For me it's obvious that rejections are often born out of a very high bar, limited capacity to take on startups and the limitations of human foresight.
It would be one of the more difficult tasks for me to imagine ever being upset at YC for a rejection (Got my 4th tonight, no stranger to it). If this was your first or second, don't worry , it gets better.
I can honestly say I've never felt closer to success and making progress than I do as I, every six months, write up a summary of where I'm at, where I'm going and then compare it with the previous series of rejected applications. Heck next time I could see myself easily with an actual website and customer base, or, if I get lucky, with a co-founder - how novel would that be?
So grow, YC, do it in a way where you don't loose your soul. And hey, if I never get in...well I'm in enough...
I'll make it. That's one of the best feelings. I know that it may look nothing like I presently imagine, but I'll make it. That's the beauty of malleable but relentless dreaming.
Now someone call Hollywood, er Kickstarter, I've got a killer idea for a film about two co-founders in the valley, 'Dotcom Quixote de la Big Chanca' and 'Sancho "the Ramen" Panza' as they go tilting at Heroku Dynos and courting Aldonza Horowitz aka "Andreesenea".
Would love to read your summaries if you have them posted somewhere. Would be a great learning curve for me as this was my first rejection (planning for more ;P)
That makes me wonder, are there any other examples of a regular business' forum spinning off like this? And to dive into it a little further, in hindsight this can be seen as a brilliant marketing move by pg, but was this intentional?
Rejection notice here. The application process did help us learn a lot and improve our plan quite a bit though so it definitely was worth the time and effort put into it.
I got rejected last year for the first time, decided to apply again on the next batch: got refused again. After that we decided not to apply to this batch, and here we are about to close our A round at an above average YC valuation gets at their A round after just 1 year since being founded..
We just followed what PG writes in his essays when in doubt.
Rejection here. Was prepared for this, but still, it stings.
> We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes.
Next goal: To reach the point where we can send that email!
Edit: Congratulations to everyone who got the invites to the interview. Good luck!
If you get rejected, make sure you don't take it personal and ask yourself: If we needed YC to accept us to succeed were we on the right track? And if the answer is no then make it work without them. After all, YC is a factor in the success of quite a large number of start-ups but there are many more start-ups succeeding without having gone through YC than that did.
If it were the only factor common to all successful start-ups rejection would be a bad thing.
I submitted my non-profit, CharityCoin.org and unfortunately was not accepted. However, I firmly believe in our mission to create a sustainable charity so I am still working on it. We do not need the capital, but It would have loved to get some advice from YC.
To anyone else that has not been accepted - please consider CharityCoin- we are the kickstarter for charities that helps startups raise money for Free.
Here is how it works: We ask celebrities for their permission to mint gold and silver coins with their image. We then give those coins to donors that promise money to their favorites charities. But the money raised goes to startups who promise to pay back and support the charities.
This effectively is a loan and the interest is just a commitment of volunteer time to promote the charity.
Please go to http://CharityCoin.Org to check it out and contact me Ric AT CharityCoin.Org
Based on http://ycombinator.com/howtoapply.html, it seems that there's a point in the application where if you're impressive enough, they'll spend more time on it and if not, they'll disregard it.
> If the founders seem promising, I'll now spend more time trying to understand the idea.
It might be a good idea to put the applications that don't get past that point in one pile, and send them a different and more specific rejection letter. (I was just rejected and am naturally wondering how close I was, and this idea came to mind.)
There once was a lonely developer. Who got rejected by Y-Combinator. Paul Graham said "No!" But it don't make him feel low. He'll make next year's attempt so much better...
In an earlier startup I went to 88 meetings over 8 months before getting to a VC term sheet. That is a lot of 'no'. If you are going to be an entrepreneur you need to learn to live with rejection and keep moving forward. I got my "sorry" email from YC tonight, but that's fine. I knew the odds were very long. I'm getting up early tomorrow to continue working on my idea. I may apply again in the future with this (or another) concept, but for now I'm just going to keep on hacking!
