12
18 Comments

I was just invited to YC for an interview next week ๐Ÿ˜ฑ Need tips and mock interviews ๐Ÿ™

I quickly filled out a YC application a couple of months ago thinking it's unlikely that they interview a solo-founder pre-revenue startup, and now with online cohorts there's probably a lot more competition too.

I was wrong. I just got an invitation for an online interview with Y Combinator next Thursday.

The interview is only 10 minutes and they'll be rapidly firing really tough questions at you, apparently. So I'm looking for any tips I can find and hopefully a few YC alums who'd be able to mock interview me.

If you know people like that, I'd REALLY appreciate an introduction! I won't take much of their time.

  1. 2

    I went through YC. Happy to do a mock interview with you. DM me I don't want to doxx myself.

    1. 1

      Hi! I have my YC interview in 10 days, by any chance would you be able to give me some time for a mock interview? I would really appreciate it!

    2. 1

      Discovered you via this post and have read your comments(smart guy) -you are on the same wavelength. my background is within investments -i don't particularly believe in the YC scheme. but for this maybe its best for him.
      would like to learn more about yourself however.

      Ping my email.

      or follow me here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/n-futura-66bb621b9/

  2. 2

    I built and used this mock interview page. Our YC interview was almost similar to this tool with one product focused question. https://vaibhavgupta28.github.io

    1. 1

      Oh wow this is awesome! Thank you!
      It'd be nice if we could pick the category (e.g. Technical) and practice questions in one category at a time.
      Is it open-source?

      1. 1

        Yes, here is the GitHub link of code - https://github.com/vaibhavgupta28/vaibhavgupta28.github.io Please let me know if you like to add to the same git (and I can add you as contributor)

        1. 2

          Thanks! I'd love to but I'm pretty swamped these days. I'll let you know if I have time to work on it

  3. 2

    An update: I used YC's new Companies directory to find a few YC20 alums, messaged them on LinkedIn, and 2 agreed to do a mock interview with me. Now I just need as many tips and resources as I can get so I can go through them over the weekend and prepare!

  4. 1

    Congratulations! Iโ€™m jealous, they rejected my application :) I have no idea what they will ask but maybe you could put a good word in for me ;)

    1. 2

      Thanks Andy!
      This is my 2nd application! I was rejected once before too :) The main thing that changed between the two applications: I'm going through a pivot. I'm more focused now and I'm better segmenting my market.

      1. 1

        Then double congratulations! :) Thatโ€™s great. Iโ€™m definitely all over the place right now with Poise but thatโ€™s Ok, itโ€™s early days. I have a lot of product management experience. Let me know if I can help.

        1. 1

          Thanks Andy!
          I donโ€™t see Poise on your profile. Does it have a landing page?

          1. 1

            Oh really. I thought I added it. Regardless, you can find Poise here :) https://getpoise.co.uk :)

  5. 1

    That's a big first step, congrats! I went to YC's 1st round interview once, mainly they asked questions to understand our understanding of the business plus our aspirations and scaling plan. When I reflected back, I think the most important thing is to know our business inside out and really show that we're constantly thinking about it - which we didn't do well. That's all my help, I'm sure the YC alums can help more :)

    1. 1

      Thank you! That's consistent with what I've heard from YC alums. At this point I'm doing it just for the experience and the feedback with very little hope of getting accepted cause of how competitive it is! ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

  6. 1

    Good luck!!! Let us know how it goes!

    1. 1

      Thanks mate! Will do!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 16 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments