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Comment by tomhoward | Hacker News Reader

It will be a combination of these and other points. As someone who got into YC, I think the things we had in our favour were:

- Strong team (10 years friendship, history of working on interesting projects together)

- Proven determination (6+ tough years working on startups, willingness to travel from Australia just for the interview)

- Good primary idea + several other solid ideas (our primary idea wasn't a new concept at all, but a new, niche angle on a very established concept)

If you didn't get picked, it's because you didn't convey these qualities well enough. All you can do to get yourself there eventually (either into YC or to startup success some other way) is to keep persisting.

The key attributes YC looks for are smart & determined. You need to prove that you have these qualities, or if you don't, you need to develop them.

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Tom, whats frustrating for me is I feel like my partner and I exhibited all those attributes. We don't think its the team, we know our team is strong. So it must be the idea: they aren't getting it.

We emailed a few YC alum to review our application last month, and they all said we were a great team. One loved the idea, one liked it, and one had no clue about the market (wasn't familiar with Facebook and quizzes). Our idea targets young people (12-25 yrs). Which leads to my thinking, that because they're unfamiliar with it (YC partners too old, would never do facebook quizzes), they brushed it off? One other issue is that they prefer built out products with users. We only had a working demo and proof of concept samples.

Either that or all the other teams were more spectacular. Which bothers me, cause I've been looking people up on twitter who say they got interviews, and their products seem mediocre.

"Tom, whats frustrating for me is I feel like my partner and I exhibited all those attributes. We don't think its the team, we know our team is strong. So it must be the idea: they aren't getting it."

I bet you 90% of the YC rejects feel this way. I mean, really, what makes you think you're different from anyone else?

The point isn't that you're the same. The point is that you have you consider that everyone is putting their best foot forward and has the confidence in themselves and their idea to try out for this program.

Maybe they didn't get it... but then I'd say that's more your fault than theirs. You have to be able to convey your idea as easily and simply as possible.

I mean, really, what makes you think you're different from anyone else?

Probably the same thing that makes you want to start a startup in the first place.

Agreed but it's a rhetorical point. Fact is that 90% of the people applied feel the same way and a good percentage are probably just as smart and motivated as you (if not more so). If you went to a top tier school and majored in something the school is good at, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

I know most of everyone rejected feels the same way as I do. I can't speak for anyone else application, but I know my team is smart and determined and has the evidence to show for it. I think the frustration lies is not knowing where we went wrong (which PG actually wrote a little essay about; sometimes there is no reason. Maybe its just a numbers game).

Also, I'm not blaming YC for not getting the idea. I know it has to be clear and concise. I worked pretty hard to make it clear, which is why I solicited the help of 3 YC alumni in reviewing the application.

I thought about it more and I think it's better that YC doesn't give more feedback other than "no."

Think about it. Let's say they said, "Your team was too weak." What's the result of that going to be? It's going to be ugly and messy.

What if they said, "Your idea is too weak." Then you'd probably email PG yourself on why your idea is not weak with the following proof why. Same goes if he said there's no market for it.

Basically anything they say can result in a lot of backlash and the blame game when maybe the reason was that it was a little bit of everything.

Thats one way of looking at it.

I like to learn and improve from my mistakes and failures. If he said those things, sure I'd try to refute them and convince him. But eventually I'd look at the criticisms in a more critical manner. I'm not above anyone's feedback or advice.

Well it's self-evident that the other teams conveyed themselves as being more spectacular. It doesn't mean you're not, possibly just that the words you used didn't make it apparent enough.

Also bear in mind that they're looking for ideas that have the potential to be hugely profitable and/or world-changing. Without knowing anything more about it, when I hear 'Facebook quizzes' my immediate reaction is that it's a little limited on that front.

But if, as you say, it's an idea whose potential might be hard for people unfamiliar with this type of product to understand, then you need to come up with a way of demonstrating it.

So get to work :)

> Our idea targets young people (12-25 yrs). Which leads to my thinking, that because they're unfamiliar with it (YC partners too old, would never do facebook quizzes), they brushed it off?

Did you validate your ideas somehow? Maybe some surveys or examples of existing similar apps being successful? Any prototypes?

It is easy to say YC partners didn't get your idea - but it was your job to demonstrate that it holds real value.

Sounds like you forgot about it, looked the other way, and moved on, right? Did you build out your idea regardless? What happened afterwards?

This just happened, we applied to this session (S10). We will be building the idea out regardless, maybe even applying to YC again in the winter.

But I'm still frustrated, its just not making sense in my brain and I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong. YC does make mistakes, maybe my rejection is simply one of those mistakes. Or maybe the idea does suck. I'd love to know which, lol.

Well, if you really want to know, post your YC application. I'm sure people would read it (at least I would) and give feedback. It won't tell you definitively why YC turned you down, but it will probably get you a lot of interesting feedback.

(If you don't want to post it publicly, I will read it and give my feedback, but I don't have much experience in this area myself.)

How do you know your team is strong? What are your achievements? Strength is a relative thing.

High school summers spent working together on projects. Building viral products that made us money. Selling those businesses. Putting in after-work hours. Failing a lot.

Sounds like you are at a point beyond where YC makes sense.

22 yrs old just finished university.

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