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How about YC-rejected Alumni network?

9 points by xmly ↗ HN
I filed 2016W at the very last minute, with no demo as "solo-founder". Actually I have a cofounder, just I never met him:) So my chance got rejected is much higher than 97%.

Today I can not stop thinking why not people got rejected start a network and help each other.

At least we could get feedback from each other, which we could not get from rejection.

Any thoughts?

23 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 58.3 ms ] thread
smt88
You don't need more feedback from other, unfunded founders. You need feedback from customers. Networking with other founders isn't a very useful activity once you already have your co-founder. If you're not coding, spend all of every day on customer discovery.
xmly
then why yc alumni network exists? Why yc provides mentors? Whose feedback is more valuable, mentors or customers?
smt88
The entire assumption of YC (and all investors, really) is that they're able to select companies that are likely to succeed. I'm not saying YC (or anyone) is good at it, but let's pretend that they are.

You're proposing to create a group of people who YC has decided are not likely to succeed. That doesn't make any sense.

YC alumni might want to be in a network so they can collaborate, make deals with each other, or find new jobs when their own company fails.

Why would you want to do that with the rejected group? Why not try to do that with other companies in general? There are lots of opportunities to meet other founders in any city with a decent level of entrepreneurship.

xmly
See, you already give me feedback and you are not my customer.
jjoe
You're stopping short of saying YC-rejected groups are failures (less likely to succeed) ergo their advice will certainly fall short. But then we learn better from failure in general and the failure of others. I think that rejected YC companies are one step closer to success.

So why not...

smt88
> we learn better from failure in general and the failure of others

If they've been rejected from YC, they're not failures. They're still working on their idea. You can't learn from their failure until they actually fail.

It's also really hard to learn from the failures of others. Most people only learn the hard way. I'm one of them, so I don't meant that in a judgmental way at all.

brudgers
I think the process of applying is useful for some people At least for me, it took me outside my comfort zone. I've always just operated under my own name and spokesmodelling "a company" instead for the video created a cognitive shift that I didn't know existed.

This article is probably a reasonable way to look at not getting accepted: http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2015/09/30/why-ive-stopped-do...

brudgers
There's actually a subtle difference in YC's criteria. YC selects against false positives rather than against false negatives. This means that YC selects with the knowing that some rejected companies are likely to succeed. YC also selects against companies that do not fit it's model, e.g. the recent thread where the founder wanted to organize as a UK LTD rather than a Delaware corporation.

To put it another way, even though asshole founders can succeed, YC purportedly selects against possible asshole founders when they are identifable. Part of this I suspect is general principle. Part, I suspect, is that asshole founders create additional work.

Finally, most entrepreneurs in most cities are not founding the sort of businesses that YC and the rest of Silicon Valley would classify as startups. Outside the bubble, an LLC that opens a restaurant gets called "a startup". While there are people in most markets doing businesses that take rocket fuel and either blow up or reach orbit, that model is much rarer out in the regular world.

GFischer
You can also use Show HN and Hacker News itself if you need more feedback (especially if it's your target demographic).

If we're not your target, you might not get the feedback you need.

Edit: there are lots of other networks available too. Getting into YC is extremely hard due to the sheer amount of applications they get, but they're not the only mentorship opportunity you can get.

In my case, we're being mentored by a local university, they don't have YC's pedigree but they helped several very succesful companies by local standards.

brudgers
On the one hand I agree that networking with other founders is pretend work that's easier than the real work of finding customers. On the other, my read of the question is that the goal is to overcome the disadvantage of a narrow network of which solo founding is a symptom. While there are people who can solo found a startup, there are people who can't and among those people some, though not all that should, realize that the first hurdle to creating a probable successful startup is expanding their network to include viable potential cofounders.

The analogy to YC's alumni network would be that YC alumni from different initial companies sometimes join together to form new companies or go to work for successful YC companies based on network effects.

That said, I don't at all disagree that product and customers are in general much more important than networking with other entrepreneurs. That doesn't mean that for some people finding a cofounder isn't a priority or that expanding a professional network could not be more important "right now" for long term success. Logistics also matter...so long as they don't displace head down determination to work like a rented mule.

xmly
Maybe as someone said we do not need feedbacks, which I think we all need.

But since already prepared the application, why not show it to more people?

smt88
> why not show it to more people?

Because most people will have strong opinions about it, and those opinions will be wrong. The only people who have the right opinions are your prospective customers. Go show it to them.

Mz
If I understand you correctly, you have not yet been rejected. You are just having big feels, feeling sure you will be rejected, and are flailing around looking for an emotional outlet, hoping to find people who will understand you.

This is the kind of thing where the answer is you write emo poetry or watch tear jerk movies or something until you have an actual answer in hand.

xmly
Not really. What I feel bad is a lot of 97% rejected applications may have pretty solid ideas. We could see the ideas of successful ones from demo day.

My actual purpose is I want to see rest of them.

Mz
I hate the meme "Ideas don't matter, execution does" but there is a reason it exists.

I have a sandbox website that I have long neglected where I want to talk about the architecture of ideas. Execution reveals assumptions you did not know you had. To have a successful start up, you need a density of value in your concepts.

I think most failed start ups have serious errors in their ideas, kind of like early pregnancies that miscarry because they aren't viable.

Unlike pregnancy, a startup has opportunities to become aware that it doesn't work and to self correct -- to pivot, for example.

You might learn something from seeing all the demos, but a "rejection club" is not a great way to reach out to people and ask for access to that information. You aren't even yet rejected. This is just seriously not the way to approach this.

xmly
I agree with your comment with ideas. Some ideas are totally not workable. That is why we could learn more from failures.

Many applicants may not like to show failed application to unknown people. But to a group of peers who experienced same thing, we could possibly share and learn from each other's application.

Mz
Generally speaking, a good example of what actually works is the strongest way to teach people how to do things that work.

Best of luck.

pavornyoh
If you have a strong conviction that what you are building/making will succeed, why do you need a "YC-Rejected Alumni Network? Why do you need the reminder of the rejection? What will be the purpose of such a network?
[dead] impulsecorp
I actually think is is a good idea. I agree that is seems like a huge waste for people to go through all that work/trouble and not have anybody else other than YC see the material they came up with. I am sure there are many great ideas out of the 97% that were rejected. Or, maybe some of these rejected ideas just need some fine tuning to become good.