We unfortunately did not get funded. Ironically, we suspect it was at least in part due to more of a strategic "political" reason than an insufficient idea. Our startup would have directly competed with a prominent current YC funded company which for obvious reasons is undesirable for YC, despite the fact we believe our approach is superior from a technical standpoint. The argument was that this current company is already "well established" and might already have momentum to expand into the area we proposed. They certainly aren't doing it yet though, and we build fast and never give up. I'm sure Larry and Surgey were told the same thing from investors about Altavista. History shows being "well established" doesnt mean squat. I wont get into any more specifics though, as we are still pursuing the idea and would like to keep it under wraps.
Paul, Jessica, and Trevor are really cool people though. As were the other teams present. We saw some good ideas and smart people. Without a doubt the next batch of startups will be very impressive. I wish all of those teams who were offered funding the best of luck!
Most investors do not invest in competing or significantly overlapping companies. There are a few exceptions (Ron Conway), but it's rare enough that they feel like making that clear on every possible occasion.
I would guess that they liked the applicants (based on the applications) and wanted to see if they had any other ideas that they would be interested in pursuing.
Except that for this round pg said you don't need an idea in order to apply. That implies that they'll help decide on an idea if they like the founders, so an idea conflict should be resolvable by switching to something else pg et al. have in mind.
Let me just say this: "the idea doesn't matter" is a statement that we found to be highly, highly unreliable. Don't expect to get funded without a solid idea that is different. I'll elaborate on this later, but trust me on this one.
so your trying to help people share live streaming video. It would really help to have a video camera with a decent bandwidth connection to the internet to do that.
On the contrary. We got an interview and rejected last fall. It was a great experience to meet the four of them. I think we brought a great idea, a plan, and little diversity in our team (I was the only geek in our garage). We were swiftly rejected for reasons I'm not entirely sure , but thats why they have the money and I don't! At the least, Boston made for a great weekend getaway.
