Hacker News Reader

Comment by sparkzilla | Hacker News Reader

Waste of time. We won't be applying this time.

I disagree; just applying forced us to ask ourselves a slew of critical questions about our business (http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/27/be-concise-the-top-question...).

We interviewed and were declined, but the journey was well worth the time and effort. The entire YC process is an excellent crucible for startups, and as usual you get out of it what you put in.

The YC application is what I use whenever I get one of those brilliant ideas. It helps me figure out if it has raw potential or if Im just full of crap. I've managed to only get one idea through the process. The one that has been profitable for a while now. :) Thanks YC

You should be asking yourself the questions anyway. You have practically zero chance of being accepted and the process is opaque. Spend your time working on your business instead.

... this time

That 'this time' is interesting.

Either you've applied before and you think applying again would be a waste of time, or you think it'd be a waste of time to apply for this particular round of YC.

If it's the former then that's a shame, but it's great that you can admit you've done nothing to fix the issues that caused you to be rejected the first time you applied.

If it's the latter, then you must see the situation changing at some point in the future to mean an application wouldn't be a waste of time. As it's unlikely YC will change their exceptionally successful model, that must mean you're working to change your situation so that an application might be successful. That's very positive. Good luck.

;)

I have actually applied three times. Each time the business was at a different stage, but the basics were the same: Highly-experienced team, huge market, great product. Our last application was extremely strong, and we didn't even get an interview.

The reality is that YC is skewed towards certain types of products and people. For example, they don't like media or news very much. IMHO they should be more clear about the types of businesses they want. But that's all fine, it's their system, their rules. I just don't want to play the game any more.

Here's a little comic strip (apologies to Dilbert) that may help you in your quest: http://i.imgur.com/QuyIGgO.jpg

I count 3 "media or news" companies in the Winter 14 YC batch[1], 1 in S13, 2 in W13, and 3 in S12. Interestingly Quora isn't listed - not sure what year they went and did it.

But I don't see any particular bias against media/news plays.

[1] http://yclist.com/

Which ones? As for the list, very few of those co's have the potential to be billion-dollar businesses.

In W14: Vidpresso, Threadable, Beacon. I'm not going back through the others now.

YC is a for profit company, they're looking for a return on investment with the occasional "non profit" to impress the community and feel good. If they don't feel you have a big enough idea or can generate a big enough return you get rejected. Sometimes you can but other startups got interviewed first. There's only so much space. You shouldn't be that defeated. There's a lot of us that applied over the years and didn't get chosen. Never take it personally. Sometimes there just isn't room.

I love NewsLines.org by the way.

Thank you for the compliment. Actually, it's because I'm treating it as a business decision that I won't do it this time. It takes ages for us to put the application together, and the video is a nightmare. Instead, I'm spending my time on getting better leads.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com