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[Music]
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hey everybody this is Dalton I am
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excited to talk to you today topic of
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today's talk is how to apply and succeed
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at y a combinator so to begin with let's
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talk about why it's worth applying to Y
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combinator it's a good idea to sit down
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and think about your startup this is
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Evergreen advice regardless of IC and so
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going through and answering the
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application questions
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um to organize and clarify your thinking
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super helpful right go look at the
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questions
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um it'll help you think about your own
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business and maybe find some edge cases
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and so I think that's worth doing for
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everybody in addition if you're sitting
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there watching this presentation the
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odds uh that YC is good fit for you is
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pretty good and then let's talk about
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the cost benefit analysis of applying to
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YC we very intentionally designed the
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application to be fast and easy to fill
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out and so the the downside is you apply
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and you don't don't get in but you only
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spend a tiny bit of time doing it versus
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the potential upside being very big man
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that's that's a pretty good trade-off
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and so those are all some reasons why
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it's worth applying to YC I want to talk
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about luck a little bit um I've spoken
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about this in past YC talks and I've
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noticed a lot of applicants that have
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gotten into YC referenced this talk that
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I gave years ago so I want to remind you
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all of kind of My Philosophy about
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creating luck certain people are luckier
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than others but one of the ways you can
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create luck and become luckier is to put
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yourself out there more to create this
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luck you need to take risks
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you can systematically put yourself out
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there
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to be in situations where good things
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can happen to you or surprising upside
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things can happen to you on the flip
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side if you avoid situations where you
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face rejection like applying to YC
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you're reducing the surface area to get
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lucky and so I think this is pretty good
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Evergreen advice regardless of what
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you're doing which is if you're looking
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for a startup idea if you're trying to
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learn how to do sales if you're trying
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to recruit great employees you want to
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put yourself out there and take risks
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you want to try a lot of different stuff
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and the more you can develop this luck
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creation skill the better and deciding
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to apply apply to YC itself is a way to
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great luck I also want to go through a
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lot of the weird reasons people come up
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with not to apply to IC again I've
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talked to lots of Founders and so these
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are all coming
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um from many conversations I've had in
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person with folks first off I am too
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early this is a very common one if you
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look at the history of great YC
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companies that have gotten in many of
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them
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pivoted after they got in and so if
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that's not too early I don't know what
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is many folks haven't quit their job
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they get into YC they haven't written
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any code
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um there's there's honestly no such
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thing as too early
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um and so I would not count that as a
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valid reason next I am too far along the
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flip side of I'm too early
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um this one we hear a lot again it's
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it's pretty funny because we have folks
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that get into YC that have I don't know
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half a million dollars in annual
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recurring Revenue also a common one here
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these days is oh I'm too far along
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because I've already raised some money
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we have folks that apply and get
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accepted to YC that have raised
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literally a million dollars
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um often more depending on uh their
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specific situation and so if you don't
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have product Market fit as per the other
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talks you've heard here there's a good
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chance that you are not too far along
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from YC and much of the help we can give
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you is to kind of zero in on and focus
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on finding product Market fit all right
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and so I wouldn't say to yourself well
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I'm too far along for YC
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um I doubt it next this is kind of a new
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one a lot of folks have seen our videos
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like this one and they think this is
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like a reasonable approximation of being
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an NYC that is not the case so let me
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just run through a few of these uh
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reasons why being a real YC founder is
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different than watching these videos
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first off we are real people believe it
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or not yeah
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um and by being in the batch you get our
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full attention you get real-time access
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to us we text with people all the time
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and you get to know us in person very
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different experience and so you get
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these one-on-one office hours with your
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group Partners folks like me and I'll
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tell you a secret there's tons of
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Secrets we tell you that we would never
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say on the internet we have to be you
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know we're careful about what things we
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say in this format and there's a whole
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breadth and depth of knowledge that you
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will only hear if you're NYC in addition
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there's a bunch of internal tools for
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Founders inside of YC work at a startup
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all of our proprietary fundraising data
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and tools our series a fundraising tools
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etc etc so so there's lots of stuff that
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go on behind the scenes it could not be
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more different than watching some videos
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on the internet another one that comes
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up a lot is a potential applicant is
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discouraged by someone in their life
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someone is trying to play the role of
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gatekeeper and that person is saying oh
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don't apply to YC you know and then
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there's a there's a few different
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reasons why they may say that you could
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ask someone that's saying oh don't apply
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to IC some of these questions hey so
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you're saying I shouldn't spend a few
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minutes filling out this application and
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applying to maybe getting in and I get
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half a million dollars up front and so
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if it's an investor discouraging you you
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should ask the investor oh so are you
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going to invest on what terms are you
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going to invest this is again this is a
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tip for you because if the investor is
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not willing to invest themselves they're
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simply saying they don't want to see you
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raise but they themselves are not going
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to invest you can call them out on that
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next sometimes folks are in some Market
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or some City or somewhere
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um and there's there's folks saying you
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know stay small stay in this country
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stay in the city don't think of this on
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a global scale YC's too big it's too far
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away and again I we fund people from all
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over the world from every city from
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every country and you want to ask them
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if if they're discouraging you from
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actually dreaming as big as you can
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dream because sometimes they are and I
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don't think that's great and then
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finally sometimes folks uh suggest not
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applying because some other theoretical
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thing might happen like maybe you'll do
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this maybe you'll raise a series a maybe
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you'll raise a seed round and again I
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want you to think about asking the
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person
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are you discouraging me from seizing an
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opportunity right in front of me for
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some theoretical thing that might happen
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and I think you'll you'll kind of see
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where they're coming from so anyway I
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think these are questions you can ask
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someone that's discouraging you from
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applying to YC and again maybe they'll
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have something good to say maybe they'll
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want to invest I don't know next up a
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few other reasons people sometimes don't
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apply one they think their company is
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too different or unique for YC to
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understand again if you look at our top
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companies list you'll see we fund
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companies in every vertical from every
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country and so again I I doubt it
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sometimes people are based on a location
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and they're not sure if we fund people
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in that location I assure you we do if
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you look at all the countries
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um for companies we fund we fund them
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all over