Lots of founders were kind enough to give me feedback on Hall.com when I had $0 funding. Since then, we've raised $6m+ Feel free to send over your info and I'll give you feedback. ([email protected])
I didn't make this round but I am still excited because if one waits until you're 100% sure you will never accomplish anything. Go with 75% sure and you'll get there. I know I will. Thanks for the No Thanks. That's how one gets off their back and keeps going.
We've also got rejected, and now I'm pretty sure that Ycombinator is just a great bottleneck itself. It can even be inferred from Kirsty's email or Sam's post: http://blog.samaltman.com/the-worst-part-of-yc.
Anyway, it's now like a challenge for all of the good/promising startups (including ours) to prove them their mistakes or missed opportunities resulting from undercapacity. On the other hand, I wish all the best to every accepted company! You're now on a better track to your success ;)
Rejection here too - honestly think we just weren't far along enough (0 users, 0 traction, barely working prototype) - will keep hustling and re-apply in 6 months.
In all honesty, I really can't blame YC because the only reason we didn't have users/traction is we only started working on our idea a couple weeks before application deadline but from the perspective of a YC partner, I can imagine their first thought is that a lack of users/traction communicates that you're not hustling hard enough.
I only just had the idea about a week before the deadline for the apps, so I knew the odds were stacked even higher against me. On top of that, I'm currently a single founder. However, the objective of my idea needs to be satisfied, so I am absolutely continuing to work on the idea with a bit more urgency now that I won't have YC guidance and connections.
The idea is to have a central hub where employers with available positions and applicants looking for a job connect. Unlike current (and highly successful) services that attempt this while obeying the status quo of hiring, MyAdversity will provide two huge and beneficial differences:
(1) Employers will hire the best person for the job far more successfully. Applicant profiles will already be screened and sorted. So an employer simply has to search for qualities and skills they're looking for in an applicant, and a ranked list of applicants will appear with the best match first. An applicant's profile will provide the employer with most information that is sought by a conventional interview. Therefore, employers will be able to focus their time on conducting a better interview that likely includes a sample of real work the applicant would be assigned if hired.
(2) Applicants will have a level playing field when pursuing a position they really want. The screening process does not depend on the inaccurate filters employers use today to save time, nor does it weigh so heavily on pedigree. Applicants will be judged by who they are, what they're passionate about, and what they're capable of. Applicants should have hope that if they acquire the skills to competently perform the work at their dream job, that they have a reasonable chance to be hired.
Even though it's only an fleshed out idea with a first iteration mock-up while I code the actual MVP for beta, I'm not in stealth mode. If anyone steals the idea and executes it better than I will, then the objective will be satisfied, and I'll be grateful. That is my main goal. I greatly appreciate any feedback you may have. Congrats to all of the groups who were chosen for an interview, and best of luck!
I got rejected. Then rereading the email, i remembered Drew Houston didnt get in the first time. The best way to experience success is to overcome rejections and go on to succeed. I personally think between the YC partners blogs, we have enough advice to continue working with our product. In 5 years YC or not, the target is at least 20m users or whatever else is your targets. just target 5% growth.
[+] [-] VaedaStrike|12 years ago|reply
It would be one of the more difficult tasks for me to imagine ever being upset at YC for a rejection (Got my 4th tonight, no stranger to it). If this was your first or second, don't worry , it gets better.
I can honestly say I've never felt closer to success and making progress than I do as I, every six months, write up a summary of where I'm at, where I'm going and then compare it with the previous series of rejected applications. Heck next time I could see myself easily with an actual website and customer base, or, if I get lucky, with a co-founder - how novel would that be?
So grow, YC, do it in a way where you don't loose your soul. And hey, if I never get in...well I'm in enough...
I'll make it. That's one of the best feelings. I know that it may look nothing like I presently imagine, but I'll make it. That's the beauty of malleable but relentless dreaming.
Now someone call Hollywood, er Kickstarter, I've got a killer idea for a film about two co-founders in the valley, 'Dotcom Quixote de la Big Chanca' and 'Sancho "the Ramen" Panza' as they go tilting at Heroku Dynos and courting Aldonza Horowitz aka "Andreesenea".
:)
[+] [-] exo_duz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nness|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stingraycharles|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] sanswork|12 years ago|reply
Congrats to everyone receiving interview invites.
