Farewell NYC (and YCW11 rejection next steps) | Hacker News Reader

Farewell NYC (and YCW11 rejection next steps)

richpalmer.org

49 pointsrichpalmer226 comments

I give you a lot of credit for making the jump. This is exactly what I did, and it was exactly a year ago that I quit my well paying day job to jump in with both feet. Our start was similar to yours too, we had an idea that got some funding from an incubator. We had some prototype and our idea wasn’t really proven at all. I found HN, read Founders at Work and every one of PG’s essays too. I felt exactly what you’re feeling now. Ride that high as long as you possibly can. You’re going to have an amazing journey no matter where this experience takes you in the end, and I can promise that you won’t regret anything.

With that said, please think about if this is really the right time to make the jump. As you know, an idea is worthless, it’s about execution. Testing can take forever to find the right direction to go in. When I was making the jump I always told myself that we’d figure something out before our runway ran short. We had so much time to do it, how could we not? Well, we ran out of time and could never find that key feature to make us profitable. I did a million things completely wrong and so will you, but you don’t need to quit your job to make those mistakes and learn from them. I always try to encourage people who want to make a similar jump to make the really dumb mistakes when you can pay your bills with a 9-5, not when those mistakes can cause you not to eat for a night. I personally think it’s a bad idea for anyone to quit a job just to waste time building and testing an idea. I feel it’s best to make the jump when you find something that’s working and use all the new free time you get from quitting the 9-5 to sell/test/improve that. When you find that revenue driving feature or idea you can easily improve on what you have, but If you have nothing you can be stuck trying to find it forever.

I wish you the best of luck, and I'm looking forward to reading more updates as the company grows. Your team sounds like it has a lot more experience going in than mine did, so I'm sure you will figure something out soon.

If you're interested where I am now, I’m actually writing this from my desk at the same 9-5 I quit a year ago. That’s right, I’m back working at the same place I left (I guess they liked :) ). I don’t regret a thing, but in hindsight I do wish I waited until the vision I was going on was a little more clear and mature. I'm 100% sure I'm going to give it another shot in the future, and I'll get a lot further than I did this time thanks to everything I've learned.

Thanks for the detailed advice Jordan. It's good to know that we're not completely crazy in doing this (just partially). I'm also glad to see that even if the first time didn't work out, you learned an incredible amount and are going to give it another shot. Best of luck!

For our situation specifically, we discussed a bunch of non-terminal options with our employer. This included staying at the job with new incentives, consulting, and prolonging our departure. We also have been given the speech of "call me when you guys need a job again" by them as well.

However, in the end, we think that forcing ourselves, by leaving behind the comforts of a 9-5, is the best way to learn, fail at some things, and hopefully succeed in the end.

Hey Rich, good luck on your move to the Bay Area and thanks for starting a blog to provide more insight into your mindset. One quick question, how are you getting the expenses down to $148/month, that will barely cover utilities at any 1-bedroom apt. in the city.

The expenses are pre-rent/laundry/internet/etc right now. That number will go up significantly after we find out where we are living. We have budgeted for about 1300 per person per month.

If anything, budget for slightly more than you think you'll need. I just don't see how 1300/mo is going to be possible.

Remaining at IQ while working on your market research would have been my preferred option.

Fastest way for that, by the way, is to visit the expo of your target industry. I am visiting an expo for beauty products in the near future, for example, as that's one of my target markets. Lots of people will have nothing better to do but to talk to you about their problems while everyone else is in their sessions. :)

You business analytics background will be a major asset when analyzing customer pain.

You have about 6 months to build something to a revenue-positive stage. Doable? Sure. :) See you at one of the many startup events.

I was surprised that you can get still get to the interview stage at YC without having a prototype.

Am I right in guessing that your business was bringing the home-cooked food selling model to the US ? (like http://www.super-marmite.com/ is doing in France).

Congrats on making the jump.

Thanks! Yes, that is really similar to what we had planned to do.

What made you give up on the idea ?

