Tell HN: YC Summer 2009 application is due today.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=532508

by sarvesh • 17 years ago

35 67 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

The YC summer 2009 application is due today at 10pm PST. I am curious as to how many of you submitted, or will be submitting, the optional video of founders?

http://ycombinator.com/s2009.html

zaius• 17 years ago

We submitted on Monday with a simple photo booth video made in a cafe. It was just of us talking about the project and ourselves. Took us about 20 minutes from start to finish - may as well do it!

siong1987• 17 years ago

We did the same thing too. We use photo booth to make a real short video intros.

jlees• 17 years ago

Yup, Photo Booth is great. +1 to using it to make the YC app video. And +1 to adlibbing, as well. As an ex-improviser (think Whose Line?), scripts just seem wrong ;)

amichail• 17 years ago

I wonder if this video will be used to identify founders who would look good in a TV interview... and so enhance their chances of getting funding from VCs, especially early on.

cperciva• 17 years ago

No. PG has said what it will be used for, and judging TV interviewability is not part of it.

wwwjscom22• 17 years ago

You can give negative points? lol, I require that button ;)

PS. Good luck peoples

suhail• 17 years ago

Yes, you need 100+ karma I believe before you can.

nanexcool2• 17 years ago

We'll be submiting the video. You can say so much (or so little) in one minute though that we're still figuring out if we want to just ad-lib or have like a mini-script to read.

kkocis• 17 years ago

We mini scripted - did the intro of the founders, then did a scenario and explained how our idea would address the issue.

pg10• 17 years ago

From the videos I've seen so far, I'd recommend ad-libbing. The point of the video is to see what you're like, and most people don't seem particularly bright when delivering (or worse still, reading) a prepared speech.

Since this was the first time we'd tried videos we didn't realize this would be a problem. Next year we'll advise everyone to ad-lib.

tokenadult• 17 years ago

most people don't seem particularly bright when delivering (or worse still, reading) a prepared speech

Hear. Hear. Delivering a scripted speech well is HARD, and the people who are famous for doing that well practice a lot. Most members of the hacker community are much more practiced in engaging in conversation about the passion for technology, and thus make themselves look better in speech and in print by treating each communication opportunity as a conversation with an unseen interlocutor.

ealar• 17 years ago

Ours was prepared, and admittedly it looked terrible. I would second adding this to the recommendations.

nanexcool2• 17 years ago

Sending the email to Posterous now. My upload is less than 1 Mbps so I'm freaking out.

I had a video where I was alone talking, but my brother (co-founder) arrived at the last second and we recorded a new one. These last minute updates make it all worth while :D

YuriNiyazov2• 17 years ago

Submitted on saturday, with a video of me in my living room, unshaven and underslept. No expectations :)

pg10• 17 years ago

Chances are it will be watched in a living room by someone who's unshaven and underslept, so don't worry about it.

kanny96• 17 years ago

Oops, the slot for unshaven and underslept is taken! Gotta shave.

It was a good exercise and now I appreciate much better why Cali Lewis, Amber Mac and Natalie Del Conte - show off their fumbling at the end.

It was done with both hands on the cam. The cam's auto-focus had problem adjusting to the tube light in the basement and created a few blurs.

It wasn't scripted, but i practiced it 4-5 times, everytime missing some links or forgetting a key word!

unalone9• 17 years ago

After shooting ours and giving it a second look, I was filled with a newfound awe for Ze Frank, who makes speaking really fast both interesting and hilarious. I never realized just how hard it is to say stuff quickly and not be a complete weirdo.

pg10• 17 years ago

We just passed the number of applications from last cycle, so it looks like this will be another record, considering we usually get around a third of the applications on the last day.

sarvesh• 17 years ago

Given that picking the right startups is hard how will this increase in applications be handled over time? Increasing the reviewers will not necessarily mean that the quality is still the same. Will the number of days for review be increased in future?

jwilliams• 17 years ago

Well they are planning on interviewing and accepting more... So that might help a little.

