YC Interview Tips from a Former YC Partner [video] | Hacker News Reader

YC Interview Tips from a Former YC Partner [video]

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89 pointsgarry30 comments

"Remember to build your business" - so obvious, but I think we're honestly missing that these days, so it's good to hear it. Now it seems fake it till you make VC money, then take the money and run.

The inverted pyramid answer is a great one, I wish that was the default in interviews in general

I'm kind of getting tired of this "cargo cult" attitude towards YC. Yes, it's a great thing, yes, great companies emerged from YC, but please... Enough already.

It’s interview time for a whole bunch of hopefuls and this is a site that’s literally owned by yc ...

I actually don't think the fact that HN is owned by YC makes much difference. It's not like the YC companies control what makes it to the front page any more than you or I do. And this might be the only place on the internet I actually have faith in the moderators to do right by the community.

Hacker News is how I first heard about Y Combinator in 2007. I applied in 2008 and got in. I became a founder. It changed my life. I learned a lot and got to build software for a lot of people.

I later became a partner and saw how powerful it was in society: people from all walks of life and now all over the world coming to create startups that a billion people can use.

That’s pretty cool, for signing on to a website that is basically the same product that it was when I came onto it 12 years ago.

In a lot of ways, my life is devoted trying to help you get to do what I got to do (and hopefully more, because my startup didn’t quite make it).

Actually they do, there are sticky job posts for YC companies on the front page. I‘m not complaining though, they own the place, their rules.

YC changed my life, and changed the lives of hundreds of founders I know personally.

Isn't that kind of a shallow argument, though? Scouting changed my life, and changed the lives of hundreds of scouts I know personally. What matters is how it changed it.

> What matters is how it changed it.

I read his profile. 'Nuff said

Hmmm, isn't that the parent's point, though? Being super successful as a VC or VC-funded startup is touted as the ultimate success by YC. However, there are many on this forum who don't agree that VC success is better than other types of success (bootstrapping, politics, charity, family, etc.), and some who even view VC culture as a net negative to society.

My point was that how you receive someone saying YC changed their life is highly dependent on whether you think that the result should be celebrated or emulated. Everyone has experienced things that changed their lives and the lives of those around them, so to someone who doesn't see VC success as very desirable, it comes across as a fairly weak argument.

Making something for other people is the highest value prized within the YC founder community. We actually mock people who are scenesters who do it for the fame/social status, and we mock the scammers who build nothing real and get fake valuations.

The fundamental mistake you are making is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Trust me, there are real things that are VC funded too. As a builder myself I would not become a VC and try to help other builders if I didn’t know that at was true at a core deep level and from first hand personal experience.

> We actually mock people who are scenesters who do it for the fame/social status, and we mock the scammers who build nothing real and get fake valuations.

Who is "we" here? Certainly not me. I personally am embarrassed for the YC community when I see things like this and also attacks on others on the private Bookface forum. If you have a problem with someone, say it to their face. Maybe they'll learn something. Or spend a day in their shoes instead of being so quick to judge and perhaps say nothing at all. This statement sounds very fratty and secretive, which is my least favorite part about YC. I am very grateful that I got into YC, but 95% of people got nothing but a template rejection email. YC gets the first 100 picks in the draft. With great power comes great responsibility.

Speaking for me personally I agree with the sentiment about making things but the highest value I prize is making something good for other people and then giving it to the world to make it a better place. Not putting so much emphasis on what value you capture; instead focusing on what value you create. That's why aaronsw is my favorite YC founder of all time. I am impressed by folks who build these big companies, but far from the value I prize most.

Strange to see people defend the fake parts of startups.

You are right that I can’t speak for the broader YC community but the wrong attitudes that are an epidemic in the startup community are the things that don’t help anyone. When startup founders are scenesters or don’t focus on solving real problems, you get all the terrible behavior you see on the show Silicon Valley, but worse still you see the world harmed. Employees lose their jobs and years of their lives, and suffer the most. Capital is lit aflame.

Your later comment seems to agree with me that impact/value is more important so we do seem to agree at a deeper level. Nice to see you here Breck.

Yes okay I agree with that sentiment. I think I just disagree with the wording, of mocking entire people instead of their undesirable behavior. Lots of “bad behavior” I think is honest mistakes, particularly for young outsiders who may struggle to understand the signal for the noise of SV. In those cases it’s easy to mock, but more helpful to provide guidance.

Edit: nice to see you here too! And the video was great. Very clear communicator. Sorry I harped on the "mocking" comment, and I'm guilty of it too sometimes, but I remember that for a lot of people who grew up far from the Valley, most of what they see is the "B.S." part of the pitches and they don't get to witness the more boring grind that is the majority of the truth. So sometimes they're just emulating the wrong parts and could benefit from guidance! That being said, you probably have interacted with 100x more startups than I have, so maybe my view of the dark patterns is a bit naive.

I guess I'm one of those people who consider VCs to be mostly negative. For example, I'd argue that the single most important tip for getting into YC is actually "attend Stanford".

But arguing against this type of content on HN is a losing battle. Better to just vote for the stuff you do like and call out VCs on topics that actually showcase their problems. There are many people reading HN who are genuinely interested in this content, and the tone of the content is one of attempting helpfulness. So making a show of shooting it down just because it's inane YC stuff won't really win any hearts and minds. It's going to fizzle out on it's own because it's a narrowly scoped subject and VC interview advice is pretty easy to find online already.

