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Ask PG/HN: Questions about applying to YC

15 points by serverdude ↗ HN
I have an idea I developed recently that I believe is fairly complicated. I would be able to implement only a prototype in the next few days before the deadline. I am in two minds - either I can apply to YC in this round with a prototype only and perhaps hurt my chances or I can apply in the next round with a reasonable "alpha" version of my idea and perhaps increase my chances.

What do you suggest?

Also, do you get people who "reapply" after getting rejected and if so, how many of them make it the second time?

9 comments

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pg
A prototype is enough for us.

We often accept people who reapply. The best known is probably Drew Houston of Dropbox. There were at least two in the most recent batch: FanVibe and PagerDuty. For the PagerDuty guys it was the fourth time they'd applied.

serverdude
Ah - thank you, I will try my best to apply in this round!:)
Simucal
Do they re-apply with different ideas or the same ones but more developed?
agmiklas
We applied with PagerDuty twice (first time rejected at the application stage, second time successful). The other two times were different ideas (rejected at the interview stage).

I'm actually curious now if we set the record for most rejections prior to an acceptance.

coryl
Persistence! I'm impressed.
pg
Yes, I think 3 is the record.
danilocampos
If YC selects based on people and not ideas, what changes between applications? Does the submitter grow in some meaningful way, and that sticks out?
pg
There are multiple explanations. We care more about people than ideas, but we don't care zero about ideas. Especially if a startup is passionately committed to what seems a bad idea; we'll usually reject them no matter how good the people are.

When people reapply it's often with different teams. I think all 3 cases I mentioned did.

People do change somewhat between applications. Someone who's only 25 gets 4% more experience each year.

And also, as we say in the email when we turn people down, we're often simply wrong.

SteveMorin
This is good to know, just like startups it's better to iterate early and often