Now there's a Webvan one. I kind of don't get it. It seems like YC is one of the least deserving targets if you're going to mock the Valley hype machine.
And now it's filling up with garbage data and more shitty attempts at humor. I genuinely had no idea that if you removed the possibility of a down vote there would be that many dicks on HN.
x-post from the other thread - relevant if you got a rejection email tonight.
Hi everyone -
Startups are hard. I hope you'll keep going in the face of adversity.
If so, Mixpanel is here to help. Forward a copy of your YC rejection email to free@mixpanel.com and we'll hook you up with our $150/month Startup plan, free forever.
I hope this, or something like it, takes off: http://www.hostmygig.com. It's a sad thing to see great unknown bands not be able to fill a tour or find the right venues. Look forward to seeing how they get the word out.
Oh and a request? I sign up for the betas of a lot of these out of interest, to see if anything looks like it will take off. I am constantly getting notifications and updates, which is fine, but without mentioning what your service is - don't make me go to your website to remind myself what you do and find out if I want to stay subscribed: please just put a quick paragraph in your email footer.
mobius.io here, we make hardware and were pretty excited when we read http://www.paulgraham.com/hw.html. Got rejected today and checked the server logs, saw nobody ever logged into our demo site. Is this typical or just means that our application was really, really bad?
Well, put another way, it might mean that your application wasn't really, really good. It could have been good, or, in fact, it might have been really good - but, I suspect the YC approach is to start with the very, very good applications. They then try and eliminate some percentage of those through some further due-diligence, bring a smaller group in for interviews, and then finally select a very small percentage of the original group.
Because YC hires primarily based on team/commitment/skill/fortitude/enthusiasm and potential, I'm guessing that reviewing the demo is done after there is some belief that the first properties are present.
[edit: I checked your site - the first two questions that come to my mind are, "What is the potential for this growing into $10B enterprise" and "What is their unfair competitive advantage in building this interface system?
PS - with a bit of work, this would be the start of an awesome Kickstarter. Then you don't have to give any equity away, which, if you really believe in your prospects, should also be attractive)
Thanks for the tips. As for enterprise, we want to eat ni.com's lunch since a lot of threir lower end systems require a computer to operate. We're thinking of doing a kick starter to get 50 to 100 prototypes built and the case design finalized. The hardware is solid and the firmware/server side features are pretty much done.
Feel free (anyone else too) to contact me if interested in a demo. We're in Mountain View.
Probably a better strategy. If you take a look at Jessica Livingston's talk from Startup School (http://startupschool.org/2012/livingston/) she notes that YC gets nervous about hardware--but nerds (like me) on Kickstarter love it. That's how the pebble watch came to grow successfully. Kickstarter is once of the few places you can find and fund really innovative hardware products. Best of luck
Thanks for the link. I figured YC knew the risk if PG asked for more hardware people to apply. It's true that it's very hard to have the same type of growth in a hardware startup as software, but someone has to make the gadgets. Additionally, while Kickstarter gives you funding, they don't provide the same type of mentorship that YC may offer.
Yes, the general fear of hardware in the valley was cured over the past year. There are still issues specific to hardware companies, but it is no longer that big a problem.
Things which are hardware plus service are even more popular.
The initial mobius.io device has 16 general purpose I/O lines, several serial ports, and analog in, so it is much more flexible than Nest. As for Android@Home, mobius also has its own cloud service, so you don't need to worry about infrastructure. What we would like to do is to have the same functionality of something like NI USB-6009 (http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201987) without the computer. And we also have LabVIEW drivers for our device. So you can automate things in your business/home from anywhere using JS/LabVIEW/HTTP GET if you wanted to.
I think what TechCrunch does is unimportant to people who give money to people who receive money. Someone's spreadsheet isn't going to ruin a good idea or a good team.
(A) Got 4/5 video views from YC/partners and even as late as November 11th.
(B) If there were no video hits at all.
Looking for some postmortem but shouldn't stop me from continuing my work.
It will help us know which axes to improve up on for the next time.
So for example, if we have had video hits and got rejected, does it mean the idea sounded good but they were not convinced with the team? Helps one learn...
One good trick for describing a project concisely is to explain it as a variant of something the audience already knows. It's like Wikipedia, but within an organization. It's like an answering service, but for email. It's eBay for jobs. This form of description is wonderfully efficient. Don't worry that it will make your idea seem "derivative." Some of the best ideas in history began by sticking together two existing ideas no one realized could be combined.
haha true but I was thinking more in the line that it would back fire on the idea of not blurting out who some of the possible selected groups are... I thought they were supposed to be unknown until Demo Day...
That has to be a joke. No one seriously would use the tagline "A social network for chicks."
[edit] Looks like people are just having fun. Look at the "ShareBNB" (boxers and briefs one). Even if serious, that's a very limited audience and CL can take care of that audience already. I think many are just decoys.
We didn't get in either this time. But it's always nice having the opportunity to apply to these things.
Would love to see more of the application videos (it might be embarrassing to put yourself out there, but I'm sure everyone here's a supportive bunch and just wants to learn).
If your company description is, "we're the (insert startup name one) for (insert startup name two)", please please reconsider. There are sooo many cool business ideas that don't involve Facebook, twitter, or (inset startup name three's idea here) ideas.
Mobile based hacker-to-hacker platform used to infiltrate CIA database with content gathering and storing-
market potential: Iran, N. Korea, China, Cuba, Russia...this will redefine the black market. All i need is a little startup cash
Guideacity hasn't been selected, but we are keeping our work going and see how far we can get. Also if there is someone in New York who can create a website like Airbnb please let me know!
Well, added Splash to the list. It was funny to see at least one other company very similar, and that is launched! At least we know we are headed in a good direction. :)
If you're curious about why he, or anyone else, is interested then fair enough - however given he makes it clear that all information submitted is available for anyone to view, I don't think there's any need for him to explain why he wants "personal info", clearly he only wants it if you are happy for it to be public information.
Definitely use a less douchey description in your actual YC app. Or at least name your company Devil's Deuce Interactive.