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7 Comments

Any suggestions for YCombinator application?

We are applying this month to the YCombinator funding program, and any recommendations or past experiences from applicants would be super useful.

on September 12, 2020
  1. 4

    Cofounder is mandatory to get through, even though YC site says otherwise.

    1. 1

      Not absolutely true.

      Here are some recent comments, there are sole founders in the recent batch.
      https://www.reddit.com/r/ycombinator/comments/gjm7jg/stats_on_solo_founders/

      And here is YC saying otherwise:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygr3qcERyRM

  2. 3

    I've got to interviews a few times over the years. There's a huge volume of advice on this on the internet. I'd recommend listening to Kevin Hale talk about this topic (YC startup school / YC radio), he's brutally honest with his frustrations of reading endless applications that just keep making the same mistakes, and I love it. "WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY YOU EVEN DO?! JUST BE CLEARRRRR", paraphrasing. Also, read successful applications such as that of Dropbox. You'll notice that they're all strikingly clear and simple, just like the writing of PG and Sam Altman.

    1. 2

      Thanks for the comments. I'll check out Kevin Hale's talk for sure.

  3. 3

    We were part of this summers batch. We just presented https://plummail.co at demo day a few weeks ago.

    It's tricky to say, because I don't know what it was in our application they saw and liked.
    Some guesses from me are.

    • To show progress or traction the only number that matters is revenue, if you don't have revenue or are even pre-idea there are other things that go well.
    • Probably team section is more important that idea section. Many people pivot during YC, some teams I spoke to had pretty loosely defined ideas at the application stage.
    • If you don't have revenue don't try to twist your numbers so they look good, state your small wins with confidence, we all start with small wins before we get big wins.
    1. 2

      Thanks and congrats @crowdhailer!
      This info is really useful to us.