YCommonApp: Apply to 25+ YC-funded startups in under 10 minutes

http://ycommonapp.com

by davidbalbert • 16 years ago

175 72 16 years ago

ycommonapp.com

lanstein2• 16 years ago

E La Carte is hiring, but doesn't have a website of any kind? I see you do own the domain.

mcknz• 16 years ago

http://www.startuply.com/Companies/E_la_Carte_802.aspx

Shhhh....

lanstein2• 16 years ago

Heh. Yeah, saw that. Not sure that counts ;)

sabj• 16 years ago

I love the idea.

What about non-technical people passionate about tackling problems? Undesirables? ;)

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

Right now the YCommonApp is geared towards developers, though it's possible there'll be another option in the future for non-techies.

(However, if you're a designer, several of the companies participating are also looking for UX/UI folks, so I'd encourage you to apply anyway :D)

kineticac• 16 years ago

Definitely going to be using the YCommonApp in the near future for hiring to Fanvibe! This is an awesome way to find potential hires.

Nice work guys.

paulsingh2• 16 years ago

Pardon my ignorance, but I don't get it.

Why would you want to hire someone that "sprays" their application across 25+ companies?

shazow2• 16 years ago

The reality of an applicant is that there is extremely little information about a startup and its reputation, and what little there is is almost always identical to every other startup (free food, have an impact, big challenges, blah blah blah).

You only really discover whether it's a good fit or not after you've worked there for months. If you're really lucky, after you've had all the interviews. But really never ever before you've even applied.

During the application process, I'd argue that the employer has the best idea whether the fit would be good or not.

cyen• 16 years ago

What happened to wanting to work on a product you (can) love?

edanm• 16 years ago

This is especially true of YC companies, I suspect. I'm pretty sure all YC-funded startups have great working conditions, and most of them have pretty good ideas and a good chance of making it.

prog123hn• 16 years ago

Why do you see Glade advertise Glade PlugIns on prime time television? Because sometimes you turn on the television to watch True Blood and still decide to buy a Glade PlugIn.

This model helps centralize the process for the popular companies, and it gives the less popular ones access to quality candidates. Everyone has a hiring problem.

aaronblohowiak• 16 years ago

True blood is on hbo; no commecials

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

There are several reasons. For one, most of the best engineers and hackers have jobs already. Even if they're not super happy with their jobs, the prospect of seeking out better places to work, submitting lots of resumes and cover letters, etc, has a high activation energy. The YCommonApp is a convenient way for people to get introduced to a whole bunch of high-quality and exciting places to work in a short amount of time.

Also, since it's a custom application, anyone responding to it will have taken the time to fill it out specifically, which eliminates the standard resume-sprayers on craigslist, et al.

Tichy• 16 years ago

Why not?

euroclydon2• 16 years ago

Because it's P.R. for HiveHire. Why does P.G. use Posterous sometimes?

pg4• 16 years ago

Actually I didn't tell the 25 startups to use HireHive. The HireHive founders convinced them. It was easy because they're all desperate to hire.

And Posterous I use because I genuinely like it. Before Posterous we never blogged at all, because it seemed like too much trouble.

pg4• 16 years ago

Why would you turn away someone good because they'd applied to other companies?

dschobel2• 16 years ago

As an employer, wouldn't you demand someone be interested in the specific problems you're trying to solve though? Do kids who want to be part of $generic_sexy_yc_startup last long?

(that's a sincere, non-rhetorical question)

tlrobinson• 16 years ago

Perhaps you should be able to select only the companies you know you're interested in. Some people have specialties that would suit certain companies more than others.

michaelfairley• 16 years ago

Go to the company's website and apply manually? Or just shoot an email at jobs@company.com?

stevejobs• 16 years ago

Why would one apply to a YComb job when if one is skilled enough he can apply to YComb itself?

cschep• 16 years ago

If you've got the skills, but no experience with the start up scene, it would be a great time to hone your skills while learning about what it really takes to make a business work (from scratch) first hand. You would come out (more) ready to do it on your own idea on the other end.

But yeah if you've got an idea and the skills and the motivation required, by all means apply you YComb yourself.

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

Different people enjoy different things. For example, many hackers would prefer to work at a company where they could concentrate all their time on coding rather than start a startup themselves where they'd have to spend much of their time doing other tasks.

strlen• 16 years ago

Reality of start-ups: if you're a founder and spend all your time coding, you're going to fail. I love coding, so I'd have to have an extremely compelling vision were I to do anything else.

robryan• 16 years ago

If a company goes under the founder may have ended up living frugally as possible for a long period of time for no end reward. The employee has been there with them, faced the same challenging work but has had a comfortable wage the whole time and are just out of a job.

