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Show HN: My post-YC-rejection start-up

11 points by greglockwood ↗ HN
http://invincibilitee.com

Me and my co-founder submitted an app for YC W11, with a web site that would help college graduates figure out what jobs they could get with their chosen degree. We got a rejection email, and already had this as a back-up idea in case we did get rejected. So in the month between rejection and today, we found a printer, found some graphic designers, and got enough done that we felt comfortable with it as a first iteration. I know there aren't so many non-web app startups on HN, but I thought y'all might like to see how 2 guys rebounded from YC rejection.

15 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 49.1 ms ] thread
talbina
The stock photo with the Live Chat button. Please get rid of it, thanks.
SupremumLimit
Yeah, that corporate happy face clashes with the rest of the design.
greglockwood
Point taken. I'll see about getting it changed.
talbina
You should design some shirts and submit them. Don't wait for users.

http://www.invincibilitee.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=88

Empty page.

When Reddit was starting out, one of the founders was submitting stories all day for a couple of months, under different usernames. Just saying.

greglockwood
We have, but they are under the Limited Production page: http://www.invincibilitee.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=101

The link you posted is for legacy shirts, that have proven to sell well and will be available permanently.

I know the 3-tier system might be a little confusing, and we are trying to make it as intuitive as possible. That's why I posted this, so thank you for the suggestions!

kertap
I don't think it's that intuitive. After see the awesome shark picture I went looking for more and clicked the T-Shirts link under invincibilitee.

If you're not going to put something under the first link in your side bar maybe you should have a message on that page directing the user to the non immortal tees.

greglockwood
Very good point. Doing that now. Thanks again everyone for the suggestions!
swanson
I checked the FAQ briefly and didn't see this mentioned -- what happens in regards to the design rights of something I submit? I see that I get a royalty payment and a one-time lump sum, but do I retain the rights to my own design? Can I post it on your site and then sell it on my own site or another (Cafepress, etc). Or is part of the agreement that I am transferring ownership over to you guys?
greglockwood
On the submission page, there is a large font link to the Submission Release form which answers any questions like that. (http://www.invincibilitee.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=125) As long as it's just a submitted design (as in we have not accepted to use the design), you give us a 60 day window of not offering it to other sites or vendors. If we don't ask to use it within that 60 days, you can do whatever you'd like with it again. If we reach an agreement with you to use the design, you retain ownership of the design, but transfer exclusive rights to use it to us. So, basically, you can't let anyone else use it, but we can't take it and sell it either.

The Submission Release form explains it in a more "legalese" way. We use LegalZoom for our legal documents such as the Submission Release form.

JPK5
Did you give up on your 1st idea just because YC rejected you?

I've had a similar idea in the past, and I think there is a market for a such a site. I think it's a shame you gave up on something because of one rejection.

greglockwood
We have not given up on the college degree idea yet, but we see it as a longer-term project in terms of setup, so we put it on the shelf while we were able to get this setup in a relatively quick order (a month).

So no, we haven't given up, and we too think there is a market for the site.

vabmit
http://www.zazzle.com/ is already very dominant and vertically integrated in that space. Did you knowingly launch a clone? Or, think that this was an original idea? How do you hope to compete with them and the others doing the same thing? What's your value add?

To me, this space seems too cots, low margin, and crowded, to even build a lifestyle business in. But, good luck!

greglockwood
Zazzle is a large custom t-shirt company. We do not make custom tees for people, we are our own brand that offers select designs created by artists around the world.

If I was to compare us to an already established company, it would be much closer to Threadless, Design by Humans, or Uneetee than Zazzle. We are aware that we are not the first to create a shirt company in this manner, but we believe that there is plenty of room in the market, and that our original and exclusive designs will help us cave out our own niche in the market.