The hardest question on the Y Combinator application | Hacker News Reader

The hardest question on the Y Combinator application

recoding.blogspot.com

12 pointsRKoutnik8 comments

If this is the hardest question for you, you are not ready to do a startup. This is a filtering question - If I'm YC, if even one of the founders is not able to commit, that's probably an immediate rejection right there.

There are plenty of successful founders who didn't quit their jobs immediately to work on their startup. Not everybody has that luxury. Maybe you meant to limit your comment specifically to YC startups?

I wouldn't say plenty - succeeding while working on a startup part-time is definitely the exception, and not the rule. I would love to hear some examples of those successful founders who succeeded while working part-time on their venture.

I partially agree with Pytrin. While its true not everyone quits their job to dive into a startup immediately, its arguable whether or not those are even startups yet or just projects.

That said, if you aren't at the stage where you can commit to doing a startup, you probably shouldn't be applying to YC.

I agree, you are probably not ready to do a startup if you struggle to answer this question.

I believe it wouldn't be an immediate rejection but a strong warning indicator. If a founder is not willing to commit to their startup full time, the startup is going to fall apart when all hell breaks loose. Founders that are half committed may have strong disagreements with each other when there is a conflict of interest (eg: too much time spent doing his full time job while working on the startup). Disagreement between founders can kill a startup.

I suggest the author to find a full time job or work at another startup first. Do a startup when the time is right and you saved up enough money.

If you decide do the startup, don't look back. Be committed to your decision.

I don't see it that way. It's not easy to give up a comfortable future for the uncertain one, regardless of one's current position. If you'll notice, we did commit. The purpose of writing this article was to create a public declaration of that fact.

I do see where you reached that conclusion - thanks for the feedback. I'll try and be more clear in future articles.

You know, it's funny - before I quit to do my start-up full-time, I thought that 'quitting to do my start-up full-time' was what people talked about when they said "starting up is hard".

After a year of success (pilot customers converting, flirting with profitability, etc) I'm realizing that planning and executing growth is much harder.

When you start out, everything that isn't utter failure is a win. When you're doing well and have lots of different paths you can take, the stakes are a lot higher, and expectations (your own included) have risen. You have more to lose and more to win.

The up's get higher and the down's get lower and the decisions more complex. But creating something from nothing, from pure ingenuity and brow-sweat, is still the best job in the world.

My hardest question was "Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered."

Since I like mostly stupid and flat humour, which would not be an appropriate answer on this question, it took me a while to write something more sophisticated lol

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