Feedback please for YC rejects

I appreciate that YC get a lot of applicants and that personalised feedback might seem like a daunting task with the number of applications you get but, as you recognise for yourself in your rejection letter by asking us for it when we succeed with our companies, it's very important and highly desired.

Generic feedback is what everyone gives (conferences, job applications, accelerators etc) and is pretty disappointing for applicants as we put so much work up front. If the numbers of applications rumoured are right and you got about 1800, and each form takes on average 2 people-days to complete then as a community we put in 10 years effort just to apply. That's 10 years that for the majority of us could've been put to better use into our companies/ideas instead so it would be nice if we could just get a little back in return to help us be better next time round.

If you really want to differentiate yourself from the pack (and I think you probably do) then do something that no-one else does. Give feedback. For the sake of a few people days extra effort your end it would come back to you a hundred times over in other ways.

I'm sure you have a process for sorting the wheat from the chaff but here's what I would do if I were wearing your shoes:

   1. First pass have two buckets - MAYBEs and NOs. For all the NOs have someone writing down one sentence of why they're a no and include in their rejection letter (via a mail merge off a CSV)
   2. Second pass go through the MAYBEs. For all the NOs this time round answer two questions:
               1. What went well (with their application)?
               2. Even better if (their application had/said/was/included ...)?

Two/three bullet points for each question would be amazing for us and you'd probably find yourself repeating. You will also probably find it will help generate content for your general feedback document and guides.

Hope my feedback is seen as just that rather than criticism. I love you guys but feedback is an essential part of the learning process and one that I just can't help asking for whenever I see an opportunity!