Joel Spolsky recently said[1] that if your whole attitude is "this thing can make me rich" as opposed to "this thing needs to exist", then maybe you don't have the passion required to run a startup.

Is that something you select for (or against)?

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2298470

No. We started our own startup to get rich.

Also, if anyone has any questions about applying that aren't answered on our site, feel free to ask them here.

Thanks for posting this again, it's a good reminder.

I'm not applying, but I'd love any insight into how the process of reviewing applications has changed in the last few cycles.

1) I know you have Harj on the west-coast, and Alexis on the East coast.. Has that made a difference in the way you review applications?

I know in the past, you've said that Harj was acting more as a back-end catchall, than a front-end filter. Is that still the process?

Are you having more pre-meetings on the east coast, now that Alexis is available to help screen people before their official interview?

2) Do you expect (or have you seen) any change due to the Yuri Milner announcement?

2a) Do you suspect this will encourage people to apply who might not have applied otherwise, due to needing more runway?

2b) I know(suspect?) that a lot of the core assumptions of the YC application process are based around "you have to get things done in 3 months.." This might lead you to reject projects that would take 6 months of work, even at YC-speed, to complete.

Does the Yuri Milner announcement affect this?

3) There's been a large growth in "YC-like" incubators/foundries/angel firms (TechStars being perhaps the most well known). How (if at all) have your procedures or operating assumptions changed, now that the world of funding is so different than it was in 2007?

The biggest change is in the volume of applications. We've dealt with it by getting more partners, and relying more on alumni reviewers.

BTW, Harj acts as a catch-all only for the late applications. He reads on-time applications just like the rest of us.

I don't know yet what effect the Ronco/Yuri announcement will have. It probably won't change how we rank applications.

All the other new YC-like organizations don't currently affect what we do at all, that I can think of. A while ago we complained because some of them were giving people exploding termsheets that expired before the recipients had a chance to come to their YC interview, but that practice seems to have stopped. Now everyone seems to coexist peacefully.

Do you know whether the new one month gap between YC acceptance and techstars acceptance will be a problem? E.G. Will the offers explode in a month? In not, when typically?

I don't know; which direction is the gap in?

I believe TS and Dreamit are both making decisions about a month before YC.

TechStars is running programs 5 times a year, so it's less relative anyway. According to http://www.techstars.org/schedule/ there is a batch of finalists notified one month on either side of the YC interviews.

Sproutbox is also choosing in late April.

I have only one question: how to get an invitation to the interview if you are single founder (like Dropbox)? Looks like "single founder problem" is a flaw in YC's business model, because your biggest hits (Dropbox, Greplin) all came from initially single founders.

Well, I know that the odds aren't good for single founders...But the problem here in Russia (where I'am from) is that it's virtually impossible to find an entrepreneurial-minded hacker who's ready to put efforts and passion into a such risky thing as startup. We don't have such startups culture you have in US. It's very tempting for smart ppl here to just get a day job with a nice salary and relax. Or they already have girlfriend/family and thus will not move anywhere.

But I'm pretty sure I'll find a co-founder when I'm in the Bay area. But looks like it's chicken-and-egg problem. Actually I think the problem with single founders is exaggerated a bit. If it's all about people then great ppl eventually will find a great co-founder if you give'em a chance.

Actually Greplin had 2 founders initially. And though Drew was a single founder when he applied, he had found a cofounder by the time the YC cycle started.

The trouble with the plan of finding a cofounder when you get to the Bay Area is that you'll then have a cofounder you've only just met. Empirically that doesn't work well. Cofounders should have known one another for a while.

You must have friends of friends who'd start a startup with you.

Actually I had 2 co-founders. The trouble was that we eventually run out of money and they quit. I stayed. But I was forced to start a construction company in order to make some money and I grew it from $0 to 500k in sales. But damn it! I'm a programmer! I want to write a software. I really think that if you're seeking for exceptional people than you should give a chance for exceptional single founders too under some conditions, of course.

We do accept exceptional single founders. We've funded several of them. If you're so determined that you started a successful construction company, you could be one.

Yes, it's successful and I also managed to negotiate a partnership with IKEA. A unique experience! I did all that just to be able one day to return to my startup. We've been featured on ReadWriteWeb and 400+ ppl have subscribed for our beta, but this achievement was not helpful when my co-founders decided to quit...Looking back I can say that although I learned a lot running construction business, that was a mistake. And I want to fix it now. I would be happy if YC will review my application having in mind who is the person behind it.

