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Comment by cl42 | Hacker News Reader

I went through YC in S12 and have been investing in YC companies + active on Bookface and YC’s founder matching program. I recommend YC to almost everyone I meet and plan to apply again when/if I am working on a new product company.

We’re all adults and we all have agency. Every community is a function of how much you put into it; how much you invest in getting to know others.

It feels like the author expected YC to do all the work of community engagement for him. That’s 100% not what YC is about. Folks like Michael Seibel, Garry Tan, and other partners all respond to emails + engage as much (or as little) as you ask them to.

It's unfortunate the author had an experience that wasn't ideal, but I'd be wary of saying this is representative.

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As a YC founder, never received a single reply to a couple of emails sent to Garry Tan ;(

Did you expect YC status was going to get you a direct channel to one of the busiest people affiliated with YC?

I replied to a comment which stated exactly that, and my point that it's false.

Yeah, I'm just asking if that was your actual expectation going into the program.

Not really, that's why I don't put an evaluation criteria of "how close you going to get with the star founders". It's silly to expect that.

I only expected and discusses the community engagement within the batch, and the power of YC connection between the batches. Both are quite low.

The connection to Brian Chesky or Paul Graham is expected to be ~0 from the start.

>Folks like Michael Seibel, Garry Tan, and other partners all respond to emails + engage as much (or as little) as you ask them to.

When did you email Garry? He's only been back at YC for a couple months.

When you recommend YC, how do you help the people you recommend actually get in to the YC program?

Do the things that make you seem like a great startup/founder regardless of YC: show you can execute. This means coding or launching experiments, and show that whatever you're doing is getting some sort of a market response.

A lot of people think YC has some secret formula they will teach you (I think maybe OP made this mistake?), in reality they are very open: build product and talk to users.

If you can do that well, you'll get in.

It's amazing how few people actually "get" this, though. I recently met with a friend who is running a consulting firm and is convinced he has a product... But there's no demo, customers can't just sign up -- they need to speak with him and it takes a few weeks to onboard them, etc... Yet his deep (and well-meaning, I'm sure!) belief is that he has a product. Nothing I say will convince him otherwise.

10 years post YC, I find most of the issues people have with startups (getting in to YC included) is they overcomplicate their interpretation of what YC says you should do.

There is a referral program, hey

Does it improve the odds of getting in or is it some sort of kickback to the referring party if they do?

No one clearly knows, but it should be there for a reason. We used a referral when applying and I would recommend finding one. Won't hurt for sure, prob will increase the chances to be seen.

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