18
10 Comments

You don’t need to have a product or revenue to get into Y Combinator

submitted this link on November 12, 2022
  1. 3

    YC Alumi here as well.

    I think the key sentence is "You’re executing and iterating fast." You cannot go to YC and say "We've done nothing, let us in".

    If you have no product or revenue, you need to be able to show that you've been in action: talking to users, building an email list, trying no-code MVPs, etc.

  2. 2

    This title is definitely stretching the truth when it says you don't need a product or revenue to get into YC

    "Our beta is to be launched in a few weeks."

    "before we even had a landing page, 70+ startups had already contacted us (100% inbound) and asked if they could try our product asap"

  3. 1

    I applied to Y Comb hope I get in with my App ZoZo (www.ZoZoApp.co)

    1. 1

      How did you get your producthunt launch to 3rd? Any particular strategies or just post it and hope for the best?

  4. 1

    Great read. Interestingly your application seems to describe a different product to your current landing page product. Did you pivot during your time at Y-combinator?

  5. 1

    Vi är en svensk dörrtillverkare med fokus på säkerhet och speciallösningar. Våra produkter är.
    https://branddorrar.com/

  6. 1

    I am ex-YC alumni, I'll +1 this post as I've seen companies get in with purely an idea. But don't mistake the fact that they will review the future potential of your product, review your background and interview you to check if you have the time/resources/planning in order to execute.

  7. 1

    Thanks for sharing this, it's insanely helpful. Bookmarked👍

  8. 1

    Amazing write-up. I'm not planning on applying to Y Combinator this year but this will be really helpful for me next year. Thanks for being so transparent with your application.

Trending on Indie Hackers
The most underrated distribution channel in SaaS is hiding in your browser toolbar User Avatar 185 comments I launched on Product Hunt today with 0 followers, 0 network, and 0 users. Here's what I learned in 12 hours. User Avatar 156 comments I gave 7 AI agents $100 each to build a startup. Here's what happened on Day 1. User Avatar 98 comments How are you handling memory and context across AI tools? User Avatar 55 comments Do you actually own what you build? User Avatar 40 comments Show IH: RetryFix - Automatically recover failed Stripe payments and earn 10% on everything we win back User Avatar 34 comments