Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7596563

by derwiki • 12 years ago

24 22 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

This isn't meant to be an angry discussion; simply state your idea, and wait for helpful feedback from your HN peers.

derwiki3• 12 years ago

I didn't apply, but because I thought my business wasn't mature enough for YCombinator. BUT last time I started this thread, I was criticized for not being as forthright. So! my bootstrapped startup:

www.CameraLends.com, P2P camera rental. We've reached 500 users and nearly 100 transactions to date (and growing and accelerating week-over-week). We did not apply to YC because all YC alums who gave me advice said that YC is looking for "10% week-over-week growth" and our numbers are low enough to not be able to show that consistently.

ecolner3• 12 years ago

Nice. I like the design and good product photos. Not sure of the market size. That would be a good part to focus on if you apply in the future imo.

derwiki3• 12 years ago

Thanks for the kind words! Re: market size, BorrowLenses was acquired by Shutterfly for ~$14m in equity (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/10/25/shutterfly-a...). The market for pure consumer cameras is shrinking based on industry reports (~$100m/year and decreasing) but professional cameras aren't bleeding as bad. And Calumet (a HUGE national rental shop) closed it's doors recently, leaving a lot of photographers not knowing where to rent from.

creativeone• 12 years ago

Have you thought about letting photographers advertise their services? If some of your customers are amateur, or just need nice cameras for a party, they might be willing to pay for the services of a photographer.

jmaha• 12 years ago

Photojojo released this today as well. http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/16/photojojo-gets-into-camera-...

s3f03• 12 years ago

Hi guys we have built a search engine for local apps, 98% of the apps in the stores has less than 50.000 downloads, that is not a healthy ecosystem. For us each application has a place and each location is a store. Is no the first time we got rejected ;) Apple did not allow to publish our search engine back in July and later on they publish "Popular" Near me. We will keep fightint for a fair store and organic positioning for every indie dev. Hope you like what we are trying to do. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.mapplas.co... www.mapplas.com

Lionga• 12 years ago

I just want to warn you, google will also remove your app once they notice it. Apple & Google do not want anyone competing with their stores.

s3f03• 12 years ago

thanks mate, hope for the best prepare for the worst.

jamesfranco• 12 years ago

What are you talking about? Quixey.com is an app that let users discover apps and hasn't been removed from the android app store. Plus it has raised millions from Eric Schmidt's fund, Innovation Endeavors.

vgrichina• 12 years ago

My startup is visual programming system ala Spreadsheets + Zapier, here is my YC application – http://spreadsheets-on-steroids.tumblr.com/post/82903500034/...

Would like some feedback on my application.

samelawrence2• 12 years ago

We had ambitious, though perhaps misguided plans to revolutionize recipe publishing across the web (and also didn't have the idea for long before applying). Since applying, and talking a few other folks, we've realized that what we really want to do is pick up the torch of the early work on RecipeML and make an open format for the web to encode recipe data in. Ideally, we'd like to see companies like Epicurious and Allrecipes.com use this format and compete on features rather than data. We believe all recipes should be open and public to the web, allowing anyone to cook anything, anywhere.

So, we're still on the task, but maybe this is about creating a consortium to manage an open format / standard, rather than a company... though I certainly think profitable companies could come from this.

You can view our submission here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n99prz9wkxjb223/s2014form.htm

Just open in a browser (or text editor, if you really feel like it).

juu4• 12 years ago

What's in it for Epicurious and Allrecipes, considering they currently own the data and competing just on features probably means they lose market power?

samelawrence2• 12 years ago

Well, one of them would have to race to have market dominance, but imagine being the publisher / host for every recipe on the web. You could really only achieve that by opening in your platform / format to 3rd party devs and other services, to allow other tie-ins.

So... Instagram didn't invent JPEG... they just made it really simple and easy for everyone to share images, and the 3rd party services that have sprung up around it have strengthened their ecosystem. That's a bad example... but... you get what I'm saying I hope.

m0dE• 12 years ago

http://www.innGrid.net 4 months old. 100 sign-ups. 10 paying customers.

dgarrett• 12 years ago

Fyi, the smooth scrolling JS you use on your homepage is very awkward with a Macbook trackpad (in Chrome). It kind of accelerates erratically.

wmaiouiru• 12 years ago

Applied, but didn't get invited for an interview.

We are creating a door to door travel itinerary search engine. (www.travelmacho.com) Currently, most of the travel website only provides you with one leg of the travel such as flights, but there is still the problem of figuring out how to get to the airport. So what the users typically do is open up multiple windows to plan their travels.

We would like to create a platform that aggregates all modes of transportation (bus, train, flight, airport shuttle, taxi etc) into one search engine. The users will be able to find the best way to travel in one website.

Let us know what you think! http://www.travelmacho.com

omnisci• 12 years ago

Hi all, 4th attempt w/ recommendations from YC founders and no interview this time. I think I know why (single founder, little traction).

My company, Stirplate.io, is an app for scientists to store, share and analyze their data in the cloud.

Science needs help managing it's data, so my company helps with that process. We also automate data analysis for scientists, making hours of excel work take about 15seconds.

Ask HN: Rejected from YC? What's your startup?

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