That being said may people would much prefer to take the risk as founder, there are plenty of other people out there though happy with the employee role at a startup for the time being or may have already tried the founder path.

akkartik• 16 years ago

Because you don't have a team put together?

pbiggar2• 16 years ago

Being an employee is significantly less risk and less stress than being a founder. Most of these companies have funding, traction, and a real product. It's different than being given $17K to make something of yourself, and presumably appeals to different people.

physcab• 16 years ago

Oh wow, this brings back memories of applying to all the UC schools.

tomh-• 16 years ago

As much as I love seeing other people on video, this method of applying for jobs is not for everyone. Somehow I feel really uncomfortable when there are cameras pointing at me.

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

There are two versions of the YCommonApp: one with video, and one without. You can apply using whichever you choose.

That said, we think the one with video is much more powerful. None of the YC companies are looking for slick presentations, just good hackers, so the videos should be pretty informal and conversational.

catch23• 16 years ago

Video is more powerful potentially, but it's also very hard to "edit". I remember applying to YC via a video app and I probably had to redo the video at least 10 times before I felt satisfied with it. It's easier to just edit text with a mouse cursor than it is to edit video. Speaking into a camera isn't very natural, so it's hard for me to create such a video in a single take, however this problem probably wouldn't occur if it was a talking head that I was speaking to.

dotBen• 16 years ago

Seems like lock in here, in that you can't take your video elsewhere or send it to non-YC companies.

If you've spent the time perfecting an intro video, why wouldn't you want to use that for other (non-YC) companies.

davidbalbert• 16 years ago

Just added Disqus and Opzi to the list.

BrandonM8• 16 years ago

I feel a bit frustrated with the startup application process. The (very common) question, "List any links that will let us know who you are. For example, projects you've worked on or links to your GitHub, StackOverflow, Twitter, blog, website, etc." always seems to hold a lot of weight while being tangent to the work I would expect to be doing. I don't have a GitHub, I'm not a StackOverflow member, I'm not on Twitter, I don't have a blog, and I haven't had a website since graduating with my CS degree. That does not mean that I am not talented, smart, or motivated.

In my case, I like to interact personally with friends as opposed to digitally. I like to work on personal projects to satisfy my curiosity without being worried about later publishing them. And I'm not interesting/vain enough to warrant a blog, website, or Twitter presence. I like to work hard, "learn" hard (I do enjoy Hacker News), and play hard, and keeping up on the latest shiny-new-technology-web-presence-clique seems tangential to that.

My goal is to work for a few years in an interesting software development position on a smart team, getting paid a fair wage while providing the company with equal value in return. In those years, I would expect to learn (and contribute!) a lot while also paying off my debts and helping out my parents. After that, I would reëvaluate my goals and my career.

What frustrates me is that I feel like I have to jump through hoops just to get into the mix. I feel like I won't even be seriously considered unless I develop a few simple web tools built on RoR, promote them on a DJango website with a blog, host the source to the whole thing on GitHub, jump into the Twitter craze, and try to make useful contributions to FOSS and StackOverflow communities that are already saturated with great solutions. That seems like a lot of unimportant crap when all I really want to do is good work. If it takes me an extra day to learn RoR because your company uses it, that seems very small in the entire scheme of things.

I understand that I don't have a web-visible track record to point you to. I'm quite willing to work at an under-market rate for a few months until I'm up to speed and it is determined that I am a good fit. Is there anywhere interesting to work that is looking to hire somebody like me?

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

Hey Brandon,

I hear what you're saying. Not having an impressive GitHub/StackOverflow/etc account in no way means you aren't an awesome developer.

You sound like a smart guy who knows what he's looking for. I'd suggest applying. I know none of the YC companies care about whether you have a certain number of followers on Twitter or GitHub. They want people who are smart and get stuff done.

BrandonM8• 16 years ago

Thanks. I'll consider submitting in spite of not having a good answer for that section.

Cabal• 16 years ago

Have you looked towards the East Coast in your searches at all? You sound like most of the engineers we hire.

BrandonM8• 16 years ago

I'd be happy to move almost anywhere (but especially coastal places because I love the ocean). In a way, that makes it almost harder to figure out where to begin the application process. Any pointers?

acgourley2• 16 years ago

I feel like younger start-ups in particular have the attitude: "If you don't have a trail of your own work, you're not extremely self directed, and we don't have the structure to manage you". And I think that's valid. If you still want to apply to these types of companies you should organize and show off the projects you've done on your own on a day to day basis.

That said, there are startups that have a more mature process. A necessary but insufficient condition is that they have hired a product manager or two. I know we'd get your application if you use this tool, but you should check out Loopt because it is a more mature startup. You can contact me directly if you have questions (check profile for contact).

http://about.loopt.com/jobs/

zaidf2• 16 years ago

You are mixing up too many things. You don't have to be a celeb on twitter/SO/GitHub to get into YC. In fact, I think majority of folks that get into YC aren't the most active or even active on those platforms you list. HN is full of YC founders who have very few posts. While some prominent HN members have gotten into YC, I think that is more of an exception than the rule.

