exit already has a network of investors, co-founder(s), etc., but could the exposure via YC (and Start Fund funding) warrant applying? Or is YC's mission geared towards new entrepreneurs?
[+] [-] bravura|13 years ago|reply
I've created this Google survey so that you can put in a little information about yourself, and what you're looking for:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDAtOWh...
When you fill it out, you can see the other responses.
Perhaps you won't find a co-founder, but at least you might meet other people to talk to.
[edit: This is my first survey on google docs, so if I need to change any of the sharing permissions let me know.]
[edit 2: Here is the spreadsheet of results. Please respect the contributors, and don't use the spreadsheet unless you actually filled out the survey yourself. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnaOC0UphlFtdDA... ]
[+] [-] limedaring|13 years ago|reply
That said, be inspired to try finding a cofounder now, work with them for a few months and keep S13 in mind — it might all fall into place by the time the next round comes around. And if you can't find a cofounder, don't be afraid of being persistant and just learning the skills necessary to build and launch startup solo, since a great cofounder is likely to come along if you already have an intriguing product launched.
[+] [-] helen842000|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] zlatan1|13 years ago|reply
EDIT: I just noticed that after filling out the form, I never actually get a hyperlink to the google document. Can you post this?
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jamesjguthrie|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nickbarnwell|13 years ago|reply
It was very useful for me when faux-applying to have the dark glow of vim instead of the YC page's harsh white, and I thought I might put it out there for others to use.
[+] [-] jcr|13 years ago|reply
The best answer is knowing how to configure your software. There's actually a reason for the ancient phrase "User Agent" which predates the web by decades; your software should be an agent for you and handle the details for you much like a Hollywood agent takes care of the details for a star.
You can configure some web browsers to take care of the pesky details for you like fixing dark text on white background:
http://www.designtools.org/pix/news.ycombinator.com_w2013for...
For me, with my config, every website looks basically like that. The web would be nearly unusable for me otherwise.
I can hear the "artistic designer" faction gathering their torches and pitchforks due to me offending their skilled sensibilities with something so ugly, but when you have a disability, often your only choice is between something less cool and nothing at all.
[+] [-] netvarun|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wheels|13 years ago|reply
http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
[+] [-] kaolinite|13 years ago|reply
I appreciate the issues with single founder companies however am finding it hard to locate someone with the required interest and skill in my area.
[+] [-] pg|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] olivercameron|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glaugh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tylermenezes|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bfe|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] callmevlad|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hiddenstage|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pg|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vbv|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epicureanideal|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] startupfounder|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] larrys|13 years ago|reply
Good paying work is golden handcuffs.
Many of the people who started on the net (90's) were able to do so because they had nothing else significant going on at the time. If they had a high paid corporate job, or even a "normal" paying job, were an attorney, or even ran a small business, they had neither the time nor did it make sense to take chances.
If you have nothing, as Dylan said, you have nothing to lose.
[+] [-] vecter|13 years ago|reply
(2) As founders, you should NOT be paying yourselves real salary until you raise significant money. Even then, you should be paying yourselves on the order of $50-60K/year, modulo a few edge cases if you have a family, mortgage, etc.
[+] [-] jcfrei|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tylermenezes|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kochb|13 years ago|reply
Point is, founding a startup doesn't actually make sense from a financial perspective. Most often you will be more profitable having been employed.
[+] [-] bfe|13 years ago|reply
burn rate = (runway)^(-1)
Reining in your burn rate as much as feasible is one of the easiest ways to extend your runway, and your chance of getting to awesomeness.
A typical job is a better way to maximize one's disposable income reliably next month or next year.
[+] [-] dwynings|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akshxy|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dude_abides|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pclark|13 years ago|reply
YC has a great community to discuss this kind of question: do not let your immigration status prevent you from applying.
[+] [-] patrickod|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] c0mpute|13 years ago|reply
As some might know the H1 for this year has been used up (unlike in the past 4-5 years), will YC still be ok accepting ideas/startups that cannot be on h1?
Some clarity on this front will be very helpful for immigrants :)
[+] [-] kurtvarner|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pg|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vbv|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gkoberger|13 years ago|reply
* Interviews will be around November 25th [EDIT: November 27th-Dec 1]
* First dinner will be around November 30th [EDIT: Early January]
* Demo day will be approximately March 25th
[+] [-] dreaming2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guero|13 years ago|reply
Note: I co-founded this up after not finding a co-founder for an earlier idea myself. Somehow this idea of building a match.com for co-founder seems to have filled a need and now there are 10,000 or so incl. current and ex- Googlers, Apple, etc.
I love the topic of co-founder finding. Also because some people have surprisingly strong opinions about whether a service like this can be possible at all or if you need to go way back with your co-founder.
As was said earlier, the Dropbox co-founders did not know each other long before... I think anything is possible. It depends on the co-founders ;)
[+] [-] rdl|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mapcat|13 years ago|reply
About me: I've been programming since I was 14, I'm 22, just graduated from college, and working at a big company in the valley (think Google/Microsoft/Apple). I have a few ideas and would be interested in hearing yours.
Send me an email at [email protected]
[+] [-] bulltale|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdl|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hiddenstage|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] possibilistic|13 years ago|reply
My areas of expertise include CS and biochem. I'm starting to hack around with lasing now, too. I'm very interested in edutech, bioinfo, and cheminfo. I'm also in the process of exploring two "novel" (read: absurd?) market spaces right now and I'd love to chat about it.
I'm echelon at gmail.
[+] [-] mukaiji|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] saddino|13 years ago|reply