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sometimes people are worried that we
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funded a startup in the same space it's
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pretty common especially if it's a great
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startup idea to have multiple companies
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in the same space and so we don't hold
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that against someone okay and then
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finally people that have applied before
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um are upset about it and don't want to
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apply again because they fell they feel
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upset about not applying again I we're
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going to talk about this more later but
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I can't stress enough that it's actually
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a plus to have applied multiple times
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um and not a negative and so look don't
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let that hold you back I think my last
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point on this section is is a simple
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piece of advice don't overthink this
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just like anything with your startup
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don't overthink the decisions if
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something seems like it might be a good
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idea give it a shot it's as simple as
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that and we see a lot of people with
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these really complex ideas about the
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best time to apply to YC or when to
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apply to yce or what startup ideas to
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apply to IC with you know don't
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overthink this certainly not conducive
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with folks we've seen build big
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companies and look a lot of the reason
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people don't apply to ycee is because
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they're pretty confident they won't get
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it fair I would just suggest to everyone
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get used to doing things that you think
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probably won't work and get comfortable
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being uncomfortable in this way I think
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it's a really good lesson to set
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yourself up to do things that are kind
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of a long shot and the fact is most of
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the folks in the most recent YC batches
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are not first-time applicants there's
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some folks that applied five times six
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times seven times those folks had
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persistence they showed character and it
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worked for them and so uses just is just
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one little lesson on not being afraid of
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doing something you think has a
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relatively low odds of success here's a
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few good reasons not to apply to IC uh
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one is you don't want to work on the
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company for very long say you want to
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just work on it for the summer or six
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months and then go get a job okay yeah
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you know don't don't apply another one
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is if you don't think Venture uh capital
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is a good route to take all right that's
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fair I mean because because YC investing
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is a form of venture capital right and
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so if you don't want to pursue that type
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of business probably a good reason not
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to apply and then also if your business
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is not a technology startup say it's
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more of a traditional business where
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there's no technical component there's
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no programming there's no biotechnology
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okay that's probably a good reason not
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to apply that's not really
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um our sweet spot let's shift gears and
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let's talk about the application and let
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me give you some tips for your YC
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application first off you apply on our
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website you don't need permission you
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don't need to email us you don't need to
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send us a deck you just apply on our
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website it really is that simple let me
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give you some tips on your application
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first fill the whole thing out fill out
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the founder biographies a lot of the
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worst applications say worse but the
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ones that are just not strong the
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founders did not take the time to fill
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them out okay that's obviously someone
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that didn't put much effort in and so
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actually fill it out pay attention to
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little things like grammar punctuation
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capitalization little stuff like that if
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you don't if you don't do it certainly
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shows to us that you may not be that
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serious about applying to YC so do that
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stuff make a Founder video that follows
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directions we put directions on how to
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do the video sometimes people don't
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follow the directions for whatever
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reason and I just want to give you a
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little tip our entire application
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process has these detailed instructions
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and we definitely take into account if
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you follow them in our selection
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criteria this is one of the ways to tell