We haven't given up on it just yet. What came out of the whole process was that we are up against big hurdles - including legal obstacles that might make the business model impossible in the US.

What we took to heart was that we needed to really get more in touch with our end users, validate that they would use the service in spite of these issues, and understand what it would take to get the public past the potential discomfort of buying food from strangers. Actually seeing it work on a small scale would go a long way towards proving that it would be worth our time (and other people's money) to pursue the idea.

In the meantime, we are applying this thinking to two other ideas to see if we can't come up with a more compelling business.

I looked briefly at the possibility of applying the business model to the UK, I found a good source for legal info to be farmers markets and local food markets where people already sell homemade foods as the organizers have often already put a lot of work into researching the legal (and insurance) issues surrounding the business.

Also if you want to get some initial providers onboard, checkout Craigslist/Gumtree as often people sell home cooked food services on there.

I was rejected by TechStars NYC with the same idea. My partner and I were really excited by the idea, but like you, ran into a wall of both legal and social boundaries.

So, because its one of your follow up questions, why do you feel the need to move to SF from NY?

I'm working on a post for that. Our friends and family are mostly in the North East, so we needed to think long and hard about the pros and cons of either scene.

BTW, looks like you are in San Diego. Why did you choose that area (besides the fact that the weather is 62 in SD vs. 34 in NYC)?

I'm from San Diego, so after completing college, I came back here. It was the default place to go.

I'm now getting an itch for some bigger city life, and to take some time away from usual and familiar routine. SF and NY are tempting options.

what is your idea?

Yeah, that was glaringly lacking in the post. I doubt the idea is one that no one's ever thought of before and keeping it a secret is only going to prevent him from getting potentially valuable feedback.

Absolutely agree. I was looking for feedback and encouragement/doubts from people who have done this before, so I left it out intentionally so I could do a follow up post focusing on the idea itself. Several users in this thread have guessed it already though.

This happens after every round for the past four years I've been paying attention to Y Combinator. I don't applaud you for taking the jump, as moving and doing all this stuff is more normal than abnormal to me. In the wake of youth, you're going to enjoy everything you're doing.

Will it increase your likelihood of success? No. There has yet ever been a startup that has developed after a rejection from YC. Will moving to SF help you? No. There's a lot more action in the east coast for tech then there are out here. In fact, I would say you're going to have a much harder time trying to figure yourself, your startup, and navigate the social culture and scene. Your budget is also naively out of whack.

But you're going to enjoy your adventure, good or bad. I applaud that, I applaud that simple affirmations.

Good luck, let's grab lunch when you're out here.

> There has yet ever been a startup that has developed after a rejection from YC.

And you know this how? It seems even YC couldn't know how many false negatives they have had.

> There's a lot more action in the east coast for tech then there are out here.

Citation requested...

I know this because no one reports it. Everyone moves on. To another idea, to another company. The better candidates work for a YC company.

Deal flows in Boston and NYC is better than Silicon Valley right now. Pay attention to OnStartup.com, JasonLBaptiste.com, and things Bijan Sabet is saying.

Here is a thread about some YC-rejects that went on to either raise money, get acquired, or otherwise do well.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1191566

I think you may be mistaken.

These guys were acquired by Google "after a rejection from YC".

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1940386

Google didn't buy a diabetes management app.

By that logic not every successful YC startup was accepted by YC, given the existence of teams that changed their product during their time at YC. Changing direction and refining the idea are a core part of doing a startup.

Thanks for the contrarian view. For me personally, the feedback I have gotten from reading people's YC rejection posts has been useful in that it has helped put the process into perspective. Judging by the upvotes on these kinds of posts, it seems like other people find them interesting as well.

I appreciate what your advice and welcome it. You are right, I am excited by the prospect of starting something myself and caught up in the energy of it all, but I am also well aware that this is my first time and I'm going to mess up a lot of things. That's part of the reason for starting the blog and reaching out to the HN community. To learn from those who have already done this, so that one day I can give back as well.

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