Kat from YC here. Sam, Matt Krisiloff and I are happy to answer any questions about the Fellowship. You can also send questions to fellowship@ycombinator.com.
It's a 12k equity-free grant, it lasts for 8 weeks, you can do it remotely, and it's primarily meant for idea and prototype-stage companies. No dinners and no formal Demo Day, but there will be kickoff and end events in Mountain View where teams will present to the YC community. We'll fly out remote teams for those.
Can my company join, aiming to finish our flagship product?
My company released lots of products, all of them had critical acclaim and high user reviews, but we ran out of money before releasing our main product, and we never had marketing money, so our sales are nowhere interesting.
I am wondering if you consider this early enough or not. (we had no investment beside from extra money from the original founders).
It sounds like you might be doing a company re-launch from the ground up? If that's the case, definitely apply for YCF.
If you still have successful ancillary products and just want to develop your flagship product with YC's help, consider applying to YC W16. Applications for that will open up in August.
Hi, Matt and Kat. Cool to see the focus on helping more people start companies - I had written off an article bouncing around over the weekend alleging that rich families are the key to entrepreneurship [1]. Maybe it is true, but with enough YC fellowships it doesn't have to be.
Question: my organization is a nonprofit co-op. I know YC recently started accepting nonprofits - what's your opinion on them for YC fellowships?
Unfortunately we're not going to be accepting non-profits for this first experiment. If it goes well though, we hope to fund some this way in the future.
Thanks for making yourself available, Matt. Sounds like an incredible opportunity.
What kind of progress do you expect founders to make by the end of the Fellowship? Put another way, if the goal of participation in Y Combinator is for companies to build enough traction to become top-tier candidates for an institutional fundraise, what is the outcome that participants in the Fellowship should hope to achieve?
We'd like teams to make as much progress as possible during the 8-weeks of the fellowship. If you have a prototype, that would mean launching and getting your first customers. If you're at idea stage that would mean building a prototype and talking to users. At the end of the 8-weeks we hope the teams will be ready to apply for YC W16 (it's not a requirement -- but we'll encourage it).
Does YC ever consider ideas that aren't designed to be billion-dollar companies? For instance, if someone was working on a next-gen diagnostics tool for VoIP, they might realistically be able to get to $10-20M, maybe 10x if things go really well. But it's hard to see that becoming a billion+ company under any circumstances.
One of the biggest things I've learned from being around YC community is that most successful ideas start out as small but end up being very large. I would encourage you to think bigger about the fundamental problems you're solving and then how you can turn solving the immediate problem into something really big down the line. Hope this helps!
It's OK to be working on something that's hard to imagine how it would grow to be a really big thing, that's how most ideas start out. (Apple made hobbyist computers, Google was another search engine of 1000 -- how big of a deal could they have thought these would become?). It's important to be open-minded to the pathways of how your idea could become something big as it keeps growing though, and it's good to stop and think about those ideas every once in awhile.
I am a grad student working on a purely research based concept that I feel could make a good start to a company. However, I'm fully committed to the research at the university for the next year. The YCF would be used to get this project from just a thesis to an applicable concept. Would this be a good start to what YC is looking for?
It would, but not until you're ready to work on it full-time. We're not sure yet whether we'll offer YCF again (will depend how it goes), but if we do in the future it could be a good fit.
Hi, my co-founder and I are currently working on our idea from Hawaii and Portland Or. Will separate remote locations be ok during the fellowship, or will you want us to both work from the same location?
Hi Matt, we run a web design & development business and have been trying to free up resource to work on a saas product which we already have potential customers lined up for...
We would put full-time focus on this, but we can't really close up shop completely, we could put projects on hold, but we'd need to at least lightly manage/delegate tasks when things come up occasionally. Is that going to work?
Are there any plans to do a normal YC program (7%/$120k) but also be inclusive of remote teams?
0% for $12k is obviously a great deal, but my main stumbling block has always been the loss of income from dropping paid work, and $12k over two months is barely half an engineer's salary - let alone to cover multiple team members.
That said, it may well be enough to make someone like me think "well, at least I won't be earning zero dollars..."
Ok, rephrase that as "at least I'm only losing 80% of my salary instead of 100%".