You ran a construction company and grew it to $500k in revenue? Dude, I hope you literally spelt that out repeatedly in your YC application. :)

Yes, I hacked supply chain and wrote several pieces of software, and now our profit margin is around 40% of total project estimate. While it's still below the market for the customers.

Me thinks I should have emphasized the exterior painting company I ran to pay my way through college, hah. Although not as relevant here since I'm not a single cofounder.

Time to go revisit the application, anyways.

email me - jpug98@gmail.com. i'm looking for a start up business partner with serious programming experience. I too started and ran a successful construction company as a means to make money in order to start another business. I also do not have a partner, because it's hard to find someone that understands starting your own business is work.

Great to see some one from Russia dude! Privet! Best regards. I hope Yuri Milner presense in YC will give more chanches for russian talents to make a big jump!

Are you from Russia as well? Nice too meet you! I think that the fact that Milner is now working with YC will have a little or zero effect on Russian startup ecosystem. Money love silence. What would help Russian startup ecosystem to grow is a couple of successful rockstar startups. I was shocked when I told about Milner and YC deal to a local VC and she didn't know that. They are years behind US VCs.

Novosibirsk is city of smart people. Best regards! I'm agree about Russia ecosystem. You are right! Milner is a hero for me, really! He does business in both ends: russian and western internet.

I used to try to do some projects in russian internet. 2 years ago built http://www.moivizitki.ru (social business networking), a big Moscow based web company wanted to buy it (mostly hire us), but i decided to spend my life to build own startup (you can find job any way if needed). Built several e-com affiliate projects for english speaking world. Now my friend and i apply to YC.

I wonder if any person from post Soviet Union was excepted to YC (I don't say even a team, at list person :).

I'm glad we exchanged e-mails, and good luck with your startup!

Thanks, Mike! Good luck you too!

(anon for this)

What's your view on a founder of startup that's relatively young (6-12 months) but with some traction applying to YC with an idea for a completely different startup?

Would you consider it a negative that they're quitting on their earlier startup?

No, it's not a problem. This happens to lots of startups even after we fund them.

If you can talk intelligently about why your previous project isn't working, that's actually a point in your favor.

A startup is a unique endeavor where failure is generally viewed as a positive experience.

Getting fired from a job hardly looks good on a resume, but having a failed startup under your belt is almost seen as a badge of honor.

True, but it's conditional. It's only seen as a badge of honor if you learn from your mistakes and can talk openly about what went wrong. Otherwise, you come off as defensive (and therefore insecure).

Luckily, I think a community that makes it okay to fail encourages people to not be defensive. They know they won't be labeled a "loser", that they still have a chance to make it.

I agree wholeheartedly here. I've seen that communities which shuns failure are filled with people who disguise failure and twist outcomes to make them appear as huge successes in order to achieve bragging rights and consulting gigs.

Probably premature/overconfident to ask this, but ... for founders with families willing to move if we get funded, is it hard to find a good place to rent? What areas/neighborhoods are best? (would prefer as south as possible)

We are down in San Luis Obispo, 3.5 hours south ... is working from here and commuting up for meetings out of the question?

People always find somewhere fairly close. Mountain View itself seems a good option. If you're more than an hour away you tend to miss stuff.

I'm a single founder with an idea and a very early mvp with no traction but an idea on how it could be positioned/modified to be an interesting startup in a pretty hot area. If it moved forward (through YC or elsewhere) i have a team that i could put together that i think could then really move it forward.

Have you ever said 'we like you, and we think the idea has potential... put the team together and we'll back ya'?

I applied to TechStars with a 3 man team a few months ago. We had full time jobs but gave the above line- that we were willing to more seriously commit if we got into the program.

We didn't get in. They advised us that you can send a much stronger signal if you've already committed. The best indicator of future commitment to a startup is past commitment.

No, because the team is the most important thing to us.

Think of the competition. http://gigaom.com/2010/03/23/y-combinator-matures-14-of-star...

I don't really think of everyone else applying as competition. I'm more concerned with where I am, the ideas I have, and what I want to do with them. No one should let others' success be a reason not to do something

And now that I know I might meet Ashton Kutcher, I'm definitely going for it.

If two out of four founders cannot move to the Bay Area in the summer, is that an automatic rejection? Is it still worth applying?

It's still worth applying if the two who can move are the two most important.

My cofounder and I both have mortgages and good jobs. We will be making a daring life change, but my co-founder has family commitments which prevent him from leaving town for months.

Should I apply to attend alone or really scour my list of talented acquaintances? How often do you take teams with only one member on-site?

