Ask HN: What kind of single founder does YC accept?

8 points by kalistoga 14 years ago | 8 comments

I am working on my YC application, but I was wondering if I should even expect to have any chance at getting accepted at YC.

I have experience of building high quality products that had early adopters' attention (was covered on various top tech news sites multiple times), and I bet I have the best answer for "case where you hacked a non-computer system to your advantage". Also I gave up everything to work on the startup, so I am pretty committed. (No going back to school and stuff)

BUT. I'm a single founder. Trust me, I really want to get a co-founder, but I know it's extremely important to find someone who I know will work out well with, so I can't just get a co-founder quickly for YC application.

I am informed that it's almost impossible to get into Ycombinator if you're a single founder. But I also know a few got in. How did those few single founder companies get in?

I really want to get into YC, and I'm doing my best to fill out the application, but it would be more encouraging to know that there's even a chance. Please help. Thanks.

revorad 14 years ago |

After thinking about this for a while and getting rejected twice as a single founder, here's what I've come to believe: Apply anyway. Bust your balls to be successful regardless of the outcome.

If you try too hard to find a co-founder, there's a good chance you will find the wrong one. Plus, YC hates newly wed co-founders almost as much as single founders (probably even more). And regardless of acceptance into YC, you don't want to end up with the wrong co-founder. It's better to go it alone.

The deadline for checking all the boxes to be a YC founder was three years ago. You could have met a co-founder in the normal way, in the way that lovers meet. You could have built cool shit to prove you're a hacker. You could have moved to Silicon Valley to work at some hot startups and build connections.

If you didn't, hard luck. Startups are hard, do it anyway.

ed 14 years ago |

On the scale of things that will positively affect your startup, finding a cofounder is probably near the top. (Sounds like you know this already.) Out of curiosity how are you looking now? I know its hard but there might be more options to explore.

Particularly in the bay area; I've had great luck at Startup2startup, founder dating, and YC events (how I met my current awesome co-founder).

brackin 14 years ago |

If you're a single co-founder you'll likely be set up with one or someone from another startup (if they fail). Of course getting in is much harder as a single founder. So be honest, are you open to having a co-founder? mention it.

markerdmann 14 years ago |

Drew Houston, the founder of Dropbox, applied as a single founder. You can read his application here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27532820/app.html

kalistoga 14 years ago | |

Thank you. But I was more interested in YC's perspective. I've done enough research and am confident i can write a good application (I've written business plans and pitch decks and raised money with them too before)

However I was curious about why YC selected those single founder startups. Of course the application has to be top quality, but I'm sure there are lots of others whose applications are top quality but still don't make it.

Thanks!

abbasmehdi 14 years ago | | |

If single, must be ready to mingle = willing and working hard on trying to find a cofounder.

ig1 14 years ago |

Do you have traction ? - traction forgives a lot of faults.

wavephorm 14 years ago |

Getting rejected twice (going for three) gave me the motivation to thoroughy prove them completely wrong.