Plenty of people who could create great things are also saddled with families and expenses that run to 80+% of their disposable incomes. It's all well and good to suggest that an individual can live on ramen noodles, but a family and young children cannot and should not have to. That leaves only a few options left for such people to start a company: do it on the side in evenings/weekends; and save up a nest egg then quit/reduce your job to work on the startup.
Suggesting that willingness to forgo having a family is a pre-requisite for entrepreneurship is fallacious.
Please only submit one application! Figure out whether you'd rather work on your solo project or with the co-founder, and then choose whichever idea you think is more promising.
Hi Matt! As I know it is not required to move to the Bay Area for the program. Will be possible to join in person in 2-3 weeks later, let's say, in October? Thanks
How much have you sold through Kickstarter? I'd say use your best judgement, and if you're not certain, still apply. If it's a lot, you may just want to apply to the W16 batch of YC (applications open in August).
Great opportunity, thanks guys. I'll point out that first yc.submittable form is a bit confusing: http://imgur.com/ITk71jN
I guess the "YC Fellowship Application" is a link to it? I wasn't sure where to click besides 'submit' and was a bit afraid it'd submit a blank form and lock me out of a real submission later! (It didn't, of course – the submit button is just an anchor tag pointing to https://yc.submittable.com/submit/44764)
Sorry about that -- it's definitely safe to click through that first button. The actual application page's submit button, however, will submit your application!
edit: we've changed it to link directly to the application form now. Thanks for pointing this out.
Hi Kat! We're considering applying and wondering if you folks have a conception of companies that would be considered too far along for this program. In our situation, we're have not yet taken investment, but we would definitely love to and still have much to learn about getting ready for that. We're also somewhat beyond the prototype phase, but only to the extent that we're soon shipping a version 1 product to crowdfunding backers. Thanks!
It sounds like you may be far enough along to apply for Y Combinator (those applications open in late August). But I don't have quite enough information -- so if you're in doubt, you should go ahead and apply for the Fellowship. If you're working on hardware you'll have to illustrate how you plan to make progress with the limited amount of funding the fellowship provides.
Thanks. The last question is: does YC have restrictions about the types of companies that can apply?
Our company makes open source sex toys, and we've got an ever-growing list of places that just won't work with businesses related to adult products (stripe, square, mailchimp, kickstarter, ...). Fingers crossed that YC doesn't care.
Hi Kat,
considering applying for a hardware-based startup. I have enough savings to quit my current job for 2 months but the 12k would be enough to build a few prototypes. Would you consider a robotics-based startup?
Yes - we are considering hardware-based startups. We know $12k isn't a lot to get a hardware company going. We'd ask that you tell us in the application how you plan to make progress in the short amount of time, with a small amount of funding.
As Sam said, take a semester off. I did that during college just for some personal exploration and its one of the best decisions I ever made. Once you get started with work, taking a 6 month break is MUCH harder - aka it'll never be this easy to get time off again.
If you work for startups taking time off is not hard at all! Startups fail all the time and it is an ideal time to take 6 months off. There is a bit of a stigma to taking too much time off between jobs, but if you can show that you actually built something during that time, it isn't hard to overcome. I even took off 8 months after I quit a job to write free software. I simply showed prospective companies the code I wrote during that time.
The main thing is to save money while you are working! It gives you freedom.
I took a year off college to build a startup. I went back after the year cause we got acquired. But regardless, I learnt more about building products and leading a good life in that year than rest of my 24 breathing years.
If your school policies are as flexible as mine (I was at CMU, which is awesome when it comes to leaves), definitely consider taking a semester off.
5 years down the line, it won't matter that much. So it's not the big battle you should be fighting.
It's important to us that the team itself can build the product it's trying to create. When you try to hire contractors to build out an idea, it's expensive, slows down iteration speed, and it's really hard to judge the quality of their work if you're non-technical too. If your team is entirely non-technical, try to make a good case for why that won't be a problem, and what you're doing to close that skill gap.
> We encourage you to come to Mountain View if you can make it, but remote interviews over video chat will be okay too ...
For remote teams with viable ideas that YC is interested in funding, how remote can such teams be? Can teams apply from outside the US; from Europe, Asia or Africa?
Yes absolutely. Teams from anywhere in the world are welcome to apply. We just ask that you have a strong internet connection that allows for clear, reliable video chats.
We hope accepted teams will still apply to YC (the timeline for that will be a little bit later than the normal application period.
If you aren't accepted to YCF, you're definitely welcome to apply to YC W16 with no penalty as well -- try to make good progress though in the interim period.
Hi! I am 32 years old, have a young family, and a steady software engineering job at a large software company. I have always loved the idea of a traditional YC experience but have never applied because I feel like I am not at a stage in my life where I'd be a good fit. Is it fair to say that this Fellowship experiment is an attempt to examine the "may have a good idea but is not very mobile" demographic?
1) If we are still looking for / selecting technical co-founders, can we apply?
2) Does the entire team need to dedicate itself full time to this? Alternatively, if the "paying bills" job is quite light (2-3 hours per day), and we are willing to forego some sleep, can we still apply?
1) You can apply as a solo founder, though we do think it's important that the fellowship teams we fund are able to build product themselves. Working with contractors is expensive and can slow you down considerably. If you are non-technical, try to make a strong case for why that won't be a problem.
2) We prefer that you are able to work full-time on the product for the 8 weeks of the program.
Hi, I just started filling out the form when I encountered this question - 'Will all founders commit to working exclusively on this project for the next six months?'
Isn't the point of this, that you are definitely committing 8 weeks and going from there?
We're requiring that you'll work on it full-time for 8 weeks, but we hope you'll commit to it longer; the most important founder trait to us is determination -- answering no to that question won't disqualify you, but we'd love it if you were able to answer yes!
e.g. "We've been working on this project() for over a year on evenings and weekends, collectively contributing >1500 effort hours, and we have spent $75k on rent and expenses. To keep that going, and have each member meet their familial costs, at least some of us need to earn money from consulting. However, if sufficient follow-on funding can be found, we'd be very glad to answer yes, and focus on this exclusively."
It's a hardware project requiring a fair amount of warehouse/build space, hence the expenses.
I'd say you should answer that question honestly there, but explain the situation in the video you make. We're pretty understanding, and don't want to discourage people from giving their ideas a real try.
Is there a bias against solo founders? I've yet to find any coworkers or friends that want to work on a project together (not enough technical skills or too busy working overtime at their jobs).
No bias, but it generally is harder to build a successful company as a solo founder (though totally possible! Dropbox, Zenefits, Instacart all started with solo founders). If you're applying alone, tell us how you plan to overcome the solo hurdles of being alone / managing everything to do, and if you plan to bring someone in soon, let us know.
I think this is entirely misguided. People have selective memory: all but one of these companies had multiple founders. Hell, most companies we associate today with a single person had more than one founder. It's just that one held the most publicly visible role:
Apple: Steve Jobs | + Steve Wozniak + Ronald Wayne
Microsoft: Bill Gates | + Paul Allen
Google: Larry Page | + Sergey Brin
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg | + Dustin Moskovitz + Chris Hughes + Andrew McCollum + Eduardo Saverin
Uber[1]: Travis Kalanick | + Garrett Camp + Ryan Graves
Tesla[1]: Elon Musk | + JB Straubel + Martin Eberhard + Marc Tarpenning + Ian Wright
[1]: Travis & Elon musk weren't even founders of Uber & Tesla. They just "became" founders post factum in startup lore.
Having a dominant founder is different than being an only founder. But what's common to all these companies is that one founder was really dominant and had the vision. In fact, out of the top companies, it's safe to say that very large proportion have a dominant founder, who wound up having much more equity than the other founder.
I don't understand why there are so many downvotes on something that is, indeed, a verifiable statistical fact. Can you downvoters write a message that elaborates on why you have such a strong reaction to this data?
dominant founder is highly subjective and simply wrong in some of those cases, as pointed out above. Even if you want to argue there was a 'dominant' founder (whatever that means), your examples don't make sense:
Apple would not exist without Steve Wozniak
Google started as a partnership
Allen sold qdos to IBM which established Microsoft
I'd argue that Apple had a dominant founder in the early days, but it was Steve Wozniak, not Steve Jobs. He'd basically built the Apple I in its entirety and shown it off at Homebrew before Steve Jobs said "Let's build a company around this and sell it."
Also, Larry was always the primary driver behind Google; it started out as his thesis project, PageRank is named for him, and he'd already started crawling the web by the time Sergey joined. Sergey's initial startup idea was to order pizza via fax machine. Google obviously wouldn't exist without both of them, and Larry was smart enough to share equity and credit equally, but a startup at the YC fellowship stage is much more likely to look like Larry's thesis project than Google when it took VC.
Jobs had to persuade him to leave HP, and do all the selling and marketing, those are also important parts of building a business. In my view it was a partnership and you're ignoring a huge part of what made Apple Apple. That leaves you with Google, which also had two very early significant players.
I'm not arguing against single founders, it's perfectly possible, but most companies are not started by a single founder, they are collaborations and are all the better for it.
Where would be best to put this in the application form? I have explained that I am looking for co-founders and what I look for in them in the "Is there anything else we should know about your company?" section and am at the word limit. Can't seem to find a question that prompts me to to talk about how I will make do for the time being.
Hi Kat, we're very excited to hear about this and we look forward to applying. The FAQ for the normal YC program says that it's fine for the cofounders to submit separate applications focusing on different ideas. Does that apply for the fellowship as well?
Hey Kat, thanks for being available for questions!
I'm currently on F-1 (student) visa, and I'll be graduating soon. And I think this may represent some other people's situation as well.
In order to maintain the visa status after graduation while working, I'll need an OPT (Optional Practical Training). OPT is supported by the school AND a company that hires the person full-time, and is commonly used before the employee gets an H1-B. Clearly if I work on an idea full-time, I won't be working for a established company in full-time. Will YCF be a able to help in this case if accepted? For example, by hiring the team as YC employee in paperworks for the 8 weeks, but allowing the team to work on their own ideas?
Unfortunately we don't have the bandwidth to get involved with visas before or during the program :( If you can't do it from the Bay Area though, you can still apply to do it remotely--we want to try working with remote teams!
You don't need a job offer to do OPT. I'm on an F-1 student visa in the US, and just finished a PhD, and will be starting a company on OPT. You even qualify for the STEM extension (you just have to register your business on e-verify). This gives a total of 29 months of runway, which is more time than I have money for.
You don't need any help from YC to do this - talk to your international student office, they process lots of OPT applications. Read the instructions on the USCIS website. They are very clear on this, you can start a company, you don't even need to incorporate to satisfy those requirements (although, this is not legal advice, talk to your international student office, and their lawyers).
Thanks for sharing. I guess registering your own company e-verify counts that you are employed, so you don't need to worry about the 90 days unemployment limit? Also good luck with your start-up!
Hey Kat, thanks for taking questions. I noticed you said the main aim of the program is to build a prototype or acquire a first customer. Our company is still working on our prototype, but we just got our first 3 paying beta customers last week. Is that a bit too late stage?
A few questions about tax (guess who is doing their taxes right now)
1. What are the tax implications of these fellowships for non-US citizens? The reason I ask is anyone with any experience of the IRS will want to avoid dealing with it if at all possible.
2. Will accepting such a grant mean the recipient will have to file a tax return with the IRS?
3. What about withholding taxes? Will the non-us recipient need to file a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E form?
Hi, Do you look at how many lives will be impacted because of the idea or how easy it is to monetize the idea? I feel my webapp can help users find needle in the haystack but I haven't really gotten to the business model part yet.
I see a lot of emphasis in other comments on the importance of teams. I'm a solo founder that is close to launch. I realize my company would be stronger with a cofounder, but I just haven't found the right person/people who are willing to take on that role yet. I'll be applying, but I was curious if the chances of being accepted are less for single founder companies.
Hey Kat (Sam and Matt too)! I am a grade 11 High School student from Singapore, and I’m considering applying with my buddy. The problem is that we have our End-of-Year / Promotional exams from 23 Sept to 30 Sept, and we won’t be able to get excused from school for this. However, we will be able to skip school and commit for the whole of October + November + December.
Would YC Fellowship be open to later stage startups?
We've already gone through a previous accelerator, done some fundraising (below series A) and have employees. Moving would be difficult for us since our key business is in fashion (we're in NYC) and also employees. As founders we're happy to go down to SF once in a while, but the remote option would suit us perfectly.
Seems clear from the about / FAQ pages that (at least for now) the answer to this is no. But would be cool to have something along these lines available for companies that prefer remote!
We don't have beta ready, but we do have wireframes. Should we post them instead in "If you have an online demo, what's the url? (Please don't password protect it; just use an obscure url.)" question?
I think the underlying goal here is to broaden yc network, really to find more workers, not founders.
The fwd.us initiative seems dead in the water, so can't do much there. This is a much more clever, more politically astute approach to finding possible candidates.
YC has evolved quite a bit. This seems like a good way for us to scale and to enable more innovation. A lot of companies need the full $120k, but I bet many will be able to make great progress with just $12k.
We thought about trying to combine them, but they seem too different.
I think as the popularity and # of applications of YC has increase over the years, YC has naturally leaned towards startups who were further along. This way they can make that shift official without losing the original vision of YC.
I like this idea. But I agree, it's a problem and this is probably one reason for experimenting with this. It sounds like the number of apps are already crazy, so not sure how YC will be able to sort through them all with more than a crap shoot probability of success.
According the PG, the big ideas are not obvious at first, so how can you make good decisions on so many ideas in so little time? Probably YC is going to filter the apps through 1-2K YC founders or something and then have a score sheet, silos of expertise, etc. Basically selection by committee.
Though I like the concept, I am skeptical of the judging, as well as the sheer number of apps coming in worldwide - too much white noise which hurts the ability of the many US based startups trying to get a seat at the table.
Another great initiative from YC, which I'm sure will yield incredible access to talented entrepreneurs. Surely there will be signal-to-noise issues, but if any group is equipped to sift through for (and help develop) talent, it's YC.
$12k is not a lot of money in the grand scheme, but it is a huge grant to many talented founders/teams who otherwise wouldn't be able to take this leap.
So, I read through the description three times. And I'm puzzled as to what the real differences are between a YC Fellowship, and traditional YC investment.
Are the key differences - that the Fellowship is a grant, not an equity investment (for $12K, rather than the larger YC investment), that it lasts for only 8 weeks, and that the Fellowships aren't required to move to the Bay Area?
It's also designed for prototype and idea-stage teams in mind. Also, there won't be a traditional Demo Day at the end, but there will be an end event where teams will come to Mountain View to present to YC partners and alumni.
>We understand that $12,000 is not a lot of money, and this won’t make sense for everyone. But for some people, it may be the difference between going to work at a big company and starting the next Airbnb.
Maybe if the founders of AirBnB had been given $12,000 they wouldn't have needed to make money though illegal spamming.
This is really interesting, and seems like a great opportunity for people in a position to take advantage of it. Particularly the ability to work remotely. An 8-week relocation could have been a major sticking pint for many groups.
If I wasn't tied down at my job for the foreseeable future I would jump at this chance to go hard on an idea out of my "future/dream projects" design docs folder that I only get to sporadically put time towards.
The announcement's discussion of 'good founders' led me to view this as supporting individuals, as well as teams. In contrast to YC's stance on only really exceptional solo founders, could this program be more tailored to a solo founder, perhaps still looking for a co-founder?
I'm glad you will be slightly more open to solo founders. I also like that you are open to a more remote experience.
I think this project could be very helpful in my situation, I have a great idea that is progressing (Deep Learning/AI Image Recognition SaaS) but would have a hard time putting together a suitable team that could survive with our current obligations in San Francisco (families, house payments, etc.) Maybe getting myself working on it full time could get it to the point where it could sustain itself enough that YC proper could work out financially for a bigger team. Very excited, I'm definitely going to apply.
At the risk of repeating myself, if you're thinking of applying as a solo founder you're solving the wrong problem. You need a co-founder more than the money (see also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9918690)
If you are interested in 'pre-team' you should check out EF in London (joinef.com). They are all about helping technical co-founders meet. Some of the companies have raised amongst the largest seed rounds in Europe.
> Please be extremely open minded about solo founders. I feel that is one consideration that hasn't been adapted with the changing tech landscape.
This is something I always worry about too. I have several really amazing people that I could partner with on a few different things but due to financial obligations there isn't anyway they'd be able to join full time unless there was an investment. So pitching as a solo always makes me nervous that I'll be immediately discounted even if I could bring in a partner shortly thereafter.
> I have several really amazing people that I could partner with on a few different things but due to financial obligations there isn't anyway they'd be able to join full time unless there was an investment. So pitching as a solo always makes me nervous that I'll be immediately discounted even if I could bring in a partner shortly thereafter.
It's a fair point, but you have to take into account the fact that a lot of those people won't join you when you do get investment. It's the same thing as when two founders show up and talk about their rolodex of talent they have waiting to be hired as soon as there's money in the door - it's a useful data point, and certainly something to consider, but a good percentage of those people will typically not work out, or won't like the terms, or will want too much money, etc. So you can't treat it the same as the people who have the team onboard now.
I'd still encourage you to apply -- there's nothing to lose, and definitely no penalty for applying again later if not accepted. Dropbox, Instacart, and Zenefits were all accepted as solo founders -- you can talk about your plans to bring one of them on soon.
The bias against solo founders seems to be being mentioned a lot. There's actually a solution to this in Europe - Entrepreneur First (joinef.com), a seed investment programme which you can apply for before you have a team (and even a concrete idea). Most people who come to us as individuals meet their cofounder on the programme and go on to raise some of the largest seed rounds in Europe.
Full disclosure: I work for EF - but if you're experiencing the sole technical founder problem you should check us out.
This quote caught my eye from the FAQ section of the fellowship page:
Can a single person apply for funding?
Yes, but the odds of being accepted are lower. A startup is too much work for one person.
A statement such as "A startup is too much work for one person" seems unusually stark and absolute for a company as progressive as YC. There are always exceptions, as mattkrisiloff as noted below.
There is a reason that solo founder companies are considered exceptional.
I've been running my own solo small business for 8 years now. No need to mince words, it sucks. Trying to do the same, but with a startup? Where rapid growth is the key indicator for whether your business is dead or alive? I honestly don't believe most people are capable.
They are very strongly advising people to get help. It's good advice.
But they use empirical evidence to back up that statement. YC is in the trenches everyday and see how much work it is. It's an observation from past experiences.
I think you're setting yourself up for a world of hurt here. Starting a company is really hard, and there is very little downside to being in a team. VCs agree on this, and will show the same attitude towards solo founders as YC does.
The real question is why you're even contemplating being a solo founder. Discounting you actually wanting to be solo (that's a whole different kettle of fish) the reason is probably because it's really hard to find a co-founder. Co-founder dating doesn't work, meetups have terrible SNR, etc.
It's an unfortunate (for the rest of the world, YC might disagree) fact that the best place to find a co-founder are places like Stanford. Elite US universities, which encourage entrepreneurship, where external factors align to create lots of liquidity around able co-founders.
So while I think something like the YC Fellowship is great, the team has missed the boat. The actual problem in very early stage startups is not money, but suitable co-founders.
(Of course I'm totally biased, since I run a startup program based on this concept in the UK [1].)
I'm not even sure I could do it alone. It's so much work. My co-founder and I lean on each other for motivation and support. When it's you against the world, a teammate can be invaluable. Particularly when it's looking gloomy. Which it will.
But if you strike out alone, good luck! I can't speak for everyone obviously and I can't generalize and say it only works this way. Just giving my two cents.
Any mention of health insurance, or other things like that? One of the biggest reasons people do go to work for large companies instead of starting their own business is things like that. Without them, you're really only targeting the young kids right out of school, most of whom (but not all) don't really need that much in healthcare.
Might not be the answer you want to hear, but it's the truth. If you can not deal with the ambiguity of not being covered for long term illness by insurance, entrepreneurship is likely not for you.
No, it's not the truth. There is absolutely nothing correlating entrepreneurship with not being able to insure yourself or your family. The only reason that is right now is because the startup culture is filled with 20 somethings right out of school, and no one wants to change that.
If you're a U.S. resident, PPACA has made this a lot easier. I recently bought an individual health plan on healthcare.gov for $250/mo (not including subsidies). If you make less than $50k/yr the amount is further subsidized. It can be more if you have a family, but in any case, with a fellowship income of $6k/mo you should be able to buy a health plan, at least for those two months.
My read was that the main business expense is expected to be the expenses of the founders, so it's perfectly okay to use the money to pay for rent / food / insurance / etc.
Older people are more likely to have a spouse with insurance or to already be freelancing/contracting and used to providing their own insurance. Even in the days before Obamacare, I think there was a short time you were allowed to be uninsured without being excluded by insurance companies. COBRA also helps fill the gaps (in addition to Obamacare itself).
Please check the fine print, but that is