[+] [-] derwiki|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vishaldpatel|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wololo_|12 years ago|reply
We just followed what PG writes in his essays when in doubt.
[+] [-] dnautics|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shrikrishna|12 years ago|reply
> We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes.
Next goal: To reach the point where we can send that email!
Edit: Congratulations to everyone who got the invites to the interview. Good luck!
[+] [-] jacquesm|12 years ago|reply
If it were the only factor common to all successful start-ups rejection would be a bad thing.
So go prove them wrong.
[+] [-] opendomain|12 years ago|reply
To anyone else that has not been accepted - please consider CharityCoin- we are the kickstarter for charities that helps startups raise money for Free.
Here is how it works: We ask celebrities for their permission to mint gold and silver coins with their image. We then give those coins to donors that promise money to their favorites charities. But the money raised goes to startups who promise to pay back and support the charities. This effectively is a loan and the interest is just a commitment of volunteer time to promote the charity.
Please go to http://CharityCoin.Org to check it out and contact me Ric AT CharityCoin.Org
[+] [-] adamzerner|12 years ago|reply
> If the founders seem promising, I'll now spend more time trying to understand the idea.
It might be a good idea to put the applications that don't get past that point in one pile, and send them a different and more specific rejection letter. (I was just rejected and am naturally wondering how close I was, and this idea came to mind.)
[+] [-] ecolner|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sparkzilla|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] patrickford|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exo_duz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bretthellman|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jackhammons|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exo_duz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glennon|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] myattaches|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clockwork_189|12 years ago|reply
For those who didnt get in, chin up! It is not the end! Keep hustling and keep pushing forward!
[+] [-] mark-bain|12 years ago|reply
Anyway, it's now like a challenge for all of the good/promising startups (including ours) to prove them their mistakes or missed opportunities resulting from undercapacity. On the other hand, I wish all the best to every accepted company! You're now on a better track to your success ;)
Good luck to everyone, Mark Bain
[+] [-] jmaha|12 years ago|reply
Mixpanel and others have offered special deals for rejects in the past. Silver lining!
[+] [-] ycsummer14|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mhluongo|12 years ago|reply
EDIT- Got it a few minutes after posting.
[+] [-] jdoliner|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erydo|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] shankysingh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmalynin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jojofabe|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] markovbling|12 years ago|reply
In all honesty, I really can't blame YC because the only reason we didn't have users/traction is we only started working on our idea a couple weeks before application deadline but from the perspective of a YC partner, I can imagine their first thought is that a lack of users/traction communicates that you're not hustling hard enough.
Good luck to everyone who has an interview :)
[+] [-] scobar|12 years ago|reply
My project is http://www.MyAdversity.com - A mock-up of how my profile would look is at http://www.MyAdversity.com/profile.htm
The idea is to have a central hub where employers with available positions and applicants looking for a job connect. Unlike current (and highly successful) services that attempt this while obeying the status quo of hiring, MyAdversity will provide two huge and beneficial differences:
(1) Employers will hire the best person for the job far more successfully. Applicant profiles will already be screened and sorted. So an employer simply has to search for qualities and skills they're looking for in an applicant, and a ranked list of applicants will appear with the best match first. An applicant's profile will provide the employer with most information that is sought by a conventional interview. Therefore, employers will be able to focus their time on conducting a better interview that likely includes a sample of real work the applicant would be assigned if hired.
(2) Applicants will have a level playing field when pursuing a position they really want. The screening process does not depend on the inaccurate filters employers use today to save time, nor does it weigh so heavily on pedigree. Applicants will be judged by who they are, what they're passionate about, and what they're capable of. Applicants should have hope that if they acquire the skills to competently perform the work at their dream job, that they have a reasonable chance to be hired.
Even though it's only an fleshed out idea with a first iteration mock-up while I code the actual MVP for beta, I'm not in stealth mode. If anyone steals the idea and executes it better than I will, then the objective will be satisfied, and I'll be grateful. That is my main goal. I greatly appreciate any feedback you may have. Congrats to all of the groups who were chosen for an interview, and best of luck!
[+] [-] ondiekijunior|12 years ago|reply