What would it take for you to change your mind about your 'attend Stanford' tip claim?

See my response to Garry above.

This is a misconception. The YC application is actually a great leveler because applications are evaluated by other founders through a community where building things for people is prized over pure credentialism.

VCs in general do have a terrible and unfair bias for Stanford. Frankly I went to Stanford. In 2008 when I did YC and started raising our seed round, VCs asked me why I even did YC because I had a Stanford degree.

I have seen so many people with no traditional background who succeed through the program.

> VCs asked me why I even did YC because I had a Stanford degree.

That's interesting. I expect that perception has changed now, but am curious.

> The YC application is actually a great leveler because applications are evaluated by other founders through a community where building things for people is prized over pure credentialism.

I think it is a very good leveler, but there is a lot of causation going on when you go to a place like Stanford (or Duke, where I went). If you went to a top engineering school, you have a lot more exposure to people that can build things. If I didn't meet folks who encouraged me to seriously get into programming and engineering my senior year, I wouldn't have taken the first steps down the road that led me to YC.

I think SUS is a great leveler, because it's giving folks anywhere and everywhere access to positive peer mentors who can do for them what my classmates did for me. Am very excited to see where that goes.

I've talked to people within YC who say just the opposite - that Stanford has a special relationship with YC. I've seen a nearly exact copy of a project I pitched to YC get accepted a year later, but this time with Stanford founders.

And I'm not using that as a stand-in for elite schools in general. The requirement that founders physically locate themselves the bay is as big a factor as anything.

Just because non-traditional people get in sometimes does not mean that there is not still selection bias towards a particular group.

If you are so sure about your claims, then you should call for YC to release the data to prove it. Specifically addressing the questions below.

1. What percentage of all founding teams had at least one member who attended Stanford? (Degree not even necessary - just attended at some point)

2. What percentage of all applicants who had a team member with a Stanford connection and got interviews?

3. What percentage of all applicants who had a team member with a Stanford connection got accepted?

Edit: Also, in case it wasn't clear - run the same data for any other schools with a high volume of applicants. Questions 2 and 3 should be roughly equal if there is no bias.

And I'd prefer to see the data over time as well. Doesn't have to be each applicantion period, but at in least groups per year to see if trends changed.

It changed my life in a way that has very little to do with my YC-funded company.

It helped me onto a path of healing and growth from chronic emotional and physical pain, and inspired me to focus on being a more rounded, grounded, decent person, rather than on simplistic notions of “success”.

It’s hard to imagine how I could have turned my life around so much, without YC.

None of these personal development practices were provided/recommended by YC, but YC gave me the confidence and self-belief to find this path and pursue it all the way, when no person or organisation had done so before, and none I know of today would give that kind of opportunity to the person I was at that time.

Of course, many organisations can help people make profound changes in their lives, and YC is not going to be the best one for everyone or even many people.

But it was the the first organisation that helped me make the changes I needed, and those changes had nothing to do with becoming (or trying to become) a tech millionaire/billionaire.

Of course, YC wants their founders to build successful companies if possible, but as I've found first-hand, they first-and-foremost care about about the founders' personal wellbeing and personal qualities.

Wow, thanks for sharing Tom! This answer resonates with me too. YC was life changing for me as well because of the values I gained from the experience, and not for the help building some big company (which turns out is just not something I'm built for).

Before YC my business advice came from The Apprentice, and I didn't really know how to create value. But somehow I lucked into YC. I'll never forget being in awe of how hard my cohorts worked (and how exhausted they could be at the end of the day), and how good their skills were. How they could make things that were good, not in just well designed and built, but good for the world. I was way out of my depth, but committed to try and be able to do what they could do. I'm still maybe a B or B+ on my "can build something people want" skillset, but far better than the "D/D-" I was a decade ago.

I used to have one gripe about YC because of the insider/outsider thing—it's great to be on the inside but as a rule I prefer more open things—but then they came out with the most recent iterations of SUS which are open to all and have just been truly remarkable. I think it just goes to show what a special organization this is.

> so to someone who doesn't see VC success as very desirable, it comes across as a fairly weak argument.

> > What matters is how it changed it.

"I read his profile. 'Nuff said"

Seriously though?? Certainly the post referred to their awesome experience(s) as a YC founder, and later a YC partner and currently as a VC. Sure there is an argument to be made against taking VC money; as it makes you (the founder(s) chase growth, possibly at the exclusion of all else--but I inferred from their post that it was a great experience for them for many reasons.

Fine you wouldn't take VC money, that's cool; but businesses that decide its the best path forward are not necessarily scum nor sellouts.

The strongest plausible interpretation is obviously that it changed his life significantly for the better. That's implied by the use of that phrase in such a context.

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Beyond the funding, what were the most important factors there that made you feel this way?

no bullshit feedback and help from very experienced founders and execs, which they offer for free and willingly because back then when they were first time founders they were helped by other amazing experienced founders.

My takeaway here is the advice Garry said. Not really thinking much towards YC being a holy grail of incubator and doing everything to get in. Instead, it lets me rethink my ideas if I can put it into words that will be good enough for an interview, not to get in YC, but to validate my idea. Put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer, would you then approve your own startup?

Is there something in the video that is "over-the-top-cargo-culty" or are you just complaining that this post was upvoted?

I won't see the video because it does not interest me right now, but I'm curious about your reasoning and also expected outcome when making this comment

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