HN Explorer

Ask HN: Rejected from YC? Want to try an experiment?

13 points by helen842000 ↗ HN
If you've been rejected from YC and you still plan to carry on with your startup, I'd like to hear from you!

I think it'd be awesome to track the progress of all the other great teams that YC missed out on.

There are a LOT of great ideas that just need some exposure to take off in their own right, or even get noticed for their determination by YC next cycle.

If you would like to contribute a blog post profiling your team & idea, let me know!

Who knows, if enough teams are interested - we might be able to have a 'virtual' demo day of our own!

I'm my username on gmail.com

14 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 44.0 ms ] thread
helen842000
Also it might be a good source of motivation for teams, ensuring you keep making progress on your idea if you know you've got to send a regular update out! :)
AznHisoka
I'm a single founder, can I still profile my idea?
helen842000
Sure! Personally I think single founders get a tough time of it, no reason why they can't do better than some teams. They accept from the start that all of the work falls to them.

I was part of a UK incubator scheme as a solo founder and was able to fly through decisions that the groups often found tough!

nubela
That's really the magic of being a single founder. Its true, being a single founder is tough, I am one, I should know. No one to share the downs with you? It doesn't matter because I'm strong enough to handle that. No one to throw around ideas for brainstorm? Ain't that what your social network is for (aka potentially users).

No, I don't choose to be a single founder, I have my eyes out for a great co-founder, but I don't wanna get one for the sake of getting one. And it doesn't help that I'm a technical founder, this really mean I can do everything myself (at the start).

Oh well.

helen842000
I agree totally! Ideally we'd all find fantastic co-founders, but being a solo founder will always beat a poor team.

Cofounders for the sake of it is a mistake.

helen842000
Feel free to post your project link if interested, I can drop you all a mail.
Lomorton
If you would be interesting chronicling your journey post-YC rejection on tech.li. Let me know - lindsay.oneal@tech.li
ohashi
I am just curious, contribute where?
helen842000
To a startup blog if enough teams are interested.

The idea being that each team can showcase their idea & demo in a public place (other than on their own site)

With regular blog updates, interviews on how each startup is progressing. A community to celebrate your small successes with.

There are 2000+ teams/solo founders that YC missed out on, being part of that alumnus, people can throw problems out and get some awesome answers.

kellyreid
we're a profitable company with paying users and an experienced team and we got no-sir'ed and I don't know why.

i don't know who they decided to interview over us, but i can't imagine that every single company is actually generating a profit like we are. feel free to get in touch and ask me anything.

TrevorJ
The relationship has to work both ways - maybe they felt that you are at a place that is beyond were YC could be of extreme value? If you are making a profit, you've got some options that many startups don't have.
andrewhillman
YC doesn't care about how much revenue you are bringing in, they care about how big you can get. They probably didn't feel the idea could get that big (scale)... from their perspective.