Apply early for Y Combinator if you want to be considered
ntucker.true.io
ntucker.true.io
Applied after the 2 days with my team! Didn't get a view on anything not even a click. Again, yeah it might be the case that it was nothing interesting to them and just skipped it. But to be honest it's a bit disappointing to see no indication that someone have actually looked at 2 days of work.
Because in a startup life, 2 days (48 hours) would be enough to build and ship a feature to a customer.
I agree though with the regular YC applications, I've heard that advice more than a few times from past alums.
My video got one full length view, it says from Texas. My demo wasn't signed into, don't know about hits because it doesn't have analytics. In any case there's nothing to see before signing in!
It was a very nice lead, and one it's been very useful in following. It spurred me to get a demo up and forced me to explain my idea in less than one minute of speech and very few written words. All these things have been very valuable learning experiences and have put my project in a better state now.
6500 applications about very early stage ideas, none of which have traction. Imagine trying to pick a few hundred (?) prospects from that pool for interview. Statistically speaking they'd probably be more likely to pick winners by throwing away 75% at random, and giving that much extra consideration to the remaining pool, such is the level of noise introduced having to try and read and consider 6500 applications in such a short amount of time.
Who knows, maybe that's precisely what happened, maybe not so explicitly, but perhaps they'd already picked 95% of their interviewees upon reading the first 25% of applications, so late applications were, statistically, not on the same playing field. I agree with your conclusion there, I think they even say it themselves, strongly implying this is the case (why wouldn't it be?).
All in all, for others in this boat, don't be disappointed or annoyed that your application doesn't seem like it was given much consideration. It couldn't have been in the end. This was an experiment, it was free money, the application pool included remote teams and was therefore global. No traction or even a demo was required, just a short application form and video. Of course the intense competition was going to wash your idea into a sea of noise. Who with an idea they were working on fairly seriously wouldn't apply? Many, many, many great ideas by brilliant people will have been overlooked because of the noise, it's nobody's fault, just a statistical inevitability.
Your project is in the same position now as it was before you heard about this, actually probably a bit more advanced with the extra weeks, plus the application process giving you a bit of a kick up the proverbial. You've lost nothing but a potential opportunity, and there are plenty more out there.
Crack on!
The "conclusion" seems outrageously obvious though and I'm not quite sure why you focused on it.
In almost any competitive application process it benefits you to apply earlier if your goal is to receive a more thorough review.
Perhaps you can talk a bit more about other factors or advice on what you felt you should have done better.