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how detail-oriented someone is if they
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just follow directions and So Pro tip
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read all the stuff follow the directions
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we definitely weigh that in our decision
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next your written answers should be
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clear and concise don't write a novel
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more words is not better right you don't
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get bonus points for writing something
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that's so long we can't scroll down the
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screen be clear be concise answer the
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question directly let me talk to you
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about what it's like to be on our side
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of the table someone that reads
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applications and so here are the
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questions that I ask myself when I'm
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reviewing someone's YC application first
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off who are the founders what's their
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backstory how do they come together how
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do they know each other who on the team
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is doing what okay I ask myself that
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next what is their idea what are they
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working on
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um do I understand what they're doing
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does it seem interesting have I heard
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this before what exactly do they have
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today right today at this moment in time
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is it built are there users
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um I really want to know what the
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current state of the union is on the
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product
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in addition is there any evidence that
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people want this they have customers
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they have users um are they using their
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own product in addition is there
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evidence that the founders are serious
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and serious in this in this sense is the
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following that they really want to do a
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startup
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right for instance if someone has left
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their job to work on this full-time
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that's an Evidence of seriousness if
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someone has applied multiple times and
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every time they apply
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they make more progress that's evidence
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of seriousness you see what I'm saying
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like it's it's trying to get the sense
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if they're just throwing in the
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application with
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for fun or if they really are serious
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about doing a startup and then finally
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um I look for what's impressive or
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unique or special about the application
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this could be different things sometimes
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the founders are unique sometimes the
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traction is unique sometimes the ideas
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and idea I've never heard before and so
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I really look for something that really
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stands out about the application what I
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do with this data that I just told you
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that I read is an application reader is
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I tell myself a little story and so I
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might say something again this is all my
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head but I might say something like oh
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this is the story of two friends we're
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both programmers working on
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infrastructure at Facebook and they quit
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their jobs three months ago to build a
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new Cloud hosting company they built a
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basic demo and have one first customer
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and that customer is using it on this
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website and I can go look at the website
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and our plan has become the top hosting
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company for all react apps great do you
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see how that's a story it has characters
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it has a beginning it has an end I
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understand what's going on
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um if I can tell this kind of story
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about your company by reading your
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application it means it was a good
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application on the flip side
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weak applications obfuscate everything
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and so I as a reader can't tell what's
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going on I don't understand what the
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idea actually is I don't understand the
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back story like why do these people know
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each other how do they meet I can't tell
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if they built it
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I have no idea you know I can't see a
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demo maybe it's built I don't know I
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can't tell if they have customers they
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might have customers but I can't
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actually tell and so it's basically
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impossible for me to tell a story about
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you because I don't even understand the
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basics to me this is actually a deep
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tourism for all aspects of your startup
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which is if I can't even understand
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basics of what you're trying to
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communicate to me you're not even the
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ball in the ballpark of convincing me
