A note to all those rejected

[christianrose33]

Especially those rejected more than once - Keep working on your startup, and try getting profitable without taking investor money. You don’t NEED YC, but YC need you. They need you to become their next unicorn. The odds are stacked against you but in favour of YC.

For us this was the last time applying. We foolishly threw away other accelerator invites over hopes of YC seeing us to be a good fit. I’ve seen horrible companies get interviews, where founders straight up LIE about their metrics, and traction. While startups doing the most insane things getting rejected from even an interview.

It’s sad to see YC become this way since PG and Altman left. Unfortunately the partners and admission process at the moment fail horribly. Great founders go unrecognized, and won’t even know why due to the black box YC operates in without any transparency.

I wouldn’t be surprised if their early success is over, and YC lose out on unicorn hunting over the next 2-3 years. I suspect Angelpad will take their throne very soon.

We will build the next unicorn, alone, without the help of YC. And that’s the day we’ll come back, and remind them of how they failed to spot real value when it stared them in the face.

Good luck everyone. Now go build your company!

 

[contemplative_seeker]

@christianrose33 Including this, how many times have you applied to YC?

 

[kyl300]

@christianrose33 YC isn't perfect. It's a great way to "accelerate" your startup, but that is it, being accepted or rejected does not define where you will end up, I mean it sure helps, and it would have been nice if we were accepted. If it is a crucial part of success, YC would have given us exact metrics on how many people were accepted, how many shipped and crashed, how many are over X valuation....etc. They don't and they won't because if you look at their numbers, they're probably way worse than the numbers of all startups they rejected. Not because they are bad, but that is how VC's work. VC's take pride if their success rate is 40%, that means that out of 10 decisions they make, 6 are bad. Some VC's like BVP have an anti-portfolio to tell founders that their decisions aren't perfect and they, too, can make a poor judgment on great ideas and products. We're all humans after all. So, I see the OP's point, and I also see the point of those accepted. I don't know if I will be applying again though after they sent a rejection e-mail followed by an e-mail beginning with "correction, we apologize for the mistake..." If a simple e-mail was not double-checked by a multi-billion dollar corporation, I wonder how much thought and work actually go into every single application. That said, Good luck to all rejected applicants, you will get there with YC or not, and Congratulations to those accepted, I really hope to see you all change our world for the better. I look forward to using as many products of all the founders both accepted or rejected.

 

[dogwoodfan]

@christianrose33 "remind them of how they failed to spot real value when it stared them in the face" - why?

 

[christianrose33]

@dogwoodfan

1. Cause it’d feel good.
2. It would inspire others rejected founders that YC are meaningless in the chase to build a unicorn

 

[naturalone]

@christianrose33 Not sure why people are downvoting you. However, I think most entrepreneurs greatly overestimate their ability to succeed, yourself included. If you haven't made it after 3.5 years, why in earth would you expect the next time to be different.

 

[all41and14all]

@christianrose33 A note to everyone who read this. Rejection is part of the entire process, don't take it personal. Sure it hurts, but you will see more of it in your journey.

I thought this would be the moment for us. We have a 50% MoM growth and 98% retention. All paying users. No one would say no to such metrics I assumed. I was wrong, we still got rejected. My co-founder left yesterday. Had better things to do with his life he said. YC was just the confirmation that he needed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to provide that conviction.

The thing is every startup thinks that they are special. I think the same. But in the end, if you expected it to be smooth, you shouldn't have started it all.