Good luck to all. this is a good afternoon, if you truly find you can't concentrate, to just take care of yourself. Go for a walk, get a pedicure, spend time with loved ones, relax and remind yourself that your life is so much more than YC and your work.
If you get in, that's the last break you'll have for awhile.
If you don't get in, it's a good reminder that it's not the end of the world.
Either way, you can't lose.
Again, good luck, and congratulations on stepping up to take a big giant swing.
We just found out we got an interview. Email went out about 7PT. I post that just to let others know timing. Also, we live in Bay Area, ~10 min away from YC, so if people need help with travel logistics and what not, please feel free to PM me.
We make the Patient-Oriented Medical Record that automatically retrieves and processes your medical records onto your mobile device. We're in beta. www.zobreus.com. https://youtu.be/ZbUbp-P4IT0
Thank you for applying to Y Combinator; however, your startup was not selected to interview for the upcoming Y Combinator batch. We carefully reviewed thousands of applications and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot of promising groups. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the interview threshold ends up getting accepted to YC. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold. Furthermore, a much smaller percentage of late applications are invited for interviews.
Unfortunately we can't give you individual feedback about your application. This page explains why: http://ycombinator.com/whynot/
We sincerely hope and encourage you to reapply for the next batch. Applying multiple times in no way counts against you and a surprisingly large number of companies are funded after applying more than once.
We're trying to get better at this, but 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.
Regardless of the outcome today, simply going through the exercise of completing the application is valuable. For us, we have been reminded, very clearly, "WHY" we took this risk in the first place. No matter the outcome, keep building!
Really great little site, tells me everything I wanted to know about the product! I'd suggest adding a "Subscribe for news about Parachute coming to my location" feature though, rather than a generic newsletter.
I Am Near is a platform that allows any type of digital content to be associated to a particular context where context is the intersection of who, when, and where. The first URL is the landing page the other URLs are test accounts that bypass authentication. For some reason the test URLs can be a bit touchy, ripping them out tonight, if you get a blank page just refresh.
We're working on bringing AI and automation to shift scheduling at https://www.StaffJoy.com - we are being deployed to production by a client for the first time this coming week :-)
On the back-end, it's a lot of integer programming optimization with custom heuristics that we use to keep the solve-times sane.
It's admittedly a rough beta at present, but ImageHex is a cross between an image search engine, a social network, and (once we've built more of the site out), a marketplace for commissioning and selling your art.
Working on Snappning (snappning.com - private beta iOS app), it's a mobile app to share your digital life through screenshots. Share and discover the best mobile content by user, app, or trending status.
Think of it as something between Instagram+Imgur+Pinterest built and optimized for discovering mobile app content.
Thesis is that screenshots are becoming a really exciting medium in of themselves, but search and discovery of mobile app content is really lacking across existing image sharing platforms.
Lots of early interest from app developers because of potential to drive app installs straight from the app using app metadata (i.e. including link to app store page) injected into every screenshot.
I'm looking for a mobile developer to join the ride btw...super passionate about screenshots as the next big medium and looking for help.
Looks awesome, there's so much to do to improve the efficiency of the government. Any thoughts on how your software might work with sites like NextDoor where I see a lot of local government discussions happening? Also, small thing but Francisco is misspelled on your address.
Currently working on Pulse (www.pulseapp.co). We're building an anonymous communication platform for enterprises and organizations. Our goal and vision is to help improve company culture through means of open communication and internal transparency.
Just recently wrapped up development on the initial version of our mobile application (iOS and Android) and are testing it out in an open beta. Would love people's feedback/thoughts! :)
Live beta - http://shredreel.com/videos/overview
Been following this thread all day. ShredReel is a video aggregator for ski and snowboard videos that allows you to skip editing and instead tag moments in the videos to create a user sourced index. Let me know what you think and good luck to all!
Currently integrates with Salesforce and Stripe to automatically break down metrics per employee and for a team. A tool that individual sales reps and managers alike can benefit from.
(We just ended up getting the rejection email, although it doesn't change anything)
Live beta: http://voia.travel | We are live testing and making improvements every day. Can you tell what it is and how it works? Would love to have feedback.
I love the sign-up dialog you guys have, nice little details. The biggest problem I see is the color palette being too similar to that of Airbnb. Maybe it's just the designer in me recognizing it, but it could be a problem for your brand since you're in a similar space.
Also love the sign up dialog. A quick thing though, the color background for signup page and login page is too similar, so i switch between the two, the mental shift is slightly hard there. Maybe have a different background color for both would be great?
The concept and website, is really nice. I like the tile-based design and layout. I personally felt that the login, sign up and how it works are in too many places on the screen.
I like the concept. It reminds me of city-wide scavenger hunts/challenges in college that helped me learn a new city. Maybe that's one activity where a local/focused version would come in handy.
If you have a product close to launch, consider applying to the pitch competition at the startup conference next month. We are always looking for the best startups to feature on stage.
Liked the idea and would definitely try out. It was a little slow on my end matching the airports to my input the first time around.
For the flights that I tried I received options with savings raging from $50 to $100 compared to Kayak. But when I tried to book I was sent to "http://www.skyscanner.com/" and received a message that no flights matched my query.
Also: I was given no "tripdelta Result", In what case should this appear or work best? (my search was for a trip from South America to Europe).
Regarding skyscanner: We are working on this issue! Background: Skyscanner gives you different results depending on where you're from. Sometimes results that we get will not show up in Skyscanner because of this or you have to reload Skyscanner to receive proper pricing.
