Our Short YC Experience
We benefited from our friends’ YC stories along the way, so we wanted to share our story to help other founders. Think of this as the honest advice we would share with our friends over a cup of coffee.
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Thanks for sharing - good luck!
You're welcome, and thanks!
Unfortunately, I applied 2 times, and I didn't even get to the interview part. I'm not sure how to feel about this. I tried two different platforms/ideas. I will be going to keep working on my latest.
After all, I use their application to define exactly what I want to do and my pitch.
I think that is quite common, and we were quite lucky to get the interview on our first attempt. I have friends who applied 6 times before they got in.
What are you working on now (if you are up for sharing)?
I don't think it makes sense for me to apply multiple times again. Maybe 1 more just to say I really tried.
I am working on a network for NFT enthusiasts called Watchen.xyz
Here is a quick tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQn6PCcIP3Q
I believe that NFTs are great but there are huge problem in the User Experience so I am trying to fix that
That's pretty easy to validate.
If you can gather 10k NFT enthusiasts on a Discord using a mock-up of your network then you might have something going.
Yeah, gathering 10k people is a lot harder than it sounds :)
Cool! I think the hero title/description could explain the value of the network a little. It isn't very clear to me (maybe because I'm not into NFTs!)
Yeah, I understand what you are saying, but Watchen right now is targeting only those who are super into NFTs, and they instantly know what we are trying to do.
Fair. All the best!
I had a very similar experience actually. Got the interview but didn't get it. Kudos to you for continuing the journey!
Ah, sorry to hear that. Will you continue to work on your idea?
Absolutely! I just quit my job last Friday to do so :)
Congrats! What are you working on? I would love to check it out.
3 things for the next 6 months:
Nite: A new way to hang out with friends in the living room.
https://www.karaokenite.co (needs rewrite)
Welp: Find and review bathrooms in NYC.
https://www.welp.nyc (launching next week)
Codédex: Learning to code for Gen Z, Gen A.
https://www.codedex.io (launching next month)
Lmk if you like any of them!
How do you balance 3 projects at the same time?
Right now focusing on Welp and Codédex. So being super organized (i.e. new to-do lists every day) and a lot of small breaks and walks.
It's def a lot of context switch with PM, finding time for some deep coding sessions, content marketing, and very soon sales and customer support. But so far so good! I will reevaluate if it's starting to get too much.
Cool. Having things to switch to when you are bored of something can be good. All the best!
🙏🙏🙏
congrats
Thank you! We didn't get funded by the way 😅
Swee Kiat and I are going all in. He left his cushy job at Google in January, and I have resigned from ReferralCandy.
Wow, you left your jobs without knowing whether or not you would make it past the YC interview stage? Were you planning to leave your jobs regardless, or did you do this to prove you were committed in your application?
Yep, we left without knowing whether we would make it to YC. We were planning to leave regardless!