Comment by dariusmonsef | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dariusmonsef | Hacker News Reader

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So wait.

You note that nowhere in your YC application do they specifically ask you about money stuff.

But, you talked to some YC Alums before the interview and they all asked you about $.

And since you didn't get selected you now assume that the YC partners really only care about the $? Sorry, I think that's a leap in thinking that might be in the wrong direction.

I applied with a website that let people name & share color... There wasn't billion dollar company sitting in front of them. There were a few guys with a passionate community and the ability to build great product. We were never asked in our interview about $ and didn't need to bullshit anything.

Yes, the Valley hype scene is heavily influenced by who's the next billion dollar company and puts little success on people making $5-10M/year in great businesses... But that isn't YC.

PG has on a number of occasions given me advice that is all about us as the founders being happy. Not about YC getting the biggest return possible.

So yeah, hopefully your idea could be a big business. But I would argue the opposite of what your post says. YC mostly cares that your idea is big and that you are a team that might be able to pull it off.

And IMHO... Try not to bullshit. It'll eventually catch up to you.

> You note that nowhere in your YC application do they specifically ask you about money stuff.

Sorry maybe I was slightly vague in the blog post, the YC application form has a specific question on money [1], but as I said in our post, we answered it with by just described the ways in which we might make money in the future (our revenue streams and potential exits). We got the impression that YC is after startups that it can parade in front of VCs on demo day for their series A, and for that they need to be more than $5-10M/year.

[1] "How do or will you make money? How much could you make? (We realize you can't know precisely, but give your best estimate.)"

In the most recent application round, they did specifically ask about money in the application. And they asked my team about money in the interview as well (with a visibly negative reaction from an interviewer when the number we gave was smaller than he apparently wanted to hear). Please don't assume that your experience is the same as everyone else's. Perhaps the fact that you already have a strong community gave you a free pass with regard to money issues.

My bad. Mistyped. He specifically said they didn't focus on $ in the app. Yes there is a question that asks about it. (We review applications too), But that isn't a core focus in the application.

And its a bit ironic to tell me no to assume my experience is the same as everyone else's on a blog post telling everyone else how to treat the YC interview, no?

I've said this many times before and perhaps need to include it on every comment regarding startup advice. There are some common concepts, useful general practices, etc. But it's a very different experience for all of us. There is no general advice that will work every time for everyone. Take ideas that work well with you... leave the rest.

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