Ask HN: Got a YC S14 batch interview?
It seems the results of S14 interviews are out. Probably some of you are already in the bar celebrating, and some are gathering together encouraging each other cofounders being rejected will only make you more determined to make your startup a success. I wonder if anyone applied to YC S14, whether you got an interview or not, can share us the story of you and your startup during the application month/months (and probably some background on what your startup does). Any comment will really be appreciated, and I think will benefit a lot of readers on HN no matter whether they want to apply for YC or not.
9 comments
wallenje here(wallenje.com). We are making a mobile wallet app. We applied with a prototype but we are launching on 1st of May. When we applied we got to focus on who we are. I can say the YC application was the turning point for us. We built out our vision, I created a website in 10minutes for a landing page and have 2000 members in the waiting list two weeks after that, got some merchants interested in our concept, this was really awesome. We also recruited our first employee. We are on beta, but the fact that we may get our product-which is an MVP out earlier than Clinkle(clinkle.com 30m funding) without funding has put us on a buzz that YC rejection can hardly put a damper on. Our first rejection was KIMA, so we are getting quite used. We have been brainstormin and have got awesome ideas after every reponse but especially the rejections.
I Remember when we started we thought due to Regulations on financial products we would need more that a million dollars. Its shocking to realise that with the right approach we can avoid most regulation, get partners and get our product out there. Nearly 70 merchants have rejected us but we are still making it with 25 merchants signed up! 1 has paid for product despite existence of a trial period, just for training their staff, and an incentive to release the product fast.
EDITED-got rid of some typos and improved comment clarity
> braunstormed
Wait, is that a word or a typo? I hope it's a typo...
Wait, is that a word or a typo? I hope it's a typo...
Applied with http://astute.io and http://regular.io, got help from YC alums in our application and it was pretty solid, weakest parts of the application were we hadn't launched yet and didn't have a demo, users, or traction. We've quit our jobs and finish up soon to go all out on http://astute.io regardless. Fun times ahead, so excited :)
Astute looks like a cool product, BI space has huge disruption potential. At this point I think it needs a product that isn't incremental.
We are metricwire.com and we got an acceptance. We provide a platform for researchers(market, academics and medical) to perform studies. Our tool provides these researchers with an easy to use tool to build their study and push it to users smartphones and then the data is aggregated online and they can run analytic models through our interface.
I don't fully understand the business side of startups, legitimate question: When does a startup need funding? If you build an app and release it...shouldn't you somehow receive money from it (ads or whatever)? Do you need the money for advertising? Or?
Generally speaking startups seek funding in order to accelerate growth. By taking on additional capital, they can hire more employees, allowing them to address the market faster, and thus unlock more revenue--sometimes more quickly, but not always. Realistically, a business trades profitability for growth when they take on outside money but they're hedging their bets that the growth potential accelerates their upside long (or maybe even short-ish) term.
Suppose you haven't released your app yet, or you have major changes to make to make your app as successful as it might be. You might have some revenue or none, but you probably won't have enough to hire 3 full-time developers (as an example).
Ah I see, never thought about hiring people. I ask because I'm working on an idea too (just released beta), but doing all the work myself after my full time job. I guess doing it full time would be best case scenario, but then again getting involved with investors can be a huge pain ( used to work at a startup, it did not end well ).
Whether investors are a good idea depends on your product, customers, market, and yourself. However, I'd recommend YC unequivocally.
We got rejected, it's now a bummer because we really dreamed of going to California. Now we have to do it ourselves and I believe that if you can't bring up the motivation to do it without YC, you will even have had a hard time at YC.
--> JK Rowling got rejected lots of times, not a lot of publishers wanted to publish her book. Sylvester Stallone had a hard time bringing Rocky to a succes and so on... So, I believe rejection is not fatal for our app!
I wish you all the best of luck with your startups, with or without YC! :)
Didn't get an interview.
Would love feedback on our app because I thought we had a real shot.
Idea: Codecademy for Data Science
Team: 3 UC Berkeley Seniors with degrees in CS (2X), Statistics (2X), Business, and Electrical Engineering. 2 committed to working full time. One has a 1 year masters after working full time in the summer.
Progress: Prototype stage
Extra: Received recs from 2 YC alumni, not sure specifically what
I feel like we were just a bit early maybe to apply?
I feel like we were just a bit early maybe to apply?
I think your problem is your potential market. How big of a market is there for Data Science?
The thing with codecademy is they could potentially attract hair dressers, janitors, etc. Your main target are people with degrees who have an interest in data mining.
You are either not describing what your product does correctly or you have a unrealistic view of your potential market.
Your team sounds great but I really can't see the demand for data science knowledge being that great.
The thing with codecademy is they could potentially attract hair dressers, janitors, etc. Your main target are people with degrees who have an interest in data mining.
You are either not describing what your product does correctly or you have a unrealistic view of your potential market.
Your team sounds great but I really can't see the demand for data science knowledge being that great.
As someone who has tangentially interacted with YC, I seriously doubt that is the reason. YC cares about the team above all, then followed by customers/users/traction (but really, it's the team). The addressable market is not very high on their list of concerns. Though it certainly is a factor, I don't think it is the reason for rejection.
One question I have is how well does the team know each other? What are some of your team members' accomplishments? Honestly YC doesn't care very much about all the degrees you have (I would even argue that the fact that there are 5 degrees among the 3 of you is a negative signal for YC because it indicates credentialism, but that's just my opinion).
One question I have is how well does the team know each other? What are some of your team members' accomplishments? Honestly YC doesn't care very much about all the degrees you have (I would even argue that the fact that there are 5 degrees among the 3 of you is a negative signal for YC because it indicates credentialism, but that's just my opinion).
Thanks for the feedback! I think your right!
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Didn't get an interview. First time applicant. Not too big of a deal for us as we just got a term sheet for funding, but still stings a bit. sigh
Second time applicant - www.chance.fm
Rejected again. But we anticipate better news in the horizon. Lets see..
Rejected again. But we anticipate better news in the horizon. Lets see..
I think most will go stealth and prepare for a proper press release.