To be clear, I'm referring to leaving the corporate environment and possibly even selling a house. I can fully control my own life situation, but I can't ask my co-founder to travel out West when his wife won't allow him to move away from the family for three months.

You can leave one of the two of you at home if you have to. Your startup will be a lot better off if he can come out to stay for chunks of time though.

Videos are now required? Were any video-less applications accepted last cycle?

I don't think so, because if we were considering a group that didn't have a video, we'd usually ask them to add one.

I've already e-mailed Harj who helped clarify my points prior to application, however I have one more if I could trouble you.

I am currently trying to get a first working prototype of my site ready in time for the 20th with the explicit aim of selling my idea via the demo, given that you guys will no doubt be flooded with applications on that date would you advise submitting my information and the concept now anyhow?. Other than a working demo no other factors are likely to change.

Here's a quote from the application form:

  We look at online demos only for the most promising 
  applications, so don't skimp on the application because 
  you're relying on a good demo.

Thanks.

I was going to apply and found out that a YC W'11 startup was working on something extremely similar. Do you consider applications on products that are similar to those of another YC company ? If yes, is there any history of YC doing this ?

See this answer by Harj on Quora:

http://www.quora.com/Would-Y-Combinator-invest-in-a-company-...

See the answers to this question: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2251940

PG: How do I know if this time is the right time to apply? Group of 4(!) founders. Heavily leaning towards waiting until Winter or next Summer.

If you're heavily leaning toward applying later, apply later.

Have you considered letting a hacker news style moderation system pick the applications for you? It seems to work well ;)

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Finished reading it yesterday when I was filling-up the form. It was really helpful. YC's form is worth filling for every start-up even if they are not applying. It brings so much clarity for your own self.

Shortly after submitting our application, my co-founder (technical half) informed me he could no longer devote the time necessary to the startup for various personal reasons. This caught me completely off guard and I was pretty bummed. Determined not to let this phase me, I called another friend the next day who had been really interested in the idea and asked him if he would want to be my co-founder. He agreed and now he's on board.

I have since removed my original co-founder from the application and I plan to update the application with my new co-founders information. I wanted to know if there was a particular way I should handle such an update to the application? I guess I am also curious to know how this might affect our application, and whether this has occurred before? Thanks for any help in advance.

Just edit and resubmit.

It says, "All six YC partners read applications. We each do it separately, to avoid groupthink."

This makes me curious about the process.

I assume this means that an application is at least initially seen by only one partner. I see the advantage in parallel processing, but what if one person rejects something the other five would have gone for?

What puts founders on the "let's interview" pile? Is it the choice of one reviewer, or are promising applications then reviewed by the remaining five (or maybe just pg) to see if there's an agreement?

The applications near the top get read by everyone. We meet in person (or in Rtm's case by Skype) to come up with the final list we're inviting to interviews.

In the past it was hard for anyone to unilaterally reject an application. Nearly all were seen by at least two of us. That will probably no longer be the case with this batch though, because we expect a lot of applications.

I've thought about applying to YC a couple times now, but our founders (myself and another) are not coders. I can do the usual rudimentary (CSS, HTML, PHP...), and we've done all the UI and business planning, but we do work with others to code the actual site. I assume that there's not really a place at YC for us? I'm incredibly passionate about being a hacker entrepreneur, but without being a brilliant coder, it seems YC is not an option.

Just curious.

You don't have to be a great programmer, just good enough to build what you need to.

I'm really curious as to why you state "I'm not convinced yet that this will be the next Google, but at least I'm starting to engage with it." and then later say "One good trick for describing a project concisely is to explain it as a variant of something the audience already knows."

These seem like conflicting statements: on the one hand you're looking for a groundbreaking, original idea. On the other you seem to advise comparisons to existing products, which immediately appears to dilute the value of the product and pigeonholes the mission of the team.

Could you comment on the balance you are looking for between these two? Would you rather someone describe their business as "Like [big website] for [target market]" or distinguish themselves for its inherent value?

You can describe something novel by reference to something that already exists.

I have been feeling a bit uneasy about the scope of our idea for some time now. Today I feel much better because we have managed to whittle it down to one core product that is easy to understand and sell. Everything is clearer now. However, now I'm unsure what to do with all the other stuff that we still plan on doing but just further down the road. Do I just leave it all out?

To make my point clearer... Originally we were saying we wanted to do X. To do X you need Y and Z but especially Y. After re-scoping we are now saying we will put all our focus on Y (which is a product in itself), see how things play out, then see about everything else.

Tell us what you're going to do first, then talk about how you plan to expand the idea.

Thank you.

Another single founder question.

