katm

This is great - thank you.

Hi HN -- Kat here. Catheryn Li and I worked on launching this version of the library. This is Phase 1 -- we'll be adding more content from YC's archives, and new content as more is made. Seeing this thread and what you're searching for will give us a better sense of what we're missing. If you have feedback or ideas - let us know: catheryn@ycombinator.com and kat@ycombinator.com.

https://www.startupschool.org/library

Those all sound like reasons to apply to YC. :) We've funded a good number of companies at this point that were farther along when they applied and had millions in revenue (MessageBird, for example, who was just on HN a couple days ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23624854). I recommend reaching out to some of those alum and talking to them about their experience.

thanks for catching

While it's true that we have some companies in the batch that are well past launch, in S18 only 44% of the companies we funded had revenue and roughly 40% were not launched prior to YC.

Thanks for catching! Fixing now. Here's the real link: https://blog.ycombinator.com/category/top-companies-2018/.

Yes - by valuation.

The average for the last batch was 2 founders.

If you're working on a water startup, and you'd like to apply to YC, you should still do it. You can apply to YC with any type of company -- it doesn't have to line up with an RFS. Our blog post for water startups is still out there -- it's just not a current RFS. As I mentioned in a comment above, this isn't an exhaustive list of the ideas we'd like to fund.

The RFS isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of the ideas we're interested in funding. It's a list of ideas we'd like even more founders to apply with. We get a lot of blockchain and crypto applications -- and if that's what you're working on, I recommend you apply with it.

Interviews are in late April. We'll update!

If we're not coming to your city/school this fall and you'd like us to visit next year, you can tell us here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf87KZD8Ugj2Iy-ewFh....

There are 18 companies with a solo founder in this batch.

The Brazilian company is bxblue. https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/18/bxblue/

* We ask for gender on our applications, but we haven't asked for race/ethnicity, which is why we don't have the answer to your first question.

* We see that it does for female founders.

* Total number of submissions

* Gender is reported in the applications. We asked founders in the batch to self-report for race/ethnicity.

Another thing I've been curious about is how many of the founders had student loans when they started the company. I'd bet that student loans hold a lot of people back. I just paid mine off last year.

Well said.

We donated money, are advising on technical projects and are connecting with them technical volunteers on a number of projects they're working on. When we announced we were working with the ACLU, over 1,500 people in our community volunteered to help. We sent one of our software engineers, Cadran Cowansage, to work with them full time this batch. She has been plugging in volunteers as needed. Anthony Romero, the Executive Director of the ACLU, presented at Demo Day. You can read a bit more about it here: https://www.axios.com/how-yc-is-helping-the-aclu-get-more-te...

And we don't have an arrangement with companies we fund. Founders decide if they want to put our logo on their site.

I recently tallied up the schools that founders from our Summer 2016 batch went to, and they attended over 180. There are many schools on that list that most people haven't heard of.

Hah, thanks for catching. Fixed.

Not in the next month. But that doesn't mean we won't try to make it out sometime this year.

No requirement. But why not try something different if the first version doesn't work well?

I'm calling out the schools this time because when I submitted a post titled "YC Winter Tour 2016" last year, this is how it performed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881402.

We do office hours in cities that anyone is welcome to sign up for. We're also going to be opening up signups for the MOOC shortly that anyone anywhere is welcome to participate in.

We try to mix it up. Here's where we went last winter: https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/. And last fall: https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-office-hours-in-11-countries...

We announced the visit to NC State last year: https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/

I talk to a lot of international founders and one of the biggest obstacles they face is fundraising. In some places, it's easy to raise seed, but hard once you hit Series A territory. In other places, it's even hard raising seed. The Bay Area has a huge population of angels. In the Bay Area, you're also surrounded by a large population of startup founders who can help you. If you're building a startup community internationally, you'd have to build both a community of angels and a community of experienced founders. It's a sacrifice for many founders to come to Silicon Valley for three months, but at this point in history, I believe it still helps most companies immensely.

You can be cynical about us bringing in the ACLU, but in the words of Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

It's on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ycombinator/how-to-build-the-future-m...