The YC Rejection thread

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=550160

by nanexcool • 17 years ago

61 137 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Just got an email informing me of my rejection to YC this summer. Bummer.

I'm still going to go on and develop my idea. It's just going to take a little longer than I expected without the money.

mynameishere2• 17 years ago

Whatever happened to that guy who got rejected over and over and over but never changed anything about his website?

themic864• 17 years ago

http://Google.com

mynameishere2• 17 years ago

Huh?

dkasper• 17 years ago

Woohoo, rejected for the first time, and probably not the last! Cheers to everyone who actually sent in an application!

vaksel2• 17 years ago

I wouldn't worry that much about the money, its not what YC is about. I'd worry more about not getting access to all those YC connections.

nanexcool4• 17 years ago

Of course the YC connections were the first things on my mind. I don't think you can equate them to hard cash. It's just that the cash would have given me the chance to quit consulting and go 100% on my idea. But it's not the end of the world.

goodkarma3• 17 years ago

So you're letting $10,000 hold you back from your dream? For real?

dotmatrix5• 17 years ago

im looking for a technical co-founder,. i think i have the funding bit figured out if i found a technical co founder. at least i know a bit of people wit moola

vaksel2• 17 years ago

if $$$ is a problem, can either bum around relatives and see if you can convince them to give you the loan or get one of those 10-30K @ 0% APR for 9 months credit card offers.

That way you'll be able to do your thing

dbul4• 17 years ago

If you are smart, you will be able to succeed anyway. Somehow it escapes us that companies can be built without being in SV and knowing everyone there. Sure, it would be a heck of a lot easier if we were there and did make connections.

I'm not sure what exactly lead up to this scenario, how MS was able to talk with IBM execs, but you have to give MS credit for securing this business deal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWjOodAtoE

I hope that some of those who weren't accepted will figure out a way to have a ragingly successful business. It would make for a great story.

dbul4• 17 years ago

As far as we're concerned, they've failed an IQ test. ;)

jacquesm4• 17 years ago

To all you guys & girls that got 'rejected', don't be down, be UP. This is your chance to prove the spotters at YC wrong. Do it anyway, by any means that you can think of and make them regret not selecting you.

Even if only stellar ideas were presented with great teams behind them then YC would still be able to select only a limited amount of those. Chances are that you'll make it and those chances are not that much different from the projects that did get selected.

And you have at least one extra motivation, to make whoever made that selection at YC think, oops... we should have picked that one.

Being selected by YC is not a guarantee of success and not being selected by YC is not a guarantee of failure!

Best of luck to all of you, both those selected and those not selected.

froo4• 17 years ago

I understand that you're probably angry, perhaps a little confused too - but insulting the intelligence of people who have in the past proven that they are anything but stupid, isn't going to earn you any brownie points.

I see YC as a tool to be used in helping your startup achieve it's goals, there are many others out there of varying qualities - you shouldn't see it as the destination of it.

Personally, I'd love to hear about your startup in 6-12 months time (if you've continued with it) and how well you're doing, so if you do continue with your idea and you're a squijillionaire by that time, drop me a line. My email is in my profile. Feel free to call me all sorts of four letter words and tell me I was wrong :)

dbul4• 17 years ago

It was rather tongue-in-cheek:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=As+far+as+we're+concerned%2...

And I will report back about my startup on demo day in August -- I'd rather it be a "you can succeed if you weren't accepted" story rather than a "told you so" one, because frankly I think pg et al. are perfectly confident with the startups they have chosen. Unfortunately I have two very challenging startups at the same time, but fortunately both are well under way!

Edit: None of the websites in my profile are my startup unless it explicitly is prefaced with startup:.

redleader3• 17 years ago

Can we email them for some kind of feedback about the application?

noaharc• 17 years ago

Of course you can give it a shot. I bet they will be pretty busy, and won't be able to give you a very substantial answer, though.

tokenadult• 17 years ago

As posted above:

http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html

Condolences to all who have to start the start-up without YC help. It can be done; best wishes.

silencio8• 17 years ago

http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html

Maybe worth a shot regardless, but from talking to other people I know applied and also rejected in the past few minutes (including myself), we seem to pretty much all fall under that "good but pushed out by the best" category.

redleader3• 17 years ago

I would like to know the weakest part of our application. So if it's the founders' experience we can work to improve upon that.

jimwalker• 17 years ago

Rejected as well. No biggie.

khangtoh3• 17 years ago

We're officially on this list but will move to SF regardless!

PG: can we _still_hang_out_ with you guys on meetup nights. I'm serious.

iamelgringo2• 17 years ago

I hope you enjoy your move to the Bay area. It's delightful.

And, if you want to get to know some people in the Hacker community, http://HackersandFounders.com gets together every couple of weeks. Let me know you're coming, and I'll buy you a beer. :)

khangtoh3• 17 years ago

cool.. I'll definitely attend HackersandFounders meetup when I get there!

dwillett2• 17 years ago

I'll be moving to the bay area as well, wish I could have been getting the experience of the YC sessions, but this sounds great

nostrademons2• 17 years ago

Cool, just joined. :-) I've been looking for groups like this...just moved out to the Bay Area about 3 months ago.

davidw3• 17 years ago

> PG: can we _still_hang_out_ with you guys on meetup nights. I'm serious.

If they let anyone who wanted come, then it wouldn't be so exclusive and it would lose some of its value. I know I'd love to go to those meetups if I were in the area, and so would 423442342 other people.

sam_in_nyc11• 17 years ago

I didn't want to post here, but alas, I am.

I wish they would have included some feedback.

mrtron3• 17 years ago

Would the feedback really matter much?

What really matters is your determination and team. A few hundred words hardly puts them in a position to provide you valuable feedback on those factors.

sam_in_nyc11• 17 years ago

Sure, other things matter more, but getting feedback certainly wouldn't hurt. Especially feedback coming from YC, because I respect their opinion and tend to think they know what they are talking about.

And, obviously, if I got feedback, I could always ignore it and be in the same position as I am now. I'd rather have more information than less.

jskopek• 17 years ago

Post your submission on HN. We'd love to tear it apart :)

ktharavaad2• 17 years ago

Really sux to be rejected. But now I'm more motivated than ever to work on my produt to prove that they made a mistake.

smidwap6• 17 years ago

I feel as if rejection here shouldn't really be a motivating factor! There should be so many reasons above proving YC wrong to be a motivated entrepreneur. But whatever gets you going I guess...

ktharavaad2• 17 years ago

Well, I don't care whether its a motivating factor or not. I'm simply not letting it act as a demotivating factor.

Looking forward to all the "YC reject: launching xxxx " threads in the coming months!!

IMorgothI124• 17 years ago

Don't sweat the rejection. It's probably very difficult to get accepted to ycombinator. The odds are probably better winning a royal flush or x... than getting accepted to ycombinator. Cudos for the three strikes law....

dustineichler2• 17 years ago

while i say this is the last time, i'll apply again and make a much more serious effort. when's the next cycle, winter? i'll be ready.

avk• 17 years ago

Don't despair if Y Combinator said no. Rejection reveals your true motivation. The key? Wanting to go on.

johnmcgarvey2• 17 years ago

Well said.

unalone4• 17 years ago

Yep! Rejected!

We got our beta up and running this weekend, and we're fixing up bugs so we can expand and planning our commercial launch, so it's not the worst thing in the world. Better to get rejected at 18 when you've never done anything web-related before than to get rejected for the same circumstances at an older age.

