Guide to applying to YC – from a founder who was accepted on the third try

Guide to applying to YC – from a founder who was accepted on the third try(getfluently.notion.site)

76 points by rebryk 1 year ago | 58 comments

For the last year, I checked more than 100 YC applications of other founders and many of them have the same repetitive issues.

So I prepared a simple guide with examples that will help founders build successful applications and avoid common pitfalls.

I've personally applied for YC three times, and was accepted only on the third time with Fluently.

This guide is based on my personal experience and was reviewed by other YC alumni. However, I would be glad if you could share your thoughts on that too.

carlgreene 1 year ago |

Any other founders feel like YC has lost its luster? Not only are the number of AI companies in the portfolio ridiculous, but the large class sizes seem so much less personal.

Not to bag on anyone who’s in YC right now, but it seems to be going the way of many ivy leagues - still meaningful, but very much not the same proxy for extraordinary it once was.

setgree 1 year ago | |

Off-topic but when was the Ivy League a proxy for extraordinary? Yale selected for height until at least 1965, Harvard was super dedicated to excluding Jews in the 30s and its athletes had SAT scores that were 100 points lower on average as of 2005, etc.[0]

[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/10/10/getting-in-ivy...

tptacek 1 year ago | |

What ever was the "luster"? It depends on what you thought YC was. Everything else it did or could do aside: if you're building a company that is going to need to raise funds for the business model to work, YC is still the most straightforward path to doing a high-dollar syndicated unpriced seed round, which is a funding model that YC more or less pioneered.

decocted 1 year ago | | |

YC didn’t start as a VC firm, but it is one now. You don’t even mention pre-seed here, which is what YC was: the first pre-seed for an absolutely tiny batch of promising founders, who actually got a disproportionate advantage compared to average pre-seed rounds overall. Now, YC only gives disproportionate advantage against unfunded startups, and only a proportionate one against the average raise of equivalent size.

YC has lost all of the people who were there at the start. Saying something like “what ever was the ‘luster’” is akin to saying “who the heck was Steve Jobs, who cares, Apple is still the same business.”

Sheesh.

yumraj 1 year ago | |

I had met someone once who made a point that the value of a Harvard MBA was not the education, but rather that you got selected/admitted to this program and could use the brand.

I believe the same is true for YC. The primary value is being able to claim that you’re funded by YC and you were part of a cohort. That opens doors, to both investors as well as potential partners. The education/advice is standard and freely available everywhere.

fakedang 1 year ago | |

I'd like to argue for YC in the same way as I would argue when someone brings up my alma mater (or an Ivy League uni) - it's not the uni that shines, it's the people you're studying with.

YC's huge advantage is that they have an internal network of startups who support each other with YC money as customers, which then get pushed to VCs as revenue growth numbers. VCs have learnt to get in on the gravy train early, because the brand-name still carries value downstream. For no-name startups and no-name founders with no fancy universities (who are increasingly being ignored), this is a huge disadvantage.

If you want to look at YC's actual success rate, take a look at any of their public market companies' performance. Hint, none of them have outperformed their IPO price. In fact, many of them only found their ways into exits through the SPAC frenzy of 2021.

LanceJones 1 year ago | |

Looks like YC is moving to 4 cohorts annually -- and I agree with you on the AI product density in the past few batches -- but I've heard (from two alum) that the smaller sub-cohorts (i.e., within a batch) make it feel smaller and more intimate.

senko 1 year ago | | |

Yes.

250ish per cohort meant the partners were spread very thin, and founders could realistically connect with just a subset of batchmates.

I'm glad they're scaling back the batch size.

dbbk 1 year ago | |

Yes the sheer number of AI slop companies is so uninspiring. Where is the creativity? There are still plenty of great technology companies to be built that are not ChatGPT wrappers.

senko 1 year ago | | |

Go build one? (with or without YC support)

I do like your comment as the critique of contemporary tech entrepreneurship culture that is very hype oriented, likely at the expense of comparatively few blue ocean ideas that get crowded out.

However I do fear that's global and not something specific to YC or the valley. Here across the pond we have the same gold rush, except at minor league level.

echelon 1 year ago | | |

> AI slop companies

There is so much market up for grabs. Most companies will fail, but the ones that succeed can win really big. And the surface area is so much larger than attempting a non-AI company since the advantages are potentially huge.

> ChatGPT wrappers.

Create value. Doesn't matter how you do. Just create value.

preommr 1 year ago |

This is missing the most important requirement: Be an AI company.

atleastoptimal 1 year ago |

Great advice, but the fact that you're a former FAANG employee pitching an AI company did ~70% of the work

woadwarrior01 1 year ago | |

Late 30s, former Facebook and Google engineer. Applied thrice at the behest of my co-founder, and got rejected each time. Once before we had a product, twice after being bootstrapped and profitable. Never again.

tomcam 1 year ago | |

Is this mindreading or do you have direct knowledge of this assertion?

dgfitz 1 year ago |

I guess I don’t get it, and I’d like to. Y-Combinator enables connections and mentorship along with a stipend. This allows a team to work full time for a few months, having quit or taken a hiatus from their day job.

So the risk is $dayjob unless you’re a serial founder, the reward is the connections and money to float for a few months, while selling I think 10% of your company? The odds of your idea working out, even under the umbrella, aren’t great. Is that accurate?

senko 1 year ago | |

My feeling is that if you think quitting the day job is risky, you probably won't fit the profile YC and VCs look for.

YC is an enormous brand in the VC and startup industry, and as a YC startup doors open to you that would be harder to pry open otherwise. The connections, and willingness of people to "pay it forward" are a huge (probably biggest) asset.

The odds of your idea working are not great, that's correct. YC does encourage you to experiment and fail fast so you have time to adapt the idea or try another one. If all fails, having had a YC startup means it'll be easy to get into other startups (if you like the lifestyle - and you really have to like it!).

That sad, YC is what you make of it. You get encouragement and support but nobody's going to force you to take advantage of all the things they have to offer.

Watch a few episodes of https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-uHSnFig5Nd98Sc9I-k... If you get a feeling "omg I want to work with those guys", then you might be a fit. If you get a feeling of "dude, no", then you're probably not a fit.

dgfitz 1 year ago | | |

Thank you for the explanation, that is very helpful.

You said “ My feeling is that if you think quitting the day job is risky, you probably won't fit the profile YC and VCs look for.”

And

“ The odds of your idea working are not great, that's correct.”

So it is kind of geared towards wealthy people?

threeseed 1 year ago | |

If you haven't quit your job and aren't working on full-time don't apply to YC.

The partners have said on many occasions it's a major red flag for them.

dgfitz 1 year ago | | |

So it is like a “by rich people, for rich people (or a rich safety net)” deal?

threeseed 1 year ago |

I know someone who was in a recent batch.

He said that 95% of the batch are between 20 and 30, mostly AI and mostly US.

There are exceptions to the rule but let's not pretend there isn't a YC thesis.

mdolon 1 year ago |

Great advice! The other thing I'd add is to get at least 4-5 YC alum to review your application in a Google doc and do practice interviews with them if you make it to the next round. Also, if you have friends who've done YC before, get them to recommend you!

rebryk 1 year ago | |

Yeah, that's good advice. I will add it to the doc. Thanks!

ldjkfkdsjnv 1 year ago |

Go to ivy league school + ai

raising pre-seed venture capital is more similar to getting hired at an investment bank (as an entry level/post mba banker) than it is to starting a company

burcs 1 year ago | |

This mindset is tiresome, especially seeing it on Hacker News...

I literally went to the cheapest state school in rural Pennsylvania and still was accepted into YC. My co-founder didn't even finish college, at some point I think people just want to make excuses.

Also — I don't understand your second point. It's an accelerator. Capital is part and parcel when it comes to accelerating.

ldjkfkdsjnv 1 year ago | | |

I live in NYC and know a ton of founders. its just the facts. people certainly get funded outside the normal background, but probably 70% of early stage funding goes to the same types of people

pfannkuchen 1 year ago | | |

Fancy schools are just a way to get pre-vetted candidates.

If you aren’t pre-vetted, it doesn’t mean you’re worse, it just means vetting you is more work and has more risk.

calmbonsai 1 year ago | | |

What year was your class?

Just because it’s tiresome doesn’t make it untrue in this “era”.

This is not a bag on YC, but yesteryear’s “web store”, begot “social”, begot “blockchain”, begot “ai” and today’s private markets are more conservative for Seed and A rounds.