YC applications open for summer 2010; note earlier deadline

http://ycombinator.posterous.com/applications-open-for-summer-2010-note-earlie

by pg • 17 years ago

139 54 17 years ago

ycombinator.posterous.com

gkoberger• 17 years ago

Good luck, everyone! :)

bretpiatt• 17 years ago

I like the effort to move the date and sync up with the other programs out there. It really feels like everyone should get together like the colleges have with application deadlines and acceptance notification back to applicants.

pg10• 17 years ago

We're hoping this move will cause that to happen de facto. The fact that YC etc have cycles with similar, fixed dates makes it structurally like college applications, so customs should be similar. It is much worse to use exploding termsheets in that context than in something asynchronous like VC series A rounds.

araneae• 17 years ago

Unless something like early admission happens...

It's advantageous to be early in the cycle, so you could have a continual creep up of deadlines, and continual asynchrony.

DanielBMarkham• 17 years ago

Woohoo! I think I actually think I might be in a good spot to apply this time around.

alanthonyc3• 17 years ago

PG's point about the size of the YC founders pool makes me curious what the effects of hitting some kind of Dunbar number will be.

pg10• 17 years ago

I wonder about that too, but we may not hit a limit. I think limits like Dunbar's number are consequences of hierarchical structure, and the YC founder network is completely distributed.

Alex39172• 17 years ago

Dunbar's number generally applies to communities that are organized around content or ideology.

So for example, a web forum gets too large for everyone to agree on what's on topic or off topic, so it splits in two. Or a democratically run government can't agree on whether the society should be gemeinschaft or gezellschaft.

The YC network is more like a dating site than a polis, so while there may be some limiting factor I don't think it would be Dunbar's number.

lloydarmbrust• 17 years ago

I can't imagine how the YC partners have time to make this happen, but then again, I'm not sure how they fulfill their current responsibilities.

arfrank• 17 years ago

The apply link in the footer below is now dead as it links to the w2010.html page. Should be s2010.html

Also clickable link to the apply page at: http://ycombinator.com/s2010.html

chrischen3• 17 years ago

I really hope there is significantly more engagement this time. I'm not real good at explaining things the first time so a question-response type situation would give me a good chance to properly explain my self a one-time application wouldn't.

I do have a question for Paul Graham though: should I assume you guys know nothing about previous applications?

pg10• 17 years ago

That's a good assumption, though we sometimes look at previous applications.

benologist• 17 years ago

Fantastic news and timing. :)

paraschopra2• 17 years ago

Hi PG, I really want to apply to YC this time. I browsed through the application but I am not sure if you will consider my case for the application: single founder and based out of India?

chrischen3• 17 years ago

I'm a single founder too. I guess there's not much we can do but apply and see what happens and to keep seeking a founder (of course for you I assume you also have to find a way over here). But from what I've heard (from emailing founder's coop) is that if you're a single founder you better be at least technical to enough build your idea yourself.

Slashed• 17 years ago

When I applied about a year ago at TechStars, I was a single founder. I had a meet-up with David Cohen from the TechStars and asked him on this. He told me: "It's very difficult to run the business being a single founder. You should probably keep on searching and then just email me if anything has changed".

While I do believe that successful business can be created by a single founder, I don't think that this is an issue when you're searching for someone to invest in your business. Anyway, I wish you good luck.

ewjordan• 17 years ago

From http://ycombinator.com/faq.html:

Can a single person apply for funding?

Yes, but the odds of being accepted are much lower. A startup is too much work for one person.

Do we have to be US citizens?

No, as long as you can get here for at least three months. We've funded many startups founded by non-citizens.

Can you get us visas?

No, sorry, we don't do that. You'll have to figure out visas for yourself. If you know people from previous YC-funded companies who came from outside the US, we suggest you ask them for advice. They understand the options better than we do.

paraschopra2• 17 years ago

Thanks!

levesque• 17 years ago

So basically what one can do is apply, then if accepted arrange the details for coming during the said three months in the US?

hypermatt• 17 years ago

"submit successive drafts of your application as you modify it"

My favorite quote, I like that. I've never been a big fan of college applications in one shot.

danielzarick• 17 years ago

PG- Will there be RFS ideas again? I'm not necessarily looking for ideas, but it is always interesting to see what you and the crew are thinking about.

gridspy• 17 years ago

Yes, there are a few interesting RFS ideas from 16 August 2009 : http://ycombinator.com/rfs.html

kuvkir• 17 years ago

Just out of curiosity – is there any list of YC participants of past years?

chrischen3• 17 years ago

http://ycombinator.com/faq.html There's a list. I'm not sure if it's comprehensive. I know there's another list somewhere out there that also details the status of the companies. Can't seem to find it right now.

patrickmclaren• 17 years ago

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/y-combinator

ig1• 17 years ago

http://blog.awesomezombie.com/2009/12/analyzing-y-combinator...

daeken2• 17 years ago

PG: Would you consider funding a startup aiming to take on a massive but completely monopolized market, e.g. desktop OSes? Being one of the developers on a completely new OS, I frequently wonder about how it could be commercialized and pitted against the likes of MS, and it seems that it would be effectively untouchable from a funding perspective, with the way things are now.

I know investors like risk, but it seems like the chances of success are such that 99% of the time, you're going to be throwing your money way. Any insight here?

billclerico• 17 years ago

that's sort of a vague question. some of history's biggest monopolies have been the most vulnerable to disruption (telecom, anyone?).

i don't want to speak for PG, but I think when YC considers applications they weigh risk against potential return. m$ certainly has demonstrated there is a tremendous market for desktop software (though with the onset of cloud computing, perhaps it is becoming obsolete).

daeken2• 17 years ago

I perhaps made it a bit too vague in an effort to make it applicable outside my specific case (I work on a pure-managed OS focused on desktop/mobile applications). Even though I fully believe in the project, the chances of it ever becoming the Next Big OS (TM) are slim to nil, so I'm curious if any sane investor would touch it. Obviously there's a profit to be made with it in certain niches, but I don't know if that would be big enough for anyone to fund it.

cperciva• 17 years ago

PG: Would you consider funding a startup aiming to take on a massive but completely monopolized market, e.g. desktop OSes?

From what I've seen I'd say that YC has a high probability of funding the sort of brave/foolish people who would try such a thing. Keep in mind that to a first approximation, YC funds teams, not startups -- PG has stated many times that one of the most important things a startup can do is be ready to throw everything out and start moving in a completely new direction.

pg10• 17 years ago

Yes! In fact we particularly like that type of startup.

extension• 17 years ago

Even if you don't take over the desktop, your project has a lot of commercial possibilities in mobile and other gadget spaces.

follower• 17 years ago

Should "It will take place in Mountain View, CA from July through August 2010" actually say "June" rather than "July" given point #4?

pg10• 17 years ago

Fixed, thanks.

pmjordan• 17 years ago

Engaging with applicants before the deadline seems like a great move. From the stories from previous YCers it sounds like this sometimes happened already, but it's good to have it spelled out.

Oh, by the way Paul: the "Apply" link in the footer is still the W2010 one, which now 404s. It shouldn't stop anyone serious about applying, but... :)

discolemonade4• 17 years ago

It would be interesting to see stats on the composition of groups that YC has funded since inception; ie, percentage of all programmer groups vs programmer/biz guy vs all biz guys, etc. Any insights PG?

icey3• 17 years ago

I would be especially interested in seeing percentage of single founder applicants (vs total applicants) and percentage of single founder companies accepted (vs total companies accepted).

discolemonade4• 17 years ago

I imagine it's not that high. If I were in PG's shoes, I would be more reluctant to fund single founder groups too for the simple reason that startup ideas go through countless iterations and it's very hard to mold an idea if you have no one to bounce ideas off of. Sure, you could get the opinions of family and friends, but they'll tell you anything because they don't have a stake in the idea.

pg10• 17 years ago

I would say about half the groups have one or more non-programmers. I remember 2 that had no programmers, though I may be forgetting some.

The optimal configuration is one or two programmers plus one person who can sell really well. Best of all is when the person who can sell is also a programmer.

discolemonade4• 17 years ago

Just out of curiosity, how did those groups with non-programmers develop their product? Did they go out and find programmers? What did they spend most of their time doing?

samd2• 17 years ago

"Are any of the following true? ... (e) None of the founders are programmers."

Isn't that basically automatic disqualification?

pg10• 17 years ago

No; we've funded a couple groups that didn't have any programmers.

samd2• 17 years ago

That's interesting and surprising. What did those groups do; go out and hire a programmer, find a technical co-founder after getting funding, or did they outsource what they needed?

dzlobin• 16 years ago

PG, Just how much of a minus would it be that both founders would have to return to college in the fall? Given they can reasonably continue to work in school.

YC applications open for summer 2010; note earlier deadline

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