YC: What No Means | Hacker News Reader

YC: What No Means

foundersatwork.com

61 pointsniels14 comments

Years ago when Garage.com was starting up, I applied and was rejected. No big deal as I was expecting it, but it did get me a signed rejection letter from the big "Guy" himself.

As a beta tester it was a very nice gesture, to receive that letter with the comment "Prove us wrong!" hand written as a P.S. to the form letter. That letter hangs in a frame and every day I use it to remind myself that the only person that needs to believe in me, is me.

Today, many years later, I thank my lucky stars for that rejection. I went it alone, no co-founders, no frigging investor BS, and did not take a dime from anyone.

This year the 17 employees of MY privately held company drove our sales to 61 million dollars in online transactions.

The satisfaction that comes with proving investors wrong can't be bought, only earned.

Those that can, DO. Those that can't, find an investor.

This is good stuff. I hope more people get to read this, and please keep sharing.

Wow. This is up there with the more compelling examples of perseverance I have heard. Thanks for sharing your experience, you give everyone hope.

Awesome. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, are you the talking about Bottom Feeder, the news aggregator ?

Sometimes being tenacious and shear force of will is all that is required. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way to make it work.

"Those that can, DO. Those that can't, find an investor."

..You mean those that can't such as Google and Youtube?

They DID too. It's just that an investor eventually came around and noticed they were DOING, then gave them money so they could do it better.

"Those that can, DO. Those that can't, find an investor."

I don't agree with this as a general rule. Sometimes you may need investment to get to market faster, to get intros to the right people, and to otherwise do things you may not be able to bootstrap.

Certainly seems to have worked in your instance however, congratulations.

Congrats. I don't think that you can turn that experience into the rule you made in your last line, though. It nearly sounds bitter.

"OK, you may not have the same structure, advice, networks and extra cash that Y Combinator provides, but maybe that shouldn't stop you."

Everyone always talks about the mentoring and the connections from Y Combinator, but no one ever mentions the story. I think YC itself has a compelling story, one that's authentic but also fun to talk about. If you get funded it's the kind of thing that makes for 'sparkling' conversation at cocktail parties, as a way of talking about the program but also indirectly talking about yourself. Which is probably why YC is quickly becoming a household brand. Even my mom read the article in Newsweek.

I think whatever YCombinator does to help startups is covered under NDA.

Why do you think so?

For one, Demo Day is definitely NDA-ed. Other stuff, the business and marketing help that JL provides or the technical help that PG provides, those would also be considered under NDA, unless it's generic enough that sharing such information wouldn't hurt the startups.

YCombinator's interest is in the exit of the companies it funds. It's from that money that they can continue to do this year after year. Giving away everything in the farm doesn't help them do that. As much as everyone makes sharing and collaborating such a big deal, here in Silicon Valley people are actually pretty mum about their plans. Put it another way: if someone insists on talking to you about startups and whatnots around here, it's cause you're getting pitched.

We don't have any NDAs. We ask people in the audience at Demo Day not to write about the startups that haven't launched yet. I believe that is the only thing we ever ask anyone not to talk about.

Some of the startups may have their individual secrets. We try to keep them if they do. But they decide that.

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