This sounds like a really, really cool concept, but with some rather significant regulatory, legal and tax implications. Have you consulted with specialists in these areas to determine the U.S. and international legality of the concept? Are there people using it already (and in what country)?
The invites in previous rounds were usually sent around 6PM PDT. Good luck, everyone! And remember many who get in have applied multiple times, and that building a company can be done with or without YC.
Getting into YCombinator is a means to an end. If YCombinator is your ultimate goal, reconsider where you want to see yourself and your startup.
Get out and build. Get customers. Change the world. The time and energy spent being nervous about this is not productive.
I don't doubt YCombinator will help in tremendous ways (I also applied), but it's important to keep pushing forward in spite of whether you are invited for the interview or not.
I wonder if there is any correlation between how much people care about their idea, ending up on this thread, and their likelihood of getting an interview.
There is certainly a correlation about caring about the idea and success . But ideally you should be focused on building your product, which is more important than any investor.
Easier said than done, specially today (I firmly believe in that, and am here after all).
Getting feedback is always important! As is looking at what everyone else is doing, generating some ideas and figuring out places where you need to improve.
I got rejected too, for some reason I really believed I was going to make it.
It was the kind of things where you discover the existence 4 days before the deadline and you think : there has to be a reason why I discover it now.
Indeed, I think there was a reason, but this reason was not getting into YC as I thought. It helped me realize that there is no better time for me to launch my startup and that I am more than ready for that.
It was my first application and I don't think I'm ever going to apply to YC or this kind of big incubator again. God only knows, but that's clearly not my mindset today. It distracted me a lot from working on my product, so I imagine what it would have been if I had planned it for months and applied at several places. I'll focus my efforts on developping my product, and I'll work with local investors one step at a time.
Nice experience anyway, and congratulations to those that have been invited ! I hope we'll meet down the path of success - I'm not saying you'll be there first ; )
Sitting/laying around will not advance your startup or your career.
My suggestion would be to map out the next six hours of your life. Just six hours. You can do that, surely. Then execute them. FLAWLESSLY, and exactly. When you're done, come back, and see what YC had to say. But whatever they say, you'll have a sense of real confidence that you can execute -- and that you don't need YC's permission to be a success.
Doesn't matter what it is -- hack some code, smile and dial, go for a run, read a book, whatever. But EXECUTE, and you'll feel better.
And to all who applied -- good luck! This isn't my first rodeo (in terms of YC or startups) and I can say for sure that a.) YC isn't right for every company at every stage and b.) there's a lot of ways to skin a cat, so keep on truckin!
I made a plan- going to get lunch and walk by the ocean. Pass the time.
But getting into YC is a big deal. I obviously won't give up if I don't get in, but getting in is a really huge deal. I've invested so much thought and energy into it for months. I just want to know!
Good for you buddy. The ocean is more beautiful than the grandest of Silicon Valley office space. And startup CEOs usually don't get the time for walks down the beach, so enjoy it!
I'd go for a walk by the East River but I'm at work and I don't want to get MRSA from a radioactive sea creature.
Good luck to you and everyone else waiting for their invitation. Remember some of the biggest companies in the world today were never incubated. So congrats to everyone who gets their invite and if you don't I hope you'll continue with the same spirit you started your projects.
It's hard not to be excited about the potential of being apart of YC but YC is by no means a golden ticket to success. YC is potentially a catalyst depending on the stage you're at and what problem you're trying to solve but focus on building and executing instead of an individual opportunity. For us, YC is one of many opportunities to achieve our ultimate goal: product success. My day has been spent building and my co-founders have been busy on the phone all day w/ potential customers all of which are interested in our beta!
Too bad, we got rejected. Other accelerators & investors say yes or cool to us, YC says no. We were hoping to get in for YC brand, advice and to finish off our prototype before raising larger round from VCs at better valuation. I guess the volume, talent & quality of other applications is huge. Oh well ... on to the next one. Congrats to everyone who made it!
Getting in YC is a big deal, but not getting in YC shouldn't change your vissions and plans for your Startup. Starting a business is stressful and you have to get used to it otherwise it will be easy for you to give up and work on something else. You chose to dedicate your life to this Startup and dedication means no matter what happens you will find a way.
I know if it happens it happens and if not that's not the end of the world. But I can't help but not to think about it every couple minutes...I have to believe that all of us that chose this path have many things in common and one of those is obsessive compulsion...good luck to everyone. Everything happens for a reason.
Don't be nervous. Although getting into YC will probably be a tremendous help for your startup/idea, it's not the end all be all. It shouldn't get in the way of what you're doing / will be doing in the near future.
They deleted my application, messages from Kevin, everything. they REALLY don't want us asking for feedback...
Honestly they way they handle the rejection letters feels like a sucker punch in the face, I get them not wanting to spend a lot of time on it but damn.
I haven't received an email yet. I've been checking just about every minute. I was always under the impression that the emails were sent out all at once.
contacted them: "Looks like you applied late. We can't give out a precise date that we will be getting back to everyone about late applications, but we'll read them and respond before the cycle starts." dunno really what that means though.. "before the cycle starts", so is there any chance of getting in..?
i truly hope if they say a date, they can send it out first thing in that day's morning. it is more rational to do that instead of dragging this all day. Or instead say a specific time. There really seems no reason to drag this.
Whatever happens, it happens for good. Have faith and keep working towards your goal. No matter what if you come this far I can guarantee you all guys will make it big with or without YC's help, so keep smiling and working hard.
If you get in, that's the last break you'll have for awhile.
If you don't get in, it's a good reminder that it's not the end of the world.
Either way, you can't lose.
Again, good luck, and congratulations on stepping up to take a big giant swing.