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right like if I don't even know if I
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can't parse what you're trying to say
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the odds of you convincing someone is
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basically zero and so you want to really
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make sure people understand the basics
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here's an example that I threw up
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there's a company called gitlab it's
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publicly traded you can go buy their
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stock it's a multi-billion dollar
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company this is from their YC
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application I just pulled it off to give
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you an example of what a clear
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description is do you see they're very
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concrete about what it is what it does
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who uses it they say a hundred thousand
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organizations use it they say
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programmers Apple use it this is really
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well done so me as a reader reading this
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Crystal Clear what gitlap is great
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application and look they did it in just
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a few sentences very well done here is a
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fake thing that I wrote because I don't
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want to shame anyone
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and I I put this together I don't even
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know if this is really exaggerated these
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are these are the kinds of things I read
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in applications sometimes where there
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are words here the words say things
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there's there's words I recognize but if
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you ask me to summarize what these three
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or four sentences are and tell a story
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about what you do or what it is or how
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it's different I would not be able to
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tell you this just turns my brain off so
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there you go please don't submit stuff
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like this
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I still don't know what they do I wrote
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this and I have no idea what this is
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okay let me give you some other tips our
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entire system rewards honest people
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acting in good faith if there's some
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hint somewhere in your application or
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elsewhere that you are being misleading
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in your answers your application will be
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rejected uh we're sympathetic to honest
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mistakes but anyone that's doing
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intentional obfuscation or
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misrepresentation of things in their
00:15:07
application like revenue or traction
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your founder background your educational
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history you name it that just that's
00:15:13
disqualifying you know it's pretty
00:15:15
common to see people kind of try to
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misrepresent revenue or make it look
00:15:19
like it's monthly revenue is really
00:15:21
annual revenue so just don't do things
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like this we notice and we really
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um don't like it as an application
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reader this is like automatic
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disqualification okay in addition I want
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you all to understand extraordinary
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claims on your application require
00:15:38
extraordinary evidence and so if your
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claim are hey we have no users cool like
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there's not a lot of evidence you would
00:15:45
need to show there but if you want to
00:15:47
argue that some big impressive company
00:15:49
is one of your customers you should be
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prepared to back that up or demonstrate
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that they are actually one of your
00:15:54
customers shouldn't be a problem in the
00:15:56
case of gitlab it wasn't a problem for
00:15:57
them to demonstrate who their customers
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were next a lot of people ask questions
00:16:00
around what their odds are of getting an
00:16:03
interview at ycee it's very hard to
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answer this question but I'm gonna do my
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best because it gets asked so much
00:16:08
probably the biggest variable
00:16:11
for if someone is selected for interview
00:16:13
is the quality and quantity of the
00:16:16
technical Talent on the founding team so
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if there is a team that's applying or at
00:16:21
least one of the of the founders is it a
00:16:24
skill set level to be hired into a
00:16:26
technical role at a top YC company they
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have 5x better odds than teams that
00:16:31
don't and quick note on this internships
00:16:33
are okay so say you're an intern at
00:16:35
stripe or Airbnb or a place like that
00:16:38
okay that counts and so it's very
00:16:41
helpful to have technical Talent on the
00:16:42
founding team and this this includes
00:16:44
biotech hard tech things like that right
00:16:46
this isn't just software but
00:16:48
definitely something we look at and then
00:16:50
as per this talk we did earlier in
00:16:52
startup School dispatch about tar pit
00:16:54
ideas teams where there aren't technical
00:16:56
Founders and they're working on an
00:16:58
unlaunched tarpet idea those folks have
00:17:01
the lowest odds that's a fact how can
00:17:02
you improve your odds of getting an
00:17:04
interview well first off add technical
00:17:06
talent to the team and so this is why we
00:17:08
have co-founder matching there's a
00:17:10
number of folks even in the current
00:17:11
batch that met via co-founder matching
00:17:13
and it works we love it what a great way
00:17:15
to add technical talent to your team
00:17:16
hooray quick note on this the entire YC
00:17:21
model
00:17:22
was built to not require networking we
00:17:25
don't want warm intros we don't want
00:17:27
pitch decks we don't want to hop on a
00:17:30
quick call that is not how YC Works in
00:17:33
our funding decisions we built a system
00:17:35
that is optimized for funding complete
00:17:38
strangers that fill out a form on our
00:17:40
website there's no tricks here it really
00:17:43
is that simple and if you ask alumni the
00:17:45
folks that I found are complete
00:17:47
strangers that I have not met before so
00:17:49
beware of folks out in the world that
00:17:51
claim they can help you get into YC they
00:17:53
claim they're connected with some other
00:17:55
investors and they want something they
00:17:57
want Equity they want money they're
00:17:59
basically scammers and so you should be
00:18:01
aware that there's lots of folks out
00:18:03
there in startup ecosystems that kind of
