Ask YC: We applied to S2020 and nobody looked at our videos?

36 points by martin_e 6 years ago | 28 comments

Invites are supposed to go out today.

We applied to S2020 with a COVID-19 hardware startup a while back.

Our videos show zero incremental views since our application was submitted. Just wondering if this indicates some sort of automated or manual filtering based on the text portion of the application or if you are not done and we can expect to be given a look in the next few days because you are running behind (due to, sadly enough, COVID-19 issues).

We have been working non-stop on our project, self funding all of it. We are prepared to continue even without YC support. We have formed manufacturing partnerships and have contacted hundreds of potential customers.

Just wondering about the YC process.

Thanks.

EDIT: Just to add to the story...

We are moving forward on our own and haven't been waiting for investors at all. Our project is likely to end-up in the news by the end of May (hopefully because we booked orders). We were also asked by the White House to submit technology details. So...we are moving forward, which is good.

Don't ask me what we are doing. We are going to remain stealth for as long as possible. Of course, if YC knocks on the door and we accept that will change to the degree necessary.

oneearedrabbit 6 years ago |

This may be relevant: "Don’t mark it as private or disallow embedding on YouTube, or we won’t be able to see it. Please note that because of how our system is built, YouTube’s view count will not increase even though we do watch your video." [1]

[1] https://www.ycombinator.com/video/

tpetry 6 years ago | |

How can they watch a video without its view count increasing? I am really interested.

the-dude 6 years ago | | |

Does anybody know if youtube-dl increases a video's view count?

jaysh 6 years ago | | |

It's worth noting that YouTube is optimising for the opposite: they want to prevent artificial view count inflation. Therefore, this behaviour (the view count not increasing when the videos are automatically accessed) would make sense.

If you're interested, an interesting measure for difficulty is how much companies charge to "buy youtube views" (e.g, $16 per 1000 views is ~8x the cost you'd pay for typical CAPTCHA solving).

duskwuff 6 years ago | | |

Given that they also mention needing embedding to be enabled, I suspect they're using an inline player on another site. IIRC, only plays on youtube.com are counted towards video view counts.

martin_e 6 years ago | | |

I don't think there's a way to watch a video on YT without the count being incremented. Actually, the only way is if you watch your own videos with some frequency (not defined anywhere I could find).

martin_e 6 years ago | |

I checked, they are both unlisted and embedding is enabled.

Thanks for the suggestion.

cjbprime 6 years ago | | |

Did you read the second sentence, though? It seems like it applies here.

mitchellshow 6 years ago |

Someone outside of the startup world asked me "what is YC" and my reply was "the accelerator that rejects you."

My impression from having applied, and from knowing founders at various stages (some of whom went through YC, others who were rejected at various stages, one rejected at interview 5+ times in a row!), is that there is such a high volume of applications now that the person you get matched with to review yours is a total shot in the dark. If it isn't someone who "gets" your industry, you'll kind of just be thrown to the back of their pile. There is a lot of serendipity to who advances. I have heard some insiders complain that their recommendations aren't really taken seriously.

YC was the only accelerator who rejected us. We did a different one (at a true "idea stage") and it went great. Make sure to apply to others like Techstars, Capital Factory, Masschallenge, Betaworks, Boost VC, the list goes on. If it's a numbers game now, then whether you get picked for any particular accelerator is probably more a function of the total number of applications to that accelerator than anything else.

If you're super early stage, I'd recommend trying to find out if there are any accelerators sponsored by your local government, they tend to have way less applications since they're only pulling from a local pool.

There is probably a value-add to YC besides just money, but there are literally hundreds of accelerators that have copied the model at this point. If you really have something, the venture community that YC taps will notice regardless. It's always better just to take the cash and build IMO.

martin_e 6 years ago | |

Good advice, thanks.

> If you're super early stage, I'd recommend trying to find out if there are any accelerators sponsored by your local government, they tend to have way less applications since they're only pulling from a local pool.

Not sure how to self-characterize. We've probably invested somewhere in the order of $300K of our own funds in this to get where we are. Keep in mind this is hardware (+software), which means the monetary scale is very different.

We are at the stage where we are going to start showing our pre-production prototype to potential customers sometime next month. Frankly, the closer we get to a sale the less interesting VC money or an incubator becomes. In other words, if I close a $5MM sale next month (which is in the realm of possibilities) there is no way anyone is getting 7% of the business for $150K.

> There is probably a value-add to YC besides just money

Definitely. Not interested in money for the sake of money. Money by itself is useless and easy to waste.

> Someone outside of the startup world asked me "what is YC" and my reply was "the accelerator that rejects you."

I don't take that as a negative but rather more as a reality. They get so many applications it is inevitable that the vast majority of applicants will not be accepted. That's just reality.

algo_trader 6 years ago | |

YC is a 1% acceptance rate - so there bound to be plenty of complaints and horror stories.

> literally hundreds of accelerators

Yeah. But $150K/7% is a superb cool deal. A couple of alternatives give you $100K. And then its down to "$25K stipends" even pay-to-play (e.g. OnDeck?!). Am i wrong ?

YC also has (perceived?) network value, u r competing with full-traction or YoY-revenue-growth companies. SAD !!

codegeek 6 years ago |

I read somewhere on yc website that they only look at the video if they find the application/applicants interesting enough. So there is that.

martin_e 6 years ago | |

Yeah, that's what I was referring to when I mentioned filtering based on the text portion of the application.

That's alright. We are moving forward on our own and haven't been waiting for investors at all. Our project is likely to end-up in the news by the end of May (hopefully because we booked orders). We were also asked by the White House to submit technology details. So...we are moving forward, which is good.

100-xyz 6 years ago |

We also applied and show 0 views. Will get the boot today by midnight per YC website. That hasnt stop us from indulging in a little fantasy where Seibel, Director of YC is offering us an interview :-)

https://toonclip.com/player?key1=802d8d51ec

You can also create your fantasy by forking the above animation.

saddington 6 years ago |

just some visuals:

https://i.imgur.com/bzRWC7N.png

shows 9 impressions but no views.

on the video, it shows 8 views (i added one when i checked it):

https://i.imgur.com/tt73jOn.png

so, a lot of the "artificial view count inflation" stuff and embeds might make sense.

ahmedaly 6 years ago |

I applied several times and they never did. :)