Hopefully I'll see all of you posting about your launches on HN! I'm certain I'll be posting in a month or so and I'd love to see everybody do the same.

silencio8• 17 years ago

Why is age such a bad thing :) I'm 20 and we also got rejected, but one of us happens to be in her 50s and doesn't consider this the worst thing in the world (or even, the worst thing to happen to our startup).

unalone4• 17 years ago

Excuse me, I'm still young and arrogant and want to be rich and famous before I'm 25. Perhaps that's not the best mindset to approach this from.

smidwap6• 17 years ago

Same here. We have a team of 20-year olds an one 52 year-old. The grandpa of us bunch didn't see the same excitement in this opportunity as the young'uns did. Rejection here as well...would have been a heck of a summer in San Francisco, instead it will have to be an awesome 4 months in Bloomington, IN, home of Indiana University!

sam_in_nyc11• 17 years ago

I wonder if all the rejection e-mails had the same text.

Mine started with "We're sorry" and ended with "Y Combinator Staff" and has the following MD5: f459a7d636ac85cdcd680b135bcfc521

Edit: easy multi-line md5 here: http://www.webhost.org/widgets/md5encrypter

nanexcool4• 17 years ago

Yep, same MD5 here.

dwillett2• 17 years ago

f459a7d636ac85cdcd680b135bcfc521++

veemjeem• 17 years ago

I think the acceptance MD5 is 88c23f22dc832d010564b4bcc3e2271c

Zev• 17 years ago

Thats the MD5 we got as well with the website. Oddly, when I did `echo "We're sorry … Y Combinator Staff" | md5`, I got a different sum (f807496243cc18b53929b313c410f64a).

//edit: The website seems to strip out blank lines, while echoing it doesn't. Solves that (trivially minor) issue I suppose.

kevinherron• 17 years ago

Try `echo -n ...`

cperciva• 17 years ago

I'd be shocked if the emails weren't all identical -- even if it only took five minutes to compose each email, that would be a week of work.

And after all, for 99% of applications there's really no need to say anything different. For the 1% where some extra explanation is useful, they can send separate emails later.

sam_in_nyc11• 17 years ago

I was thinking there might be a few strata of e-mails... like "sorry" then "sooo close" then maybe a "waitlist" e-mail if some other group drops out.

dthakur• 17 years ago

OT: Did it bother anyone else that the site calling it an "MD5 Encrypter" with the "Encrypt Data" button and all. Where is the decrypter?

jacquesm4• 17 years ago

trapdoor functions anyone ?

catch23• 17 years ago

Some poor soul probably "encrypted" all his important documents into tiny little md5 strings that he now stores in his wallet.

Steve0• 17 years ago

http://www.freerainbowtables.com/ Your mileage may vary.

krisneuharth• 17 years ago

Rejected for the first time here but already looking forward to next Winter for another opportunity.

bluefish• 17 years ago

I didn't apply, but I'd love to hear about the ideas behind your projects that got rejected.

IMorgothI124• 17 years ago

There's probably too many rejections to give any feedback. I mean if there were 10,000 to 20,000 groups that applied it would be impossible to send a reason in the email to each group. Besides it all comes down to a numerical rating (sauce for the goose). Kudos to the bird with a golden egg.

sam_in_nyc11• 17 years ago

I think two years ago, the last they posted their numbers, there were 421 applications. This year, I'm just guessing, but likely somewhere between 2 to 4 times that.

They are no longer posting their numbers, so don't ask.

Source: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9066

mtpark• 17 years ago

Wish we had launched our beta BEFORE the application.

Good luck to all of you. I think they mean well when they say they make lots of mistakes.

gscott• 17 years ago

I have seen from others that kept watch to see if their beta was visited and they were not. I don't believe they test out most of the web applications that get submitted. So not having one didn't hurt you at all. They say it is good to have a beta, but I don't really believe it. Even in the interviews it is said they spend less then a minute checking out any beta. It is apparently just not really important.

