Getting into Y Combinator as a solo founder
My friend Jules went through YC as a solo founder during a recent batch!!! He shared some tips on getting in as a solo founder with my community Founders Cafe.
Here's what I learned:
- You don't need a co-founder to get in YC - If you're technical, YC just wants to know you can do sales. If you have enough MRR / paying customers, you're SET!!! If you're non-technical, YC just wants to know you can build MVPs in addition to doing sales. If you can get paying customers who use your shitty prototypes (which u can build using no-code, contractors, etc.), you're SET!! In this case, Jules proved he could succeed as a non-technical solo founder by having (1) paying customers using his (2) shit MVP.
- DO NOT FORCE GETTING A CO-FOUNDER During YC, Jules ended up getting a co-founder because YC wanted him to and he got fucked over >_> The CTO was chill in the beginning, but after a while, he did not pull his weight and ruined relations with Jules. If he had just hired an engineer with the money, he could have gotten the job done without dealing with all this madness. 66% of startups die because of Co-founder conflict. His was one of them.
- Fundraise from other firms Jules ended up fundraising 1 million from other firms too. Another member Amile in Founders Cafe got rejected from YC, but ended up completing their round from other firms too. There's a ton of options out there :O :O So even if u don't get in YC, fuck em! Get money from other people who believe in you and achieve your goals.
LMK if you have any questions!! Btw Jules is hella active in Founders Cafe if you want to co-work with him and other solo founders from Stanford, YC, Google, & more.
** Names anonymizedfor privacy / prevent spam
Trending on Indie Hackers
Co sign on this. A cofounder relationship is almost as committing as a marriage.
My old cofounder used to say: “your wife can break your heart, but I can break your reputation”
LOL!!!! THATS SO REAL!! How did it end?
Miraculously the marriage and reputation both survived
I love this! I've also joined Founder's Cafe recently and it's helped me feel much less isolated as a solo founder. Maddie has curated a very special space where we all look out for each other.
AWWWWWW :P Excited to see u for boba soon :)
Holy Shoot!! This is awesome!!
Love this!! inside scope into YC experiences! It sounds like it's pretty much ensuring you've got both capabilities as a solo founder. Founders Cafe is awesome :)
AYYY!!! :) Thanks Monica!!!
It's wild because they tell you that you need a cofounder, but they also say that one of the biggest reasons startups fail is because of cofounder issues. If I can do it without giving away 50% of my company, let me build! Certainly joining a community like Founder's Cafe (s/o Maddie) help, and there's so much information available on Twitter and other communities. No need to give away half the company just cause someone else says you have to!
EXACTLY! Fuck the narrative.
I'm starting to see what you're saying. I saw this the other day
So it's less about hiring a part-time CTO.
And all about hiring your founding team - our 1st, 2nd, 3rd player?
Agreed! I've had part time ctos/members in the past and it was horrible! The lack of commitment put a huge drain on my own morale. It took more time to manage them then do it myself.
How can we make this a norm?
Tbh it kinda made me feel better about my situation at the moment as I'm a solo founer (non-technical) and I've been telling one of my friends to just hack up a shitty MVP and let me take care of the rest. Thanks for sharing!
A CTO is not must, once you have the money you can hire someone for the tech lead and if you like them promote them to CTO.
Hiring a tech guy for the purpose of cofounder is quite risky until you both have same vision.
We at AMBCrypto don’t have CTO, we manage everything tech related stuff through Upwork and have one trustworthy guy who can oversee on all the tech operations.
I spent a lot of time looking for a technical co-founder solely for the purpose of getting into YC. While I wouldn't say it was time wasted, the time spent certainly did not help me accomplish the important things: talking to customers and build products. It's good to know that solo founder CAN into YC and even if not, one can still be successful!
YESSSS!!!!! :D :D I spent so much time trying to find one too, and I needed that failed experience to realize I work WAYYY faster alone.
This comment has been voted down. Click to show.
This comment was deleted a year ago.
AYYYYYYY!!!! AGREED!!!
Plus there's plenty of solo founders that make it! Like Bezos or Zuck or Jotform Founder. I think anyone can get traction by themselves, then after that they can do whatever the crap they want. Hire peeps. Grow. Whatever.