Applications now open for summer 2008 YC funding cycle

http://www.ycombinator.com/s2008.html

by jl • 18 years ago

46 34 18 years ago

ycombinator.com

danielha• 18 years ago

I liked the Cambridge YC HQ quite a bit. It's much homier than the one in MV.

ivankirigin2• 18 years ago

Much smaller too, right? I wonder how they'll fit all the groups if next year they have even more.

curi• 18 years ago

usually when you're so popular you run out of space, it's not a problem to get more

pg3• 18 years ago

I'm wondering too. We were pretty much at the limit last summer. When we had investors there for demo day, we literally had to put the founders outside in a tent.

Fortunately we can expand in time if constrained in space: just have multiple dinners per week. That would get us 7x without needing to find a new building. I've had my eye out for places in Cambridge, but it would be really hard to beat the current one.

Tichy4• 18 years ago

Plug: word count Greasemonkey script for yc application form http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/13291

tlrobinson• 18 years ago

Bookmarklet version (Safari and Firefox compatible):

javascript:function update(e) { var a = e ? e.target : window.event.target; var s = a.nextSibling; if (!s) { s = document.createElement("div"); a.parentNode.appendChild(s); } var words = a.value.match(/\S+/g); var num = words ? words.length : 0; s.innerHTML = "word count: " + num; s.style.color = (num > 120) ? "red" : "green"; } (function() { var a = document.getElementsByTagName("textarea"); for (var i = 0; i < a.length; i++) { a[i].addEventListener("keypress", update, false); update({target:a[i]}); } })();

Tichy4• 18 years ago

"Are any of the following true? ..."

You forgot "are you a terrorist" ;-)

That question seems to indicate that there will be automated screening out of applications?

cperciva• 18 years ago

I don't think the YC crew is silly enough to automatically discard applications. Most likely they'll use this question to pull out applications for a preliminary "can we see anything amazing here" filtering stage.

PG has said before that traits listed in that question aren't absolutely disqualifying -- I think his exact words were "we'll bend any rule if you're a genius" -- but from a perspective of streamlining the application-handling process, I'm sure they'd like to eliminate the applications from non-genius rule-benders as quickly as possible.

pg3• 18 years ago

No, there's no automated screening. We added this question because people's answers are sometimes so unclear that we can't be sure of the answers to these. It serves the same purpose as a check digit in a credit card number.

We certainly wouldn't automatically reject a group that answered this question yes. Loopt would have, among others.

Tichy4• 18 years ago

Thank you for the clarification!

mcxx2• 18 years ago

Is there any chance of YC expanding to Europe in the future?

sharpshoot• 18 years ago

What do you mean expand to Europe? European founders can apply.

mcxx2• 18 years ago

Yes, I know that but we would have to move to US for the summer and thus get visas, which could be difficult.

SwellJoe• 18 years ago

Read the YC FAQ.

rms• 18 years ago

ooo, new question:

Please tell us about the time you, username, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.

pg3• 18 years ago

There are a bunch of new questions. That one was suggested by Sam Altman.

Alex3917• 18 years ago

That's a really awesome question.

If you don't already have a copy, you might enjoy Rod Beckstrom's book Brainticklers. It's basically just a book of questions about the year 3,000.

The questions range from

"When we can match or exceed many or all human physical and mental skills with computers or appliances, how will we define our reason for being?"

"What will be the most popular baby shower gift in the year 3,000?"

It would probably be a fun toy for the YC dinners.

ajkirwin2• 18 years ago

I didn't quite understand that, yet I still applied. I just asked for further clarification.

ajkirwin2• 18 years ago

I applied, because, well..

he who never tries, never succeeds? One should never be afraid of failure or rejection!

secgeek• 18 years ago

suppoes someone in india then will u consider them?i mean cost of relocating there is high so is it ok?

wumi• 18 years ago

Not to throw a racial stick into the wheel, but are there any black or latino founders out there applying to Y C?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=104919

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=104728

Tichy4• 18 years ago

I know that I don't know the skin color of the creators of web sites I visit. Also, I just remember MC Hammer being in a promo video of a YC startup, I think weebly. And I've heard he is starting his own social network thing, something music related.

xirium• 18 years ago

I wasn't able to login using elinks. The error to the POST submission was "Post request without Content-Length." You might want to have a look at that.

DaniFong5• 18 years ago

Suspend your disbelief, and irrationally accept what quantcast tells you: (http://www.quantcast.com/paulgraham.com)

African americans, latinos, and asians all outrank caucasians in pageviews on paulgraham.com. It also shares with ycombinator.com a slightly female audience, and members who visit also enjoy shopping for horses. ;-)

Applications now open for summer 2008 YC funding cycle

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