IMorgothI124• 17 years ago

Ycombinator has been known to make mistakes from time to time. Especially youos.

dotmatrix5• 17 years ago

i got rejected too :)

If someone wants to be a technical partner with me just email me digizal08@gmail.com its a e-commerce company that will make money off the bat.

Plus I at least know a few VCs if I were really serious about funding, I just need a technical co-founder which is why im guessing I got a flat out rejection.

rms3• 17 years ago

Hey, sixth time is the charm, right?

tptacek• 17 years ago

Really? Five times?

rms3• 17 years ago

Maybe it was four.

varun• 17 years ago

I loved the YC process. They asked the right questions on their application form - which helped us a lot in getting a clearer idea of the venture. The prospect of an interview also pushed us to develop a demo quicker than we would have (which we just finished - didn't submit before the deadline).

So thanks to the YC process itself, we NOW have a presentation deck ready and a demo and can charge full steam ahead regardless. YC for us would have been a nice-to-have, not essential. We have a fairly interesting idea and a background which included two of us having founded startups in the recent past (one of them being www.alertle.com - check it out for UI design), being speakers of Ruby on Rails and AJAX at conferences, and work experience at other startups and places like Merrill Lynch. And of course, a CS background. We didn't even get an interview.

I'm assuming the calibre of teams accepted would have been pretty extraordinary this year. Good luck to all! :)

fnazeeri• 17 years ago

How cool is it that acceptances and rejections are discussed publicly?!? Bravo!

nolanbrown23• 17 years ago

What would be interesting to know is the comparison of rejection/interview/acceptance across the various programs.

ivyirwin• 17 years ago

Rejected (again).

But the frustrating part is feeling like my application wasn't read. I mean they didn't even check out my website?

sam_in_nyc11• 17 years ago

That's actually quite shitty.

dave_au• 17 years ago

Maybe next time you could give them a [yourwebsite]/yc URL so you can check the server logs and be sure one way or the other.

resdirector2• 17 years ago

Even the best application will max out at [choose-your-pessimism]% chance of success. Apply elsewhere and often. And apply for YC again next time. Max out quality and quantity of applications for funding. If it's a good idea, you'll get your money/support you need.

sarafsaurabh3• 17 years ago

Do you know of any investors similar to YC?

resdirector2• 17 years ago

These are programs similar to YC that we considered applying for: TechStars, Shotput Ventures, DreamIt, LaunchBox Digital.

metalacorn• 17 years ago

first time applying and first rejection. i am a little disappointed, i feel very passionately about my idea and was hoping pg+co would be too - but ah well, it's going to happen anyway to happen regardless. best of luck to all and hope that everyone moves forward with their ideas as well.

mkramlich• 17 years ago

Just keep in mind all the now-famous-and-fabulously-successfully people who faced rejection -- often repeated -- earlier in their career.

smidwap6• 17 years ago

Imagine the possibilities if we gathered all the troops (rejected troops that is) and brainstormed one sweet startup. Not realistic but how cool would that be?

themic864• 17 years ago

judging by the amount of rejectsion - we'd have t make some SERIOUS bank in order to quit our day jobs.

hwijaya• 17 years ago

Rejected too here. =) But, the disappointment feeling is not as huge as i thought it would be.

Maybe the YC process itself has been beneficial in terms of helping us refining the idea, and also maybe because we have agreed to give our best shot on it, and whatever happen, we'll keep charging ahead. After all, Colonel Sanders got 1009 rejections and still came up as successful entrepreneur.

