from Hacker News

Looking for data to make soft hacking of YC application process

by khmel on 10/31/16, 8:23 AM with 1 comments

Hi! I would like to make soft hacking of YC application process. Lookig for breakdown of companies who made to YC by industry, country, b2b\b2c, Global \ US Market, business stage, product development stage, money raised befor applying, number of employees, number of founders, founders background - for the last 5 batches. I'm usually good at sucessfully entering highly competitive clubs - I made 50:1 to McKinsey, 16:1 to Stanford GSB, 100:1 to Citadel hedgefund. I know that selection triggers exist and numbers work. My team was rejected by YC with Moscow-based blockchain fintech b2b company. We checked logs - YC did it just because of our video, nobody never checked the product. So looks like some triggers did not go through - either b2b, or blockchain, or Russia. Some other accelerators said us that YC is mostly for consumer startups, and Bay area in general is not big on blockchain. So need historical proof, and analyze successful startup cases that have the same pattern. Will appreciate help with statistics - this will help all of us avoiding info asymmetry in the future, and spend our time and efforts wisely.

Thank you

Igor

  • by GFischer on 11/1/16, 5:34 PM

    I don't know if giving you data about YC applications would be fair.

    I can confirm that when I applied, they only looked at our video and never saw our demo/prototype.

    Some things I believe help making into YC much easier (but not guaranteed):

    - Female founders or co-founder

    - Very fast and demonstrable traction

    - Large potential market

    - Founders with successful backgrounds (looks like you got that covered)

    --

    Stuff that won't help on its own:

    - Interesting / world changing project (unless you have demonstrable traction). They say they invest in idea-stage companies, I believe that only happens with founders with huge exits on their backs.

    Note that this is just my own opinion and I did NOT get into YC and I'm still a BigCo employee.