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  > I don't know if the industry has as concise of a term
  > for throwing everything out and starting over

I recommend using the word "flush". Some examples: "we flushed that idea and started looking at something new" or "they had this idea around Uber for dogs but it was a flusher". It's what you do when your idea stinks.

As a fellow YC non-success story (with a different narrative), I really enjoyed this piece. I took different lessons out of my time in YC, but I endorse this:

  I also want to note (in case anyone was wondering) that my experience 
  hasn't diminished my opinion of YC at all. PG's advice was spot on, 
  and YC remains an amazing program for founders.

Thanks for writing about your experience, it must be difficult to do so. When we were looking at joining YC, one of the things that made us pull the trigger was the fact that we could not find anyone that had gone through the program that did not say that was worth it. No one, neither publicly nor privately and regardless of whether their startup had succeeded of failed.

Thanks for posting this. As others said, it takes guts to do it. I don't think you necessarily need to stick with your idea, especially if you aren't passionate about it. Quitting early is better than spending a couple of years being miserable because you don't think your work amounts to much.

Thanks for putting this out there. It takes guts and self awareness to write something like this.

Thanks for such a heart-felt post. I think you're doing exactly the right thing by analysing and understanding what went right and wrong, and moving forward towards bigger and better things with new wisdom to draw on. You've come out of this as a significantly better entrepreneur than when you started. I think the smart money would back you in the long run, because you're the personality type that learns hugely from each experience. Some failure is inevitable, but when you do, you do it fast, and never in the same way twice. This makes success inevitable, too.

Watching your career with interest Charlie!

-B & Ida ;)

Cool story, great read! I'm surprised how negative some of the comments here on HN were. They're probably just envious about how they're not getting that sweet, sweet investor money!

Most probably aren't just envious. However, those who wrote negative comments weren't afraid to announce seemingly definitive conclusions without enough data to justify their assurance. Keep in mind that the author and his cofounder were interviewed by YC partners and all of the cofounders. While their selection system has flaws, most probably agree that it's one of the best that exists right now. Perhaps they saw strengths in the author's founding team that the author himself had not perceived.

Based on the author's age, I assume he considers this the greatest failure in his life. He wrote this shortly after exiting an educational system that indoctrinates students to believe that success occurs without failures. So his perspective may have been from a point of low self-worth making it difficult to see his own strengths that will help him recover and succeed moving forward.

Thank you for writing about your experience Charlie. I hope the traveling has been beneficial, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

For some of the negative comments, the data actively contradicts their conclusion. Many here seem to think that only an idiot would "invest in a 21 year old with a half-baked business plan." The people posting that have probably made less from whatever they're doing, than PG/YC have from their 21 year old founders.

"The people posting that have probably made less from whatever they're doing, than PG/YC have from their 21 year old founders."

So it's all about money then, right? Well if you want to take that to the logical extreme then you would take advice from, say, Larry Ellison or Carl Icahn (over PG) because they have much more money than PG does (at this point in time at least). My point is you have to be very careful about putting people up on a pedestal (which is what happens at HN so often) and thinking that their advice ranks over someone who, by the standards of this community appears to be "less successful".

Are you being serious? Valid criticism isn't the same as hating on the playa', to use your apparent vernacular. Many would consider criticism to be a considerate act and an opportunity to learn from one's mistakes. Just because you're not one of those people it doesn't mean everyone else is being mean, not to mention that many of the comments here are about YC itself rather than the article's author.

Also, YC isn't just about getting "sweet sweet" money, it's also about commitment, many times to the point of collapse due to overwork. This may be a worthwhile tradeoff for you, but it doesn't mean that whoever is critical towards the way YC works is actually broke and bitter. I'm actually quite confident that HN has a sizable population of mature, fulfilled and well-off readers who have better things to do than to pick on the unsuccessful.

Not to mention that many young people are in way over their heads when getting into this, and lack the experience necessary to come out on top. Some pull through, but in this case it was clear more or less from the start that it wasn't the case.

No one's envious nor blaming them for being too young or with half-baked ideas, it's understood that young people are naturally less adept at things. My impression is that they're rather criticizing YC for using inexperienced youngsters as fodder for investors, for just dumping responsibility on them, then leaving them to do the sweating and feel like hell for getting in without a clear plan.

Before being judgemental and assuming the worst about people, maybe you should stop and evaluate your own negativistic projections.