So, please wait for our launch announcement on HN sometime in short future! Good luck all!

themic864• 17 years ago

Does anyone else feel as if the rejection letter did nothing but fuel the fire to get moving on their Idea? This might very well be a good thing.

smidwap6• 17 years ago

Hard to see how it could be a good thing. The added desire te succeed, if any, will likely be short term.

themic864• 17 years ago

The fact that it might be a good thing is personal (aside from the added desire, which could very well be the final straw to motivate whomever to do whatever). I was a bit nervous about quitting my job - that decision has been made for me.

johnmcgarvey2• 17 years ago

Absolutely fueled the fire. Don't consider it rejection as much as "non-selection" as someone else said. It doesn't mean you have a bad idea or aren't good at what you do. There are just so many spots. If you believe in what you have, you find a way to make it work.

trotzke• 17 years ago

It's not rejection guys. It's non-selection. Oh... wait... no here it is pretty much just rejection.

auston• 17 years ago

Sproutbox is in the house? http://sproutbox.com/

derwiki• 17 years ago

So... Rejected from YC happy hour in Palo Alto? Sounds like a good way to cuss and discuss!

froo4• 17 years ago

Well I'm going to throw a different idea out there. I applied to YC with a friend last year, we were rejected.

It was a very difficult idea to pitch.

We thought our idea was the best thing since sliced bread and all of our friends told us so (this should have been a warning sign... false positives)

We went on to building it anyway.

We got a version built, up and running in a couple months after initially dragging our feet. It basically worked, but poorly - we never took into account that battery life would be an issue on the phone app.

We got a little disheartened, started bickering and eventually the thing failed - before we even launched.

Somehow we had gotten the idea in our head that we needed YC to be successful. No, we needed a good idea and our idea was, at the time, not so good.

Not being accepted isn't the worst thing in the world. Everyone thinks their idea is the best idea EVER... We sure did.

The partnership broke down as a result of us forging ahead anyway without really looking at our product and only talking to people who only gave us positive answers.

Anyway, moral of the story for us? Being rejected was the best thing that could have happened for us.

I learned a lot about the other person during this process and also a lot about myself. I'm not bulletproof.

On reflection, I also learned that being unwilling to discuss my idea openly with others for fear of it being stolen was stupid. We would have discovered flaws early on and saved us a lot of trouble.

I openly discuss my new idea with others now.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=502164

Some people tell me it's stupid, I ask them why and we discuss it. Some others tell me it's interesting, and we discuss it. Some tell me it's great and we discuss it.

I refuse to accept simple answers now and discuss as many different aspects as I can think up. I also appreciate other's perspectives on it.

This has also helped cement the idea in my head and I can pitch it relatively easily now. I've come up with a solution to a problem, rather than having a solution and looking for a problem.

Will I apply to YC again? Probably, I'm not sure. I've got a clearer head now - not so caught up in the hype.

To reiterate, getting rejected is not the worst thing in the world. It's just one avenue in the startup process. you should think of YC as a tool to help you get where you want to be, rather than the destination.

flooha• 17 years ago

I sure hope they didn't base any decisions off of the quality of the video. Posterous hacked it up like a baby bunny through a wood chipper.

Condolences to all who got rejected. Take it in stride.

sarafsaurabh3• 17 years ago

I got rejected too. Was applying alone. Does it make hell lot of difference? Somewhere I read they do accept solo applications

dschobel2• 17 years ago

A friend of mine got rejected two (maybe three?) years ago from YC applying solo and his rejection explicitly said they were looking for teams for the program and not individuals.

Again, this was at least two years ago so things may well have changed.

dustineichler2• 17 years ago

I was a solo founder too. I don't think it makes much of a difference and will apply for Winter too. Don't let that deter you.

mauricio• 17 years ago

I wonder if we can set up a private forum for all of us this summer that develop our idea anyway. Maybe we can share ideas/thoughts and beta test each other's stuff.

At the end of the summer, if we get a lot of us, we could create a a big page for all of to show off our stuff.

What do you guys think?

dschobel2• 17 years ago

I'm always reminded of the words Steve Yegge once posted on his blog regarding getting rejected from a Google interview:

You should feel bad, but not meta-bad

ohkanon• 17 years ago

What does it mean when you didn't receive a rejection email. BUT You also didn't get anything saying you got it. Was there a point that they just stopped reading the applications?

The YC Rejection thread

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