That does not mean that I am not talented, smart, or motivated.

What do you suggest they do? There are thousands of people aching to get into these programs. Vast majority of them believe they are smart, talented and motivated. At the end of the day though there are only so many spots. So naturally, you need a filter of some kind--even if it is not perfect.

You know you are talented but I urge you to put yourself in the shoes of folks at the other end. How are they supposed to know you are talented, smart or motivated?

BrandonM8• 16 years ago

The point is not to get into YC, but to work for a YC-funded company, or more generally, in any exciting development environment. Being a good employee requires certain skills, skills which don't always heavily overlap with the skills required to be a founder. A founder has to have drive and vision, the ability to motivate others, and the wherewithal to see things through to completion, among other things. A good employee's main traits include working efficiently and communicating effectively (in my experience, in any job).

Some people are capable of producing great work when given a little direction and prodding. Those same people may iterate endlessly and have trouble finishing things when working independently. Thus, there is an entire class of good workers who will almost by definition not have the types of independent projects that many hiring startups are so keen to see.

qhoxie• 16 years ago

I think a lot of this comes down to the company's ability to vet a candidate. I find it fortunate that I can easily find and read code that someone I am interviewing actually wrote. In most cases you can also find when he/she wrote it and in what context. This is what I am looking for, and I don't need to get it from github or the like.

Job postings are more often than not (imo) poorly worded. The main idea is that you extract what they are actually looking for, which you can in most cases. If they ask for your github account and you do not have one - tell them you don't and send them some significant code samples. If they ask for a twitter/SO account and you don't have one - say you focus most of your commentary on HN and give them your username here. I don't know of any companies that will ignore/discount you if you provide them with the data they are seeking.

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

Sadly, there will almost always be hoops, and you will almost always have to jump through them.

I know this might seem too fatalistic of an outlook, but I personally find that it's mostly true, and accepting it allows you to better deal with hoops in their various shapes and sizes. You can break the mold every now and again, and avoid the hoops, but often it's more effective to just practice your hula (hoop)

coffeemug• 16 years ago

We're one of the companies that will hire people through the YCommonApp, and we don't care if you're on twitter, github, stackoverflow, have a blog or a website, and whether you've played with RoR, Django, Clojure, or some other flavor of the week technology. Being damn good at what you do is more than enough for us.

BrandonM8• 16 years ago

OK, thanks for the data point. Thanks in large part to the comments of you and others, I went ahead submitted my application. Unfortunately, the only way you could know that I'm damn good at whatever work I'm doing (whether that be serving, bartending, tutoring, valet parking, programming, or working in a steel mill) is to accept my word and give me some work to do. :)

alttab• 16 years ago

Companies that require those things do so because they aren't themselves able to spot talent.

Would you want to work for those people?

mike-cardwell• 16 years ago

What they're asking for is basically a portfolio. You don't need a portfolio to get a good job, but it helps. Perhaps you should spend some time putting one together.

mynameishere• 16 years ago

My goal is to work for a few years in an interesting software development position on a smart team, getting paid a fair wage while providing the company with equal value in return.

Yeah, that's not how it works, ever. If you copypasted this from under "Objective" in your resume, which is what it sounds like, you might want to remove the words "equal value".

BrandonM8• 16 years ago

Good point, but I didn't mean it quite that literally. I only meant that I don't expect to get paid without producing. Fortunately, that is not the "Objective" on my resume, but thanks anyways for the pointer.

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

I'm more of a hardware hacker myself, and many of the linked web pages tell little about the startups. Does YC fund many hardware based startups, or is it exclusively software?

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

The vast majority of YC companies are pure software companies, but there are a few that aren't. A couple of the companies on the YCommonApp are working on hardware, including Wattvision.

kwamenum862• 16 years ago

What ever happened to choosing a company that you think is a good fit? Product fit is part of the equation.

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

The YCommonApp is a first step, not the last. Anyone who applies will have plenty of opportunity to learn more about the companies' products, cultures, etc before deciding which companies they think are good fits.

kwamenum862• 16 years ago

It just feels like it could be a waste of time for all parties involved.

bosch• 16 years ago

So I'm just wondering if any of these companies hire foreigners?

Specifically Canadians. But if there could be some info up to let people know if they'll consider applications from outside the US that would be awesome so then some people don't waste time submitting a resume.

nicholasjbs8• 16 years ago

I'm not sure off-hand which ones are open to this, but my guess is for a good engineer plenty are (particularly the larger ones). We'll try to find out for you.

rahulvohra• 16 years ago

I think you should submit. For a great hire, a great start-up will pull out the stops and help you sort out an appropriate visa.

pbiggar2• 16 years ago

There are lots of YC companies who have hired foreigners, and have paid for the H1B, T1N, etc. (I'm basing this on the YC mailing list traffic). It seems to happen frequently.

YCommonApp: Apply to 25+ YC-funded startups in under 10 minutes

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