Paul also mused about getting the YC alumni more involved --but I read this in execution rather than selection (not that there was any indication either way).

pg10• 17 years ago

It's always been just the 4 partners reviewing the applications. We've added a few improvements in the software that manages the process, but mostly it just takes us longer. We are probably getting a little faster with experience, though.

unalone9• 17 years ago

Now that it's closed - what was the final count?

pg10• 17 years ago

Unless my clock is wrong there's still half an hour left. But we never quote the number anymore anyway, because now that we have competitors we don't want to tempt them to get into a number war.

timtrueman2• 17 years ago

[I was going to say it's not closed but it says PST not PDT, so nevermind--but that's why this comment is attached here in case you're confused]

PG - it would really rock if they were confirmation emails. The button to submit being gone and replaced with tiny text doesn't inspire enough confidence in me that it worked.

netsp2• 17 years ago

At this point, does more applicants mean better participants?

pg10• 17 years ago

Hard to say. The quality of the top group of applicants (say, the ones we invite to interviews) has definitely gone up, but it's hard to say whether it's because the total pool is larger, or because more smart people want to start startups, or because as YC seems more legit, better founders apply.

grinich2• 17 years ago

I wonder how the rate of submission grows up until the deadline.

pclark3• 17 years ago

we're literally deploying our demo now, and then submitting.

pclark3• 17 years ago

except github is down and we have various gems we need to deploy. Gonna be a late one, first [many] of many we hope ..

pclark3• 17 years ago

done.

andrewljohnson• 17 years ago

We submitted a video for www.trailbehind.com.

I have a Macbook, and it was really quick to make the video. MacBooks come standard with camera, recording, and editing software.

khangtoh• 17 years ago

Paul: Did you guys reviewed early submissions this time round? We submitted our application when it was only half done 2 weeks ago but have been editing and resubmitting for the past 2 weeks and there was quite a bit of change from our very first submission.

We sort of figured out that our application hasn't been reviewed since our demo url did not register any visitors yet on google analytics.

idm• 17 years ago

What about percentages? Frequencies are nice, but I wonder what percentage of applications include the optional video.

Eliezer2• 17 years ago

Remember, everyone, there's no point in sending in more than one copy of your application!

Applying to Y Combinator twice has the same effect as applying once.

iamwil• 17 years ago

As an aside, I took a look at your submissions, and it's paltry, meaning that you got most of your 1400 points from commenting. Good comments.

Eliezer2• 17 years ago

Thanks.

Either the people here don't get math jokes, or I commented too late to catch most readers. I'll try reposting on some more appropriate thread later...

...since if any joke can be repeated more than once, it's that one, right? Maybe everyone's just heard it a thousand times.

dustineichler• 17 years ago

Solo founders? Anyone besides me.

unalone9• 17 years ago

I've talked to a few solo founders, so they're definitely there! Good luck to you all.

maxwell• 17 years ago

Me.

YuriNiyazov2• 17 years ago

Goin' solo

jdileo2• 17 years ago

Me 2

sarafsaurabh• 17 years ago

count me in too.. probably we can make a team of 5 :-)

grinich2• 17 years ago

I'm just now clearing my room of coffee mugs, pizza boxes, and bowls of soggy cereal. I'm unshaved, and have hardly stepped outside my dorm room for the past 48 hours. There's a celebratory beer in the fridge, and then I'll probably sleep for an entire day.

We've started building something really awesome, and although I'm sleep-deprived and red-eyed, I'm incredibly excited. I can't wait until the summer when I can go full time on this project. YC or no YC, it's going to be a wild ride.

jdileo2• 17 years ago

your post is an inspiration.....what it's all about! Best of luck w/ your startup.

flooha• 17 years ago

Props to the YC crew for giving all of us this opportunity and hacking (machete, not keyboard) their way through the applications.

I hope our video isn't too boring. We tried to keep it light, but we had to script it to say everything we wanted to say in <= 1 minute. I would have much rather submitted the outtakes, but we aren't getting graded on hilarity. :)

Good luck to all!

ohkanon• 17 years ago

What if we never got a rejection letter, BUT We also never got contacted for a confirmation. Does that mean they are still going through them?

Tell HN: YC Summer 2009 application is due today.

Related Stories