Ask HN: Any advice for single founders applying for YC Summer '09 round? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Any advice for single founders applying for YC Summer '09 round?

5 pointscthan32310 comments

I'm currently an undergrad graduating in December of this year, and I decided to apply for the YC summer round. Unfortunately, I'll be applying as a single founder as I've failed to convince my friends to renege on their full-time offers from Microsoft and other companies. They’re not willing to sacrifice the safety of a nice salary in this economy for my untested idea.

Google search results revealed that getting funded as a single founder is nearly impossible. With this in mind, is there any thing that we single founders can do to increase the probability of getting in the YC summer round? The only thing I can think of is having a working demo ready. I’m currently hacking out a demo before March 18 comes around, but I feel like that’s the only thing I can do. Am I just S.O.L.?

For the single founders that have been funded, could you provide us (single founders) with some advice on what you did?

EDIT: For clarification, I've been developing a demo for several weeks now and it's about 30% there, but I'm starting to ramp up and I'm trying and get as much functionality built before the due date.

I was a single founder in the summer '07 YC batch. I don't know why they selected me precisely, but having the ability to say, 'It's friggin Photoshop online' certainly didn't seem to hurt. I was also willing to bring on a co-founder (which I eventually did) after I'd built and launched (a process that took about two years working by myself and happened before I ever applied).

The goal is value. I guess... build something to build it, get it launched, and try to build value (because you believe you can, not because you think you can convince someone to believe you can). Building something to reach an artificial deadline is probably not the shortest path to creating real value.

I imagine this is going to be a tough sell, prove you can ship early, fast, and iteratively and that there is no way you'll stop trying (even if you're living on other people's couches).

With that, that's a difficult story to tell if you're starting today--you may have to wait for the next round.

My personal opinion: Start by yourself, produce 2-3 iterations of your product, your friends will follow when they see the idea start to come to fruition. No way someone is going to deny you an opportunity with that much heart, a solid demo, and some early indicators of success. I think you have to gun it alone before you can really prove to them that you're not easily demoralized.

This is coming from someone who used to be a single founder himself, good luck--there's hope =)

You have my attention. How did that single founder attempt go for you?

Still in progress, I found a co-founder--it's going well. There are more followers than leaders, be the leader and start now rather than waste time.

People are more likely to feel like they are missing out when you're willing to do it with or without them. You have to sell yourself a bit not just the idea to instill a certain confidence in others.

Prove to them that you can (and will) pull it off on your own - without co-founders and/or YC.... and they'll come to you.

Good point. I'm going to build this thing regardless if I get selected or not. It costs little to nothing to build web software these days. Absolutely no reason that I can't pull it off on my own.

Going back to school in the fall is another flag against you. It won't hurt to apply this summer, but you're very unlikely to get in. Consider this the practice for the Winter '10 practice round.

If selected, I'm willing to dedicate myself full-time to this.

The YC partners do not like the idea of being responsible for you leaving college. They are ok with it in the situation where you are so incredibly dedicated that you are leaving college with or without them. Or if you have some plan to finish while working full time on the company -- some of the Weeblies finished their degrees at PSU with online courses.

+1 Thanks for the insight. I've decided that I'm going to build this with or without YC. I'll able to take a leave of absence if I need to at school.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com