Why I haven’t applied for YC | Hacker News Reader

Why I haven’t applied for YC

sathishmanohar.com

Just build cool stuff, not products you feel will appeal to investors or customers. As both groups are unpredictable but at the same time you shouldn't have to try to pander to what they're looking for. You need to have an interest in what the product is and be flexible to pivot.

If you're building something for someone else you aren't very agile and can very easily become stuck as a company.

If you don't get into YC giving up is the worst thing to do, you should apply to YC for the experience not just for YC.

Otherwise will you just stop doing the startup after YC? These are questions people will have in their minds.

Good luck, interesting piece and some very valid and great points in there.

Thanks for the kind words :)

Problem with building cool stuff for me is, I'm the idea guy, I usually get lot of ideas in different fields, I figured that is a problem, more than a asset. I found a way around this, I archive all ideas, and wait. Some ideas seem stupid after sometime or after some discussion, example: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3116788. I only choose to work on ideas that appeals to me even after 6 months. Actually, I'm building both products for me, 1. Project management tool ( sure! not basecamp copycat ) and 2. News Website with an interesting twist. I desperately need both and I hope the world will come to love it.

Edit: that is not to say, I don't build cool stuff. I built an astrology site that updates itself ;) http://rasi-palan.com (Its ugly, but it works ;) built in a day)

My first YC application was a mistake, I was in a mindset like, "What will I build if I get money?". My current mindset is "What will I build, regardless of money".

Since my first product will be SaaS Application, it will survive by itself. I'm still worried about the second product, since its a consumer application like youtube, twitter, I thought I might go broke running it. Now, I think if a consumer product gets that amount of traction, then It may very well attract investors.

Anyway, We'll get our MVP online first. We'll see from there. :)

Title was very confusing...'wait, he has applied and was rejected? what?' - felt like a headline trap. Should have been, 'why I didn't apply to this round of YC'

You'll find answer at the bottom of article.... I guess.

Well yeah, it's a smart decision to have a product before applying. However, the question now is "Why don't you have a product yet?". You had several months to do that after the primal rejection, and yet you still don't have it. You just shifted the deadline forward. I'm currently doing the same and beating myself for laziness.

Earlier this year I only knew PHP, not ruby or rails. Then I stumbled upon Rails, It seemed clearly superior, I stopped everything in favor of Rails. Because, Rails development seemed a lot faster than PHP development (for me). I think it is a good decision as well, Since development with RoR can be much faster, We'll actually be ahead in product sometime in the future, even if we had started with PHP earlier. Hope that makes sense. Note: I built prototypes using Rails in hours, which might have taken days in PHP.

Understandable, but not acceptable ;)

I agree that's the way to go. Building something under limited resource is a must for an entrepreneurs.

The real advantage over Idea & Budget is the same as agile over waterfall. We can expand our own narrow worlds only by moving ahead.

And I think the learning through such executions is the "insight" that YC mentions.

I fully agree with idea to build your product as long as possible without 3rd party's help. As for me, I don't think that's the bad idea to apply for this YC round. Why not to try? Valley is briliant place for startup to be, for meeting with awesome people.... why not?

It's not applying without a working product that would put people off, rather that the founders aren't agile enough to produce new ideas fast. Flexibility is key here.

Every no gets you closer to a yes. That's one rule of all new ventures. Persistence is key.

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