What if the startup (single founder) is already passed the building stage and is now looking to scale.

Would it make more sense to start hiring a team instead of finding a co-founder?

In this specific scenario (obviously an exception), would the single founder issue still be that much of a problem, or is it diluted down now that they company is established somewhat.

It's unlikely you have passed the building stage. They're still working on Google.

Maybe saying passed the building stage was the wrong use of words.

What I meant to ask was at a certain point in a single founder startup would it be more beneficial to start hiring people rather than looking for a co-founder?

Or should a co-founder be brought on no matter where the company is at, but at a lower equity stake then if they were there from the beginning?

Read to the end, the Dropbox application was superb.

Does getting the interview, but being rejected, in a previous cycle hurt an applicants chances subsequent times?

Empirically it almost definitely helps your chances

When shell we expect a reply to our submission if we submitted our project one month ago, I know that the session is still opened, but the early projects aren't responded until the submission period is over? Thanks

April 7. http://ycombinator.com/apply.html

Hi pg, thanks for the answer. The problem is that the time frame from 7th April to 23 rd April is quite little for outside US residence. The ones that need a visa to get to the US could not make it on time not because of them but because of the process to get the visa for US. thanks

I exchanged emails with Kirsty Nathoo, YCombinator's CFO, and she said that YC is willing to write a formal invitation on official YC letterhead. In my previous experience, that is usually enough to get a work visa in that amount of time, especially if you also have a round-trip ticket already booked (make sure the ticket is refundable.)

April 7th can't come soon enough!

Out of curiosity, what were last round's stats like? Number of applications, number of interviews and number of funded groups.

Have there been applicants that were accepted but ended up turning it down for whatever reason (job, move, visa, etc)? Have any of these reapplied and participated in the subsequent go?

Yes, there have been a couple groups that deferred to a later batch for personal reasons. There have also been a few who simply turned us down, e.g. because because the founders had a falling out, or their employers, when they heard they were leaving, made them an offer that enticed them to stay.

I have a question regarding 1 minute video presentation required in the application. Is it required that both the founders be on the video presentation? I read in one of the comments by either Harj or PG that 'we look for chemistry between the founders in videos'.

This is recommended.

Do you check the demo URL for all of the companies you offer interviews to?

"We look at online demos only for the most promising applications, so don't skimp on the application because you're relying on a good demo."

That leads me to believe so, but thought I'd ask!

I think so.

I see a ?s2011 at the end of that URL. Has this document changed at all from when you originally wrote it two years ago?

I'd guess the only change was to change the reference from 4 partners to 6.

Footnote 2 sounds a little stale.

I wondered about that as well, then I realized it was probably a hack so that pg could repost the same URL to HN as needed.

Are you 100% focused on tech startups, or will you look at a good idea even if it's not in the software/tech realm?

We'll consider anything, but most startups tend to involve technology.

Thanks for putting this together. It was super helpful.

Another question that kind of sticks out as a wild card is:

Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered. (The answer need not be related to your project.)

Unfortunately, you don't really talk about it in the how-to. Is this not that important of a question for you? Is it just an opportunity to get a sense of the applicants personality? In general what are you trying to evaluate with this question?

That's to learn what the personalities of the founders are like. Few things are so revealing as what amuses people.

If the cofounders have only known each other for about 1 month, what can we do to reassure YC we'll work well together?

Would evidence of some random (yet to be done) side project help? Good chemistry in the video? Anecdotal evidence that we've built up trust and a good relationship? Good legal framework?

We are still actively building a larger team of course but these things take time. This is the only part of the application that worries me. =)

If the cofounders have only known each other for about 1 month, how do you /know/ you'll work well together? You can't reassure someone of something that isn't yet clear...

Cofounders that have known each other longer split up all the time, mostly because their relationship was never tested in that way.

We are actively working on building a relationship that can survive the startup process and if not, we're trying to find that out sooner rather than later. I guess we'll just have to do our best to explain that in the application/video.

If you choose not to fund us, not that I'm a pessimist, will you provide any feedback?

If you make it to interviews and we don't fund you, we do.

We don't if we don't invite you to interviews. This explains why: http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html

Our application's video is 1 minute 23 seconds long, is this acceptable or is the 1 minute limit strongly enforced? We did our video in one take so that it was as natural as possible and we didn't really pay attention to the time limit until we were done talking. Thanks!

It's loosely enforced in the sense that we don't feel obliged to watch past the 1 minute point.

I have a small doubt about one of the questions.

"Please tell us about the time you, ONE FOUNDER NAME, most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage."

We are three founders. Do you want just one founder to answer or is this a mistake(probably mine)?

We just want to hear about the time you did. We assume the person filing the application is the leader, and only the leader needs to have this aptitude.

Do startups from other countries have less advantage over american ones?

Perhaps a very slight one-- a few percent-- because we know visa problems add to the drag on a startup. But we've funded a lot of startups from other countries, including some of the most successful ones. In practice, how good the founders seem dominates every other factor.

If you were interested in funding a single applicant, but only if they had a co-founder, would you reach out and tell them that or would you just toss the application in the reject pile?

We wouldn't want someone to get a cofounder just for our sake. We want them to want to themselves. And if they wanted to and could, they already would have. So there wouldn't be any point in telling anyone to go get one.

When we fund single founders, we usually suggest they try to find cofounders if they can. But we can't force them to, and not all do.

Based on the similar questions popping up it seems that my situation is common : plenty of talented people are ready to commit as soon as funding is certain.

Thank you for responding.

It absolutely makes sense for a lot of business relationships to be based on "You remove as many sources of risk as possible and in return I commit to use my skills on your behalf." The name for that business relationship is "employment."

Are there any YC companies that aren't based on the West Coast?

Yes, they're all over. There's one in Germany.

Thanks for the reference, like "How to start a startup" it's always good to have more information!

If one of the founders is under aged, is there any kind of additional step to take?

Depends how underaged. There's one founder in this batch who's 17. We're ok with it as long as the founder's parents are. I don't think we'd accept anyone much younger than that.

Is there any sort of NDA attached to the application? How can I be sure that if I'm rejected and then one of the accepted teams tosses their idea, you won't just hand them mine to work on?

(I'm aware that there are differing theories out there on the merit of shrouding a startup idea in secrecy, and my own personal opinion on the matter is that it totally depends on the idea. But the question still holds.)

I am not trying to speak for pg, so only take this as an advice of an entrepreneur:

Incubators like ycombinator have seen thousands of start-up ideas over the years. Most likely some of them overlapped, and there has probably been a good amount of duplication (deal of the day site--only for food!). If there was an NDA for every single one of these, any successful company that might have duplicated an idea unintentionally (ie, they came to the same idea themselves) might get in trouble later down the road when another entrepreneur says "hey, that was my idea, they must have stolen it!"

EDIT: seems like me and iqster had the same basic comment :)

I'm not affiliated with YC and these are just my thoughts:

Ideas are worth less than a dime a dozen. Being successful comes down to execution. In my experience, if an idea is really good, a number of people will come up with it at around the same time.

There is plenty of documentation on www.ycombinator.com that answers this question.

"Will you sign an NDA? How do I know you won't steal my idea?

No, we won't sign an NDA. No venture firm would at this stage. The informal commitment to secrecy on our application form is more than any VC would make.

In this connection you may want to read the first section of How to Start a Startup on the value of mere ideas."

Thanks, I missed this. The "informal commitment" is what I was looking for.

> If you go around saying you're going to start the next Google, [...] most people are threatened by ambition: you seem to be trying to put yourself above them...

I've noticed a lot of push-back from people. It's very discouraging, especially when phrased as well-meaning and matter-of-fact.

For interview, are we coming to you or it can be done over skype?

It has to be done in person, but we reimburse you for the flight.

Do you require the whole team come in for the interview? Flights are expensive, $6500 just for an interview?

I believe that their is a limit for how much they will reimburse, $600 if I remember correctly. The total cost of the flights would be about $6000 for myself and my two co-founders as well.

If would be nice if there was more time between knowing you've been invited for an interview (April 7th) and traveling for the interview (April 23-28th). Since that's less than a month's notice, it means that airfare will be at it's highest.

If someone were accepted into YC, and circumstances arose which meant that the founders couldn't remain in the bay area for the entire three months, how would that be handled?

What I got from this: "It's more about the person than the specific pitch. Maintaining a good, thoughtful presence on HN helps tremendously.

The first half is certainly true, but don't overestimate the importance of HN. If you want to spend time on stuff that will impress us, it's better to spend it building things than commenting on HN.

Also, I'd say "people" rather than "person," because we care not just about the founders but about the strength of their relationship.

What if you have a much stronger presence on a site like Quora or StackOverflow, is that considered as well?

It seems like all three (those two and HN) are communities where the type of people you like to fund would spend a lot of time.

We applied about 15 days ago. It doesn't look like our video on posterous has been viewed yet. Does it mean anything at all?

On a semi-related note: apparently simply refreshing your browser increases the view count. I had gotten excited for a minute!