300 Applications later! Here is what I learned.

[mynu]

Background: US based solo founder, No Ivy, no daddy’s silver spoon, no frat. Just cold hard work day and night to make my product and success.
The situation started when I applied YC application for S24, application asked me a lot of critical questions which I had to research, I filled up the application made a video and decided to apply to all the accelerators and investors in the USA. Found a list online and applied to each one of them.

Here is what I learned within 1 month:
1. My knowledge of exactly what I want in my product increased
2. Investors ask difficult questions regarding your product, PMF, GTM, Profitability, why this when that… questions which will make you stop in the middle of your pitch and make you think. I was able to dial those questions to the T with each application.
3. Became more ruthless in my answers and deterministic. That’s because I was not copy pasting my answers from previous applications, Each application new answers, same question. This way I know which applications got selected and what answers they liked.
4. Pitch deck became bulletproof! Since I was able to answer these questions well in the applications I got a much better clarity on the pitch deck and how to distill my product into simple words.
5. Beating the odds, I figured that since I don’t have the college pedigree and location of California, I needed to create my own luck. So I extended my time horizon and played the long game of applying to every single place possible, I even applied to investors who invest in health startups only, and mine is in cyber/ai.
6. Rejection Principle: Something which I have been toying with, if one needs to have a thick skin to endure the startup and business world one needs to invest in rejection, a lot of them. Since my startup is close to my heart, the rejections hit harder. Each time I get an email that my application was rejected I take it with a smile because I will have an epic story to tell that I got rejected from 299 investors only 1 selected me.
7. Shortcut to incubator knowledge: I truly believe that with these applications (200 more to reach my 500 goal) and googling my way into business concepts I will be able to improve my knowledge of what they will eventually teach me in YC.
8. This is just me: I wrote down each question and its answer in a notion database for each application, fed this information to a personal GPT so I can ask any question in the future and it will curate an answer to me easily. Also helps my team and new engineers know our product better.
9. YOU and your BUSINESS is the product and all these investors and accelerators are betting on you not the other way around. Don’t lose your power in the market

Edit 1: Yes we have an actual MVP and demo in works and about to launch for limited beta. Yes We have had validation from 3 CISOs who are interested in the demo and if all promises are valid they will entertain a deal and yes I work 80 hours weekly as I’m a tech founder on my business with a team of 2 engineers while applying for 300 applications.

Edit 2: Since a lot of you have DMed me for the list here it is: https://www.failory.com/startups/united-states-accelerators-incubators

To everyone who is in this race, remember you are doing a much better job than 99% of the world. If you just have an idea, execute it, build something that you can truely call yours. Competition is good but try to compete in mission and vision not product similarity, because they can copy your product but cannot outrun your vision for years.

If interested in connecting I can share my LinkedIn. Don’t know if it’s against the rules.

 

[rainn]

@mynu Honestly dude, just focus on building whatever you’re building. I think eventually you’ll find out that a lot of this stuff is just a waste of time.

 

[shirel]

@rainn Yeah I’m just like.. meh. What an example of a clearly motivated hungry founder going in the wrong direction.

Lots of ways to raise money. No need to turn you and your company into some kind of alien just to appeal to VCs. Just aim for and focus on your users.

You think you’re leaning a lot about growing a business by researching and filling out applications but you’ll learn more by… growing a business.

 

[mynu]

@rainn I had an alternate motive for these many applications. I didn’t know anything about startups business, financial projections, product, market fit, etc. this forced me to research a lot. I read a lot, watch a lot of videos and many TED talks during the process. I feel like this one month sprint helped compared to a business degree. Lastly I wanted to practice art of getting rejection

 

[futantagenda]

@mynu Put that effort in building and talking to customers.

Plus reach out if you need a cofounder >> grit lab

 

[mynu]

@futantagenda Well we have a team who is working on product development and ML implementation. I direct my focus on both engineering as well as fundraising side.

 

[hunterchappy]

@mynu Just remember that the goal of your startup isn't getting funded, it's solving a profitable problem. The path from 0 => solved problem => funded startup is much, much easier than the path from 0 => funded problem statement => solved problem.

Getting feedback from investors is better than nothing, but it's always less valuable than feedback from customers.

 

[mynu]

@hunterchappy Yes 100%

 

[mslady63]

@hunterchappy I myself have learned this the hard way, I have also seen countless pre-seed and seed startups learn this the hard way. Probably one of the more important things to keep in mind, investment != traction.

 

[hunterchappy]

@mslady63 Yup -- if there's an easy way to learn it, my dead startup and I don't know what it is

 

[reformedguy]

@rainn That the difference between you and him. You think it’s a waste of time. He thinks if there is a 1/10000 chance this works it could explode my business. Isn’t always the difference but sometimes it is

 

[hunterchappy]

@reformedguy I think you're underestimsting how along investors for money is easier and less scary than actually trying to get customers and build a working business. Pushing for a more emotional comfortable 1 in 10k chance isn't a better strategy than pushing for the scarier 1 in 100.

 

[jreneew8]

@rainn Man this is so true

 

[scarletbeast]

@mynu Hate to say it but you're wasting your time. You're "playing" business.

 

[notly1988]

@scarletbeast Playing business doesn’t seem like the right characterization in this case. I’d say 300 apps does sound like overkill and perhaps a signal of futility (but NOT necessarily a reflection of actual futility to be clear). What if the 300th found out 299 orgs passed on it? You get my point. The quantity of asks doesn’t to me seem like a badge of honor I’ sorry to say. If it were me I’d try to establish a dialog with investors rather than giving 300 startup schools/investors an up or down vote on it. That dialog might inform how to land your ask wayyyyy before asking the 300th

 

[scarletbeast]

@notly1988 Obviously it depends on how long he spent on this process, but in general if your pitch and deck is perfect you've probably spent too long working on it. Especially because unless he's selling to high enterprise by far the easiest way to raise his pre seed would be to actually spend said time building, get a few customers to pay him something at all, and THEN entering in these applications. Look at his fifth point, you don't create luck by getting an investor to pity you, you create it with revenue. I'm just deeply saddened by pre rev aspiring founders like him that waste time on decks instead of early validation mrr.

 

[notly1988]

@scarletbeast Your point about perfecting a pitch being overkill is thought provoking. They did say they were targeting enterprise so I’ve got to drive down the center of you both. Let’s assume everything’s built and turn-key. One can’t just upload it to the App Store and hope for the best. "Getting a few customers" could be out of reach without a platform. They really do need the muscle of a VC or accelerator to crack enterprise. And if this person just builds blindly like everyone is suggesting without validation it could be for nothing. That’s why I say engage an org, get an oz. of validation. Get advice on getting funded/admitted then get paid to go to market with some backing. Don’t just sit in your bedroom in New Hampshire jamming the keyboard sending out 300 apps nor hacking with the idea enterprise is going to magically engage with you if you have something built

 

[mynu]

@notly1988 Hi Zach your point is accurate: our product is turn key with low touch, it’s actually is designed for medium to large business and govt agencies. I can’t just sell it to avg user as they won’t have any use of it so no validation there. However I have pitched this idea to few CISOs before building and they said they are happy to take demos in their companies once it’s built out, so validation from them is enough to apply to accelerators and investors. This coming week we will be doing demos in those companies to get feedback. So yes getting a badge from an investor and backing will instill trust with potential customers enough to entertain us on a phone call. Hence the effort

 

[notly1988]

@mynu Great. All the best

 

[futantagenda]

@notly1988 I now feel he is actually playing with us.

Good going man!