Why to Apply to YCombinator
I first wanted to apply to YCombinator's Summer 2007 cycle with the intention of making teachers' jobs a little easier. I was going to make an exceptional homework creation tool, one that would be intuitive to use. But wait, I could code it, but I didn't have any cofounders. Without a cofounder, I had no hope of getting in.
So I looked around for one. Everyone at work had families, so they were out. But I had a wonderful, supportive girlfriend. Why not her? What a strange idea, to start a company with your girlfriend! But I talked with her about it, and we started working together. Then something pretty amazing happened. It never mattered that she had zero technical knowledge. She knew what worked and what didn't, what made sense and what didn't. So we created something and ran it by my father. He said, "This is a little hard for non-technical people to use. I'll work with you on it." Now all of a sudden, I had two cofounders.
In the meantime, I received an invitation to Startup School. Not only that, but I was invited to the dinner at YCombinator beforehand. Wow! That was a wonderful feeling to be invited to something like that. I was all smiles the rest of the week. I was going to California!
.. And it was approaching fast. I asked off work for that Friday and Monday, then everyone pulled a few crazy all-nighters to get the demo done and our YC application in top shape. I'll always remember everyone doing a ten-second countdown right before we hit the 'Submit' button. That was hands-down the most fun I've had in one night.
Since we worked so well together, and since we had a deadline to meet, we'd ended up with an excellent demo. And had a lot of fun all around.
So I was off to California. Weebly happened to fit in nicely with what we were doing (teachers could use Weebly to build their sites), so I met with Chris, Dan, and David. They're really fun to talk with! They had framed a little circuit and hung it on the wall that displayed a count of how many users they had. The geekiness of that had me chuckling. And the view from the YScraper was absolutely spectacular.
Up next was the YCombinator dinner. It was amazing to see Dexter in person. I couldn't get over that I was staring at an actual life-sized robot that was balancing on its own. I noticed a claw on another robot, so I asked Trevor to squeeze my hand with it. Yeowch! But now I'm a part of a small group that can say they've been attacked by a robot.
I met the Zenter guys, Wayne and Robby. I showed our demo and they thought it was excellent, which is really awesome to hear from rockstar coders like them. Then I saw Zenter and was put to shame :) It was great to see all the amazing stuff they did. After talking for a little bit, I was amazed to learn that Wayne had a kid on the way. Wowza, that's pretty brave to still do YCombinator! But we all know how Zenter worked out.
The night wore on, and at one point Paul seemed to look at me and do a high-five gesture, so I high-fived back. Then I looked behind me. Whoops, he was going to high-five someone else. Everyone laughed. He asked me what I did, and I replied without thinking, "I'm making teachers' lives a little easier. I'm making a homework creation tool that even teachers will know how to use." "Don't use that as your tagline, or you'll alienate all your customers," he said and grinned. D'oh, I didn't mean it like that, but everyone laughed again. Looking back on it, that whole encounter was pretty amusing.
Up next was Startup School, which was a blast. Afterwards, I had some time to kill before catching my jet home, so I hitched Caltrain into San Francisco and waited in line to catch a taxi. I talked with the guy in front of me for awhile. He was from the midwest and came to San Francisco on a business trip. He was interesting to get to know, but then a taxi pulled up. To my surprise, he offered me his place. "Thanks!" I said, and hopped in. "Do you know any great places to get Sushi?" I asked the taxi driver. He nodded, and we were off. "Hey," he said, "That guy gave you his seat. Why'd he do that?" "I dunno, I guess you just need to be nice to people and they'll do stuff like that." "You Christian?" he asked. "No sir, just on vacation."
The sushi was amazing, but the oysters were pretty terrible. I caught a taxi back to Caltrain, and the taxi driver was as bad as I was with directions. She and I got lost about three times, and we laughed about it. She was probably taking me for a few extra bucks, but I prefer to think she was just new on the job. Anyway, she was nice enough that I didn't care.
I flew back home, and everyone anxiously awaited YCombinator's response. All of a sudden, it showed up. No dice. Oh well.
It must've been quite an amusing application. Some nineteen year old and his eighteen year old girlfriend with his fifty year old father. And I let the rejection get to me for a day or two, but then I felt stupid. If I didn't apply, I would've missed out on one of the best experiences of my life. I wouldn't have applied to Startup School, or talked with the Weeblies or the Zenters, or made a fool of myself in front of Paul, or been clawed by a giant robot, or stayed up late with everyone working on a Really Cool Idea, or done a loud ten-second countdown before hitting the Submit button, or eaten San Francisco Sushi, or astounded a taxi driver when some random stranger gave me his seat, or felt really good about working as hard as I could on something to show someone else, or a hundred other little things. And all those, I think, are reasons to apply to YCombinator. So go ahead, don't apply... But you might be missing out on a whole lotta fun.
But if you don't care about the fun, there are plenty of other reasons. Since you have a deadline, you'll get more done than you ever thought possible. You'll find cofounders where you thought you didn't have any. And you just might get accepted, even if you think your chances are nil. So hurry up, you still have time.