Why to Apply to YCombinator
I first wanted to apply to YCombinator's Summer 2007 cycle with the intention of making teachers' jobs a little easier. I was going to make an exceptional homework creation tool, one that would be intuitive to use. But wait, I could code it, but I didn't have any cofounders. Without a cofounder, I had no hope of getting in.
So I looked around for one. Everyone at work had families, so they were out. But I had a wonderful, supportive girlfriend. Why not her? What a strange idea, to start a company with your girlfriend! But I talked with her about it, and we started working together. Then something pretty amazing happened. It never mattered that she had zero technical knowledge. She knew what worked and what didn't, what made sense and what didn't. So we created something and ran it by my father. He said, "This is a little hard for non-technical people to use. I'll work with you on it." Now all of a sudden, I had two cofounders.
In the meantime, I received an invitation to Startup School. Not only that, but I was invited to the dinner at YCombinator beforehand. Wow! That was a wonderful feeling to be invited to something like that. I was all smiles the rest of the week. I was going to California!
.. And it was approaching fast. I asked off work for that Friday and Monday, then everyone pulled a few crazy all-nighters to get the demo done and our YC application in top shape. I'll always remember everyone doing a ten-second countdown right before we hit the 'Submit' button. That was hands-down the most fun I've had in one night.
Since we worked so well together, and since we had a deadline to meet, we'd ended up with an excellent demo. And had a lot of fun all around.
So I was off to California. Weebly happened to fit in nicely with what we were doing (teachers could use Weebly to build their sites), so I met with Chris, Dan, and David. They're really fun to talk with! They had framed a little circuit and hung it on the wall that displayed a count of how many users they had. The geekiness of that had me chuckling. And the view from the YScraper was absolutely spectacular.
Up next was the YCombinator dinner. It was amazing to see Dexter in person. I couldn't get over that I was staring at an actual life-sized robot that was balancing on its own. I noticed a claw on another robot, so I asked Trevor to squeeze my hand with it. Yeowch! But now I'm a part of a small group that can say they've been attacked by a robot.
I met the Zenter guys, Wayne and Robby. I showed our demo and they thought it was excellent, which is really awesome to hear from rockstar coders like them. Then I saw Zenter and was put to shame :) It was great to see all the amazing stuff they did. After talking for a little bit, I was amazed to learn that Wayne had a kid on the way. Wowza, that's pretty brave to still do YCombinator! But we all know how Zenter worked out.
The night wore on, and at one point Paul seemed to look at me and do a high-five gesture, so I high-fived back. Then I looked behind me. Whoops, he was going to high-five someone else. Everyone laughed. He asked me what I did, and I replied without thinking, "I'm making teachers' lives a little easier. I'm making a homework creation tool that even teachers will know how to use." "Don't use that as your tagline, or you'll alienate all your customers," he said and grinned. D'oh, I didn't mean it like that, but everyone laughed again. Looking back on it, that whole encounter was pretty amusing.
Up next was Startup School, which was a blast. Afterwards, I had some time to kill before catching my jet home, so I hitched Caltrain into San Francisco and waited in line to catch a taxi. I talked with the guy in front of me for awhile. He was from the midwest and came to San Francisco on a business trip. He was interesting t...
37 comments
[ 559 ms ] story [ 1018 ms ] threadQuit arguing with me. Jesus Christ. I was trying to be encouraging, as in "You can sell your product without pg and company."
And yeah, we're saving up money. One day, we'll go full time regardless of what our situation is. But we'd love to work alongside a group of really talented people. Plus applying to YC is fun, regardless of the chances of getting in.
I'll always remember watching Monty (the less-famous robot) grab a beer bottle from someone's hand at the pre-startup-school reception. That really was like being in the future.
Anyway, thanks for the read. You trying again this time? Good luck.
;) Seriously, though. Very nice post. Thanks.
When we realized that making something for public schools was a really bad position for a tiny startup to be in (if you've ever wondered why the technology tools that teachers use are so bad, it's because a public school's buying process is broken), we wondered what to do about it. All Emily and I knew is that we have a huge, overpowering desire to start a company. So I looked at my strengths to find something that I could be really passionate about. I've made random little video games for a long time, and I've held a job in the gamedev industry for the last two years, so I realized, "Hey, you don't have to work on a webapp. Just do what you really love."
Emily and I talked for awhile, and we realized that a lot of people want to create their own game, but don't want to deal with the complicated details. I don't blame them. Game art is complicated to create. And not only are most games created in C++, which is a horrible language for a beginner to use, but the complexities of the graphics libraries make it almost impossible to just create a cool little thing to show off to your friends quickly. Plus, cross-platform is really messy to accomplish.
So we're building something to make 2D game creation suck less. Making multiplayer Mario has always been a little dream of mine. And imagine a day when you can just read through some simple instructions and make something right away, then have your creation show up where your friends can play it. Or you're playing through someone else's game and spot a cool-looking character, so you press a button and you can use that character in your games, too.
But, one step at a time.
It's not concerning that it's a huge project. And Emily doesn't mind that she has no idea how to contribute. We're just working on it part of each day and saving up our money, and trusting that one day, with a lot of hard work, things will fall into place. And heck, our idea is for video games, something that YC has already said everyone and their brother tries to apply with. But we applied, even if our chances are nil, and had a lot of fun hammering out our application and doing our traditional loud ten-second countdown before submitting.
So however crazy your idea seems, let's apply anyway! If we all do, then at least one of us will get in, which is really cool.
What's everyone working on?
P.S. Anyone interested in game development should come hang out with the Gamedev crew at irc.afternet.org, channel #gamedev. They're really smart and they'll help you with any problems you're running into.
Well, the question is: "Who is un(der)serviced in this market?" If the public schools are bad, it is probably the parents and students. I don't know much about your product, but one approach might be to see how it can be sold to parents who want to improve their children's education.
You right, I couldn't ever imagine where I'll find co-founders.
More. I met a lot of cool smart people in Silicon Valley and in the US. I even found one Russian guy who moved to US 9 years ago.
This SOOOO exciting! And the things become more and more interesting.
I hope we meet one day and eat that sushi)
Good luck :)
It's like the story in the Bible where Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of lentils. Genesis 25: 30-34