rejected!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11502

by colmworth • 19 years ago

7 17 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

colmworth2• 19 years ago

We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally, because most of the proposals we rejected, we rejected for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the applicants. For example, we were very reluctant to accept proposals with only one founder, because we think starting a startup is too much work for one person. We also had a higher threshold for applicants who were still in school, groups where one or more members planned to keep their current jobs, and groups that couldn't all move to Boston. We rejected a lot of proposals simply because we couldn't understand them, or didn't understand the problem domain well enough to judge them, or because the project seemed too big to start on only three months of funding. Sometimes we even rejected good ideas, because another group proposed the same idea and seemed further along.

We realize this process is fraught with error. It's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes.

Thanks,

Y Combinator Staff

colmworth2• 19 years ago

as of today I'm out to prove them wrong. wish me luck and good luck to those who have been accepted

randallsquared• 19 years ago

Good luck. We're on that path, too.

ivan• 19 years ago

I'm sure, it's frustrating if you don't know real reason why they rejected you so I wish you good luck, As we say, "what don't kill you that gives you more power".

motravo• 19 years ago

That's the best rejection letter I've ever read.

mynameishere• 19 years ago

You haven't gotten too many rejection letters then:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rejection_Letter

This falls in the not-very-good category of "mass printed letter".

Goladus• 19 years ago

Hard to say, I think the reason we were rejected is that we flat out aren't ready and the application made it pretty obvious.

I greatly appreciate Y-Combinator taking the time to review our app, because if I'd accepted "we're not ready" as a reason to not apply at all, then there's a good chance I'd have abandoned the idea of starting a business altogether.

cwilbur2• 19 years ago

Rejected here too. I'm not surprised; it was a long shot to begin with, and I don't think my goals as a founder and their goals as investors really lined up. It probably didn't help that I'm a sole founder, either.

Time for Plan B. Powerball tickets. Er, I mean, the slowly growing micro-ISV approach.

BitGeek2• 19 years ago

No need to grow slow... unless slow growth is what you want. $6k is not the difference between high growth and slow growth.

cwilbur2• 19 years ago

Well, slow growth while I work at my day job.

$10-$15K is the difference between being able to quit my day job and get the company going in 3 months and having to keep my day job and get the company going in 9 months to a year.

And if I need to keep the day job, slow sustainable growth -- meaning I can project income, and project reasonably accurately when I can quit my day job -- is much better than a spike that I need to deal with in crisis mode.

mukund• 19 years ago

Rejected too and we know reason why we were rejected :) So no hard feelings as i had posted before its YC or we go alone.

jason13• 19 years ago

why did you get rejected?

stcorbett• 19 years ago

Me too, twice :). I can't wait to see who got funded. Maybe they want to show us their apps?

neurokinetikz• 19 years ago

I'm wondering if I should email them about the webby award i won today for the site they rejected ;)

neurokinetikz.com

http://webbyawards.com/webbys/current_honorees.php?category_id=48

SwellJoe• 19 years ago

While I'm sure your site is awesome, the Webby hasn't been a valid measure of quality in nine or ten years.

BitGeek2• 19 years ago

I went to that site and saw a blog with a animated matrix background. I didn't get it.

I know it sucks to be rejected (went thru it recently myself) but don't fall into the trap of sour grapes.

Find out what you can do better, or improve on.

And I think this is probably a good forum for doing that.

maliciouskitty• 19 years ago

C'me.... with the age of EC2 and S3, there are no reason you cannot bootstrap the whole thing yourself?

And there are tons of other ways to make money, if you are smart enough to build a startup.

Surely is nice to have somebody written you a $10,000 check to start of with... but believe me, you will never forget the moment you received the first payment from the credit card gateway company.

It is better if you can grow your business with your own money, if you have a choice.

rejected!

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