00:18:05
victimize aspiring Founders giving these
00:18:08
kinds of people Equity or whatever in
00:18:10
your company does not help you get into
00:18:11
YC I'm sorry let's talk about the
00:18:13
interview let me give you some interview
00:18:15
tips and preparation how do YC
00:18:17
interviews work if you're selected for
00:18:19
interviews after applying there's just a
00:18:21
10 minute Zoom call with us we expect
00:18:24
all the founders on your side to be
00:18:25
there there's usually two to four folks
00:18:28
from YC on the call on our side
00:18:30
and you should assume during the
00:18:31
interview that we have the application
00:18:33
that you applied with open on our screen
00:18:35
and we're looking at your application
00:18:36
while we're asking you questions or
00:18:38
taking notes all right this is how this
00:18:40
is how our workflow works on our side
00:18:42
now the first thing to understand is
00:18:44
that interviewers are trained to ask
00:18:46
basic questions help us understand your
00:18:49
startup these are not trick questions
00:18:51
these are basic simple questions and
00:18:54
these questions are highly context
00:18:56
dependent some folks over prepare for
00:19:00
interviews in a way that is not relevant
00:19:02
to them and they're surprised by the
00:19:04
questions we ask you you shouldn't be
00:19:06
surprised so for example if you are
00:19:08
pre-launch we often ask questions that
00:19:11
are relevant to a pre-launch company
00:19:12
when are you going to launch things like
00:19:15
that if you are in a regulated space say
00:19:17
fintech or insurance or things like that
00:19:19
we're going to ask you questions related
00:19:21
to your regulatory strategy if you're in
00:19:23
a space where there's many competitors
00:19:25
we're going to ask you about your
00:19:26
differentiation these are all very basic
00:19:28
questions and so I'd encourage you to
00:19:30
walk into the interview with an open
00:19:32
mind and expect to begin the interview
00:19:34
answering these basic questions and
00:19:37
hopefully this will turn into a quick
00:19:39
conversation about different topics once
00:19:41
we understand the basics for our initial
00:19:43
questions probably the biggest mistake I
00:19:45
see in folks preparing for their YC
00:19:48
interview is to treat it like an
00:19:49
adversarial process they treat it like I
00:19:52
don't know applying to college or I
00:19:55
don't I don't know how to explain it but
00:19:56
they you know we're we're like the other
00:19:58
team and their job is to like work
00:20:00
against us and there's a lot of YC
00:20:03
interview devices out there that I think
00:20:05
is pretty bad because it treats us as an
00:20:07
adversarial process and like let me make
00:20:09
something super clear to you the people
00:20:11
on our side of the zoom call when you
00:20:13
interview are likely the people that are
00:20:15
going to be working with your company if
00:20:18
you're accepted if you act
00:20:20
weird to them or mean to them or
00:20:22
adversarial to them that is completely
00:20:25
going to backfire on you because these
00:20:27
are the folks you're going to be working
00:20:28
with and the fact is interview is ask
00:20:30
themselves this question do I believe I
00:20:33
can have a productive productive working
00:20:35
relationship with these Founders okay so
00:20:37
to give you some examples Founders that
00:20:39
recite memorize speeches where they have
00:20:42
some memorized paragraph they just shout
00:20:43
at us oh man do we not like that uh
00:20:46
Founders that don't listen to the
00:20:47
question were asked and they did all
00:20:49
this preparation so they think they know
00:20:51
what we're going to ask and they recite
00:20:52
back some thing man do we not like that
00:20:55
and then finally Founders that seem to
00:20:56
be stretching the truth right like if we
00:20:58
ask very simple questions and we get the
00:21:00
sense that you're trying to fool us or
00:21:02
lie to us that's going to get you low
00:21:05
scores right because we're the people
00:21:06
you're going to be working with and um
00:21:08
if you don't seem trustworthy that
00:21:11
factors in okay so when you're preparing
00:21:13
for this remember this stuff in terms of
00:21:15
preparing for the interview most of the
00:21:17
folks that get into YC uh read the
00:21:20
instructions provide a lot of
00:21:21
instructions we also have official
00:21:23
videos like this particular video is an
00:21:25
official video put up by YC some folks
00:21:27
do extra interview practice uh with
00:21:30
other folks which can be helpful if it
00:21:33
helps you build confidence so that in
00:21:35
the moment you're not super nervous but
00:21:37
I just want to know it can backfire if
00:21:39
you train yourself if you do too much
00:21:41
preparation and you just give us
00:21:44
nonsense robotic answers so if you've
00:21:46
done so much interview preparation that
00:21:48
every time we ask a question you
00:21:50
immediately spout off some memorized
00:21:52
answer that will frustrate us and again
00:21:54
watch out for being coached by people
00:21:58
to be intentionally confusing or
00:22:00
misleading about what your company does
00:22:02
what the market is what your revenue is
00:22:04
we've heard a lot of horror stories out
00:22:06
there of someone being coached in an
00:22:09
interview preparation
00:22:11
basically try to fool us and that's not
00:22:15
helpful be thoughtful about what you say
00:22:17
and don't take anyone's advice too
00:22:19
seriously especially if it's not advice
00:22:21
that we're putting out ourselves okay so
00:22:23
let's talk about a successful interview
00:22:24
someone that gets into YC a good
00:22:26
interview is one where all the basic
00:22:28
questions that we ask are answered well
00:22:31
in a good interview the founders can
00:22:33
demonstrate a Mastery of their own
00:22:34
business they understand their own
00:22:36
numbers they understand the risks they
00:22:38
have a crisp idea on what to work on
00:22:40
next they have a really fleshed out view
00:22:42
of the whole business in our opinion the
00:22:44
founders are credible they're honest
00:22:47
they're self-aware about what the real
00:22:49
challenges are right like they're not in
00:22:51
denial about this but they still are
00:22:53
confident when they are speaking about
00:22:54
their business and then finally we
00:22:56
successful interviewees are
00:22:58
know how to be themselves and I know
00:23:00
this is like annoying when people like
00:23:01
Oh Be Yourself what does that mean let
00:23:03
me explain what I mean by be yourself it
00:23:05
means we want you to show up in an
00:23:06
authentic way
00:23:08
and not act like you're on a Shark Tank
00:23:11
Episode or a pitch competition there's
00:23:13
few things more Awkward for us on the
00:23:15
other side of the table when we you know
00:23:17
we get on a call and we want to talk to
00:23:18
you and you're like hello people we are
00:23:20
here to tell you about Urban oh man that
00:23:23
really
00:23:24
is rough on us the interviewers and so
00:23:27
try to just be natural and try to have a
00:23:29
good conversation and remember we're
00:23:30
people that want to see you succeed or
00:23:32
people that are looking for folks who
00:23:33
are excited to work with try to show who
00:23:36
your real self is for us to get excited
00:23:37
about working with if someone interviews
00:23:39
YC and they are not selected we send you
00:23:41
an email it has some quick feedback we
00:23:43
do our best to make it actionable and uh
00:23:46
focused on the most important factors in
00:23:48
our decision internalizing this feedback
00:23:50
and demonstrating that you've addressed
00:23:52
it in a future application is heavily
00:23:55
weighted in your favor you see what I'm
00:23:57
saying for folks that apply and don't
00:23:58
get in and then they address the
00:23:59
feedback from the interviewers the next
00:24:01
time they apply wow does that help we
00:24:03
really keep track of this stuff I
00:24:04
promise we do and for folks that really
00:24:06
internalize it and address the feedback
00:24:08
that helps in closing
00:24:11
um applying to Y combinator is simple
00:24:13
it's well documented it's a pretty good
00:24:16
bet in that
00:24:17
applying to IC is a tiny time commitment
00:24:20
with uncapped upside that could change
00:24:22
everything for you and your startup so
00:24:25
it's high Roi and then I just want to
00:24:27
encourage everyone out there to nurture
00:24:29
this mentality of creating luck which
00:24:31
means putting yourself out there over
00:24:33
and over and over again bring this to
00:24:35
all aspects of your startups because
00:24:37
it's a great lesson that's it thanks so
00:24:39
much everybody
00:24:42
[Music]
