YCommonApp: Apply to 25+ YC-funded startups in under 10 minutes
ycommonapp.com
ycommonapp.com
In my case, I like to interact personally with friends as opposed to digitally. I like to work on personal projects to satisfy my curiosity without being worried about later publishing them. And I'm not interesting/vain enough to warrant a blog, website, or Twitter presence. I like to work hard, "learn" hard (I do enjoy Hacker News), and play hard, and keeping up on the latest shiny-new-technology-web-presence-clique seems tangential to that.
My goal is to work for a few years in an interesting software development position on a smart team, getting paid a fair wage while providing the company with equal value in return. In those years, I would expect to learn (and contribute!) a lot while also paying off my debts and helping out my parents. After that, I would reëvaluate my goals and my career.
What frustrates me is that I feel like I have to jump through hoops just to get into the mix. I feel like I won't even be seriously considered unless I develop a few simple web tools built on RoR, promote them on a DJango website with a blog, host the source to the whole thing on GitHub, jump into the Twitter craze, and try to make useful contributions to FOSS and StackOverflow communities that are already saturated with great solutions. That seems like a lot of unimportant crap when all I really want to do is good work. If it takes me an extra day to learn RoR because your company uses it, that seems very small in the entire scheme of things.
I understand that I don't have a web-visible track record to point you to. I'm quite willing to work at an under-market rate for a few months until I'm up to speed and it is determined that I am a good fit. Is there anywhere interesting to work that is looking to hire somebody like me?
I hear what you're saying. Not having an impressive GitHub/StackOverflow/etc account in no way means you aren't an awesome developer.
You sound like a smart guy who knows what he's looking for. I'd suggest applying. I know none of the YC companies care about whether you have a certain number of followers on Twitter or GitHub. They want people who are smart and get stuff done.
That said, there are startups that have a more mature process. A necessary but insufficient condition is that they have hired a product manager or two. I know we'd get your application if you use this tool, but you should check out Loopt because it is a more mature startup. You can contact me directly if you have questions (check profile for contact).
That does not mean that I am not talented, smart, or motivated.
What do you suggest they do? There are thousands of people aching to get into these programs. Vast majority of them believe they are smart, talented and motivated. At the end of the day though there are only so many spots. So naturally, you need a filter of some kind--even if it is not perfect.
You know you are talented but I urge you to put yourself in the shoes of folks at the other end. How are they supposed to know you are talented, smart or motivated?
Some people are capable of producing great work when given a little direction and prodding. Those same people may iterate endlessly and have trouble finishing things when working independently. Thus, there is an entire class of good workers who will almost by definition not have the types of independent projects that many hiring startups are so keen to see.
Job postings are more often than not (imo) poorly worded. The main idea is that you extract what they are actually looking for, which you can in most cases. If they ask for your github account and you do not have one - tell them you don't and send them some significant code samples. If they ask for a twitter/SO account and you don't have one - say you focus most of your commentary on HN and give them your username here. I don't know of any companies that will ignore/discount you if you provide them with the data they are seeking.
I know this might seem too fatalistic of an outlook, but I personally find that it's mostly true, and accepting it allows you to better deal with hoops in their various shapes and sizes. You can break the mold every now and again, and avoid the hoops, but often it's more effective to just practice your hula (hoop)
Would you want to work for those people?
Yeah, that's not how it works, ever. If you copypasted this from under "Objective" in your resume, which is what it sounds like, you might want to remove the words "equal value".
Why would you want to hire someone that "sprays" their application across 25+ companies?
You only really discover whether it's a good fit or not after you've worked there for months. If you're really lucky, after you've had all the interviews. But really never ever before you've even applied.
During the application process, I'd argue that the employer has the best idea whether the fit would be good or not.
This model helps centralize the process for the popular companies, and it gives the less popular ones access to quality candidates. Everyone has a hiring problem.
Also, since it's a custom application, anyone responding to it will have taken the time to fill it out specifically, which eliminates the standard resume-sprayers on craigslist, et al.
And Posterous I use because I genuinely like it. Before Posterous we never blogged at all, because it seemed like too much trouble.
Also, I didn't draw the distinction between your essay site and "blogging." Makes sense now.
(that's a sincere, non-rhetorical question)
I'm far more interested in working on The Next Big Thing—especially if it's a big challenge—than I am in a specific problem domain. Maybe it's just the way I'm wired; maybe it's a reflection of my skillset.
My guess is that the kind of person who would be attracted to the idea of working at any and all YC-backed startups is the same kind of person who is more interested in tackling big, challenging problems than any particular problem domain. Maybe I'm wrong and just projecting. What do you think?
I was mostly trying to understand how (and if) YC's alpha engineers would happily go work on "the next big thing", largely independent of what that thing was.
I'm one of those people who doesn't particularly care what startup I work for. As long as it's not a spamming site or something else that generally makes the world a worse place, I'd be excited to work there.
If I wanted to solve problems I was interested in, I'd be a Ph.D. student, create a personal project, start my own startup, or get a completely unrelated job while programming in my spare time. Right now (for the next few years, at least) I just want to make some good, reasonably-steady money while providing value in a job that I enjoy. The specific problems I'd be solving have very little bearing on my thought process right now.
Um, it sounds like you really don't want to work for a startup. And, that's not a bad thing.
Perhaps you've been oversold on the startupian == special forces, genco employee == demoralized grunt attitude that's common on sites like this.
The opportunity to work with smart individuals in a sensible environment is pretty huge.
There is no generic startup, and many startups are far from sensible!
All that said, I'm in week two of my startup, but it's because I have an unbearable, pathological, un-fucking-reasonable need to work for myself.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with steady and sensible, but you're not likely to find it by generically applying to startups.
And when I say "steady", I don't mean that I need a high-paying job that I needn't be scared of losing for the next several years. I simply mean that I would like a salary with a monthly or bi-weekly paycheck for as long as I happen to be working there. I only meant steady in relation to freelancing or creating my own product.
That said, we think the one with video is much more powerful. None of the YC companies are looking for slick presentations, just good hackers, so the videos should be pretty informal and conversational.
What about non-technical people passionate about tackling problems? Undesirables? ;)
(However, if you're a designer, several of the companies participating are also looking for UX/UI folks, so I'd encourage you to apply anyway :D)
If you've spent the time perfecting an intro video, why wouldn't you want to use that for other (non-YC) companies.
Specifically Canadians. But if there could be some info up to let people know if they'll consider applications from outside the US that would be awesome so then some people don't waste time submitting a resume.
But yeah if you've got an idea and the skills and the motivation required, by all means apply you YComb yourself.
That being said may people would much prefer to take the risk as founder, there are plenty of other people out there though happy with the employee role at a startup for the time being or may have already tried the founder path.
Nice work guys.