YC Rejection – How much should we change to address their concern?

2 points by gniquil 11 years ago | 4 comments

After 2 rounds of intense interviews, got the rejection email last night. Although we agree with YC's reason for rejection (user acquisition), we'd like to confirm that not everyone got the same response before we devote our full energy in pivoting or changing something fundamentally to deal with the issue they raised.

We are super passionate about our idea and already had planned out the milestones we need to hit in the next few months. But if we were to truly address their concern about user acquisition, we need to take a long and hard look at our business model and the overall landscape, but we fear this may jeopardize our schedule.

Anyone else feeling the same? How much are you going to change to address their concerns?

billconan 11 years ago |

I'm wondering what they said about user acquisition? for certain startups, which build infrastructures or hardware products, they need some initial capital to show traction. It's hard for them to have a big user base at early stage. What should they do to pass the interview?

gniquil 11 years ago | |

It not said explicitly, but I believe, for us, long term growth means users change their behavior. We need them to stop using Craigslist. We have the same challenge as early AirBnB.

omnivore 11 years ago |

Well is your goal to bring your product to market or to get into YC? Doesn't have to be the end all be all.

gniquil 11 years ago | |

Thanks for the comment. Our goal is to succeed in the Linkedin/Facebook sense of the word (excuse our enthusiasm, but if not this, we would self fund and be content with organic growth). But I don't want to dismiss their wisdom, as we could be spending our next year building something that will eventually amount to a semi-success/failure, and face a much more difficult pivot.