Applications now open for summer 2008 YC funding cycle(ycombinator.com)
ycombinator.com
Applications now open for summer 2008 YC funding cycle
http://www.ycombinator.com/s2008.html
8 comments
I liked the Cambridge YC HQ quite a bit. It's much homier than the one in MV.
Much smaller too, right? I wonder how they'll fit all the groups if next year they have even more.
I'm wondering too. We were pretty much at the limit last summer. When we had investors there for demo day, we literally had to put the founders outside in a tent.
Fortunately we can expand in time if constrained in space: just have multiple dinners per week. That would get us 7x without needing to find a new building. I've had my eye out for places in Cambridge, but it would be really hard to beat the current one.
Fortunately we can expand in time if constrained in space: just have multiple dinners per week. That would get us 7x without needing to find a new building. I've had my eye out for places in Cambridge, but it would be really hard to beat the current one.
If you need a good architect to build something remarkable for YC, let me know :)
usually when you're so popular you run out of space, it's not a problem to get more
I get your point, but it is a huge hassle to expand. Have you ever been part of a company in the process of a move? It takes eons.
Luckily for YC, it seems all they need to do to get setup is buy a place and get their architect to make it perdy.
Luckily for YC, it seems all they need to do to get setup is buy a place and get their architect to make it perdy.
Plug: word count Greasemonkey script for yc application form http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/13291
Bookmarklet version (Safari and Firefox compatible):
javascript:function update(e) { var a = e ? e.target : window.event.target; var s = a.nextSibling; if (!s) { s = document.createElement("div"); a.parentNode.appendChild(s); } var words = a.value.match(/\S+/g); var num = words ? words.length : 0; s.innerHTML = "word count: " + num; s.style.color = (num > 120) ? "red" : "green"; } (function() { var a = document.getElementsByTagName("textarea"); for (var i = 0; i < a.length; i++) { a[i].addEventListener("keypress", update, false); update({target:a[i]}); } })();
javascript:function update(e) { var a = e ? e.target : window.event.target; var s = a.nextSibling; if (!s) { s = document.createElement("div"); a.parentNode.appendChild(s); } var words = a.value.match(/\S+/g); var num = words ? words.length : 0; s.innerHTML = "word count: " + num; s.style.color = (num > 120) ? "red" : "green"; } (function() { var a = document.getElementsByTagName("textarea"); for (var i = 0; i < a.length; i++) { a[i].addEventListener("keypress", update, false); update({target:a[i]}); } })();
[deleted](1)
Not to throw a racial stick into the wheel, but are there any black or latino founders out there applying to Y C?
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=104919
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=104728
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=104919
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=104728
Suspend your disbelief, and irrationally accept what quantcast tells you: (http://www.quantcast.com/paulgraham.com)
African americans, latinos, and asians all outrank caucasians in pageviews on paulgraham.com. It also shares with ycombinator.com a slightly female audience, and members who visit also enjoy shopping for horses. ;-)
African americans, latinos, and asians all outrank caucasians in pageviews on paulgraham.com. It also shares with ycombinator.com a slightly female audience, and members who visit also enjoy shopping for horses. ;-)
I know that I don't know the skin color of the creators of web sites I visit. Also, I just remember MC Hammer being in a promo video of a YC startup, I think weebly. And I've heard he is starting his own social network thing, something music related.
I wasn't able to login using elinks. The error to the POST submission was "Post request without Content-Length." You might want to have a look at that.
"Are any of the following true? ..."
You forgot "are you a terrorist" ;-)
That question seems to indicate that there will be automated screening out of applications?
You forgot "are you a terrorist" ;-)
That question seems to indicate that there will be automated screening out of applications?
No, there's no automated screening. We added this question because people's answers are sometimes so unclear that we can't be sure of the answers to these. It serves the same purpose as a check digit in a credit card number.
We certainly wouldn't automatically reject a group that answered this question yes. Loopt would have, among others.
We certainly wouldn't automatically reject a group that answered this question yes. Loopt would have, among others.
Thank you for the clarification!
I don't think the YC crew is silly enough to automatically discard applications. Most likely they'll use this question to pull out applications for a preliminary "can we see anything amazing here" filtering stage.
PG has said before that traits listed in that question aren't absolutely disqualifying -- I think his exact words were "we'll bend any rule if you're a genius" -- but from a perspective of streamlining the application-handling process, I'm sure they'd like to eliminate the applications from non-genius rule-benders as quickly as possible.
PG has said before that traits listed in that question aren't absolutely disqualifying -- I think his exact words were "we'll bend any rule if you're a genius" -- but from a perspective of streamlining the application-handling process, I'm sure they'd like to eliminate the applications from non-genius rule-benders as quickly as possible.
Is there any chance of YC expanding to Europe in the future?
What do you mean expand to Europe? European founders can apply.
Yes, I know that but we would have to move to US for the summer and thus get visas, which could be difficult.
I'm hoping that getting a visa is easy compared to getting a successful startup off the ground. :) pg's views on this have been widely documented.
From http://www.paulgraham.com/america :
"US immigration policy is particularly ill-suited to startups, because it reflects a model of work from the 1970s. It assumes good technical people have college degrees, and that work means working for a big company.
If you don't have a college degree you can't get an H1B visa, the type usually issued to programmers. But a test that excludes Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell can't be a good one. Plus you can't get a visa for working on your own company, only for working as an employee of someone else's. And if you want to apply for citizenship you daren't work for a startup at all, because if your sponsor goes out of business, you have to start over."
Getting a visa isn't always something you have control over. My best friend, having found a job at a YC startup, is currently held up at the boarder. The guards didn't seem to believe it was a real company. I was rejected for my TN visa once, and had to prove that the company I was to be working for was incorporated, along with a plethora of other documentation.
I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to get a visa to work at my startup. The rules for the TN-1 visa (for Canadians, I presume the TN-2 for Mexicans work similarly) say you can't be a controlling owner of the business you'd work for. Could you then get a whole bunch of Canadians together, no one of whom would have a controlling share, and found a company in the US?
I've tried to hunt down an answer to this, but to no avail. By the letter of the law, yes, one should be able to: this means that many college educated Canadians could bypass immigration entirely. But in practice it's up to the whim of the immigration guard, and people are kept out of the US, not allowed to work for completely legit companies.
"US immigration policy is particularly ill-suited to startups, because it reflects a model of work from the 1970s. It assumes good technical people have college degrees, and that work means working for a big company.
If you don't have a college degree you can't get an H1B visa, the type usually issued to programmers. But a test that excludes Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell can't be a good one. Plus you can't get a visa for working on your own company, only for working as an employee of someone else's. And if you want to apply for citizenship you daren't work for a startup at all, because if your sponsor goes out of business, you have to start over."
Getting a visa isn't always something you have control over. My best friend, having found a job at a YC startup, is currently held up at the boarder. The guards didn't seem to believe it was a real company. I was rejected for my TN visa once, and had to prove that the company I was to be working for was incorporated, along with a plethora of other documentation.
I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to get a visa to work at my startup. The rules for the TN-1 visa (for Canadians, I presume the TN-2 for Mexicans work similarly) say you can't be a controlling owner of the business you'd work for. Could you then get a whole bunch of Canadians together, no one of whom would have a controlling share, and found a company in the US?
I've tried to hunt down an answer to this, but to no avail. By the letter of the law, yes, one should be able to: this means that many college educated Canadians could bypass immigration entirely. But in practice it's up to the whim of the immigration guard, and people are kept out of the US, not allowed to work for completely legit companies.
It strikes me as odd that this would be decided by some random immigration official at the border. Surely, you'd chip away at getting an appropriate visa at the US embassy back home? Or are there in fact two possible points of failure?
For most programmers, there's the H1-B Visa. This is tied to a specific employer, they're given out on a roughly first come first serve basis and there's a quota of them: only 65,000 are given out per year at last count. Last year there were so many people applying that all the visas for FY 2008 (starting October 07) were given out on April 1st -- the next time you'd be able to apply would be April 1st 2008, for October 2008!
For Canadians and Mexicans there is a different visa, called the TN, created under NAFTA. If you read the NAFTA proceedings, you'll come to understand that the method of getting verified at the border was meant to make it easier and quicker to get a Visa, for certain classes of professional. The one professional category involving computers, 'computer systems analyst', was so vaguely defined that one could only interpret it was meant as an umbrella term.
But what's happened in reality is that small-minded border guards have been given the authority to simply reject people. They demand all sorts of things that aren't in the law, and they make no apologies.
For Canadians and Mexicans there is a different visa, called the TN, created under NAFTA. If you read the NAFTA proceedings, you'll come to understand that the method of getting verified at the border was meant to make it easier and quicker to get a Visa, for certain classes of professional. The one professional category involving computers, 'computer systems analyst', was so vaguely defined that one could only interpret it was meant as an umbrella term.
But what's happened in reality is that small-minded border guards have been given the authority to simply reject people. They demand all sorts of things that aren't in the law, and they make no apologies.
I wonder how well it'd go over to attend a 4 month long entrepreneurship seminar in Boston. I also wonder how they define 'working in the US'. If my start up is incorporated in Canada, can they stop me from working on it while I'm visiting the US?
The law isn't very refined on this point. It's perhaps best to talk with a lawyer, taking the attitude "I'm going to do this, now keep me off the waterboard".
US law doesn't ban individuals from being international actors. It barely even acknowledges the possibility. But ultimately you're subject to the whims of whichever boarder guard your happen to meet.
Canadians are legally allowed to vacation in the USA for up to 6 months. I'm not sure, but I don't think the law is too specific on not being able to work (the semantics of the word are too tricky), but you need a visa to be in someone's employ. That may leave certain possibilities open.
US law doesn't ban individuals from being international actors. It barely even acknowledges the possibility. But ultimately you're subject to the whims of whichever boarder guard your happen to meet.
Canadians are legally allowed to vacation in the USA for up to 6 months. I'm not sure, but I don't think the law is too specific on not being able to work (the semantics of the word are too tricky), but you need a visa to be in someone's employ. That may leave certain possibilities open.
Based on your experience, do you have any recommendations on things to do (or avoid doing) if you're coming to the US to work at a YC startup?
Do you think there is anything YC could have done to have made your friend's experience better?
Do you think there is anything YC could have done to have made your friend's experience better?
One thing is to make extra efforts to look professional. This is unusual for many hackers. That means: print color application letters on company letterhead. Dress nicely. Be gracious. Use bullet points and corpspeak with your job description. As a Canadian TN applicant, you need to apply for the position 'computer systems analyst', not 'software engineer'. You need to bring a sealed copy of your university transcript. You need to outline your compensation. You should briefly describe the company, and keep documents showing the company is real and incorporated, or they won't believe you. I imagine Alexa results will also help. :-)
Read the YC FAQ.
ooo, new question:
Please tell us about the time you, username, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
Please tell us about the time you, username, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
There are a bunch of new questions. That one was suggested by Sam Altman.
That's a really awesome question.
If you don't already have a copy, you might enjoy Rod Beckstrom's book Brainticklers. It's basically just a book of questions about the year 3,000.
The questions range from
"When we can match or exceed many or all human physical and mental skills with computers or appliances, how will we define our reason for being?"
to
"What will be the most popular baby shower gift in the year 3,000?"
It would probably be a fun toy for the YC dinners.
If you don't already have a copy, you might enjoy Rod Beckstrom's book Brainticklers. It's basically just a book of questions about the year 3,000.
The questions range from
"When we can match or exceed many or all human physical and mental skills with computers or appliances, how will we define our reason for being?"
to
"What will be the most popular baby shower gift in the year 3,000?"
It would probably be a fun toy for the YC dinners.
I didn't quite understand that, yet I still applied. I just asked for further clarification.
suppoes someone in india then will u consider them?i mean cost of relocating there is high so is it ok?
I applied, because, well..
he who never tries, never succeeds? One should never be afraid of failure or rejection!
he who never tries, never succeeds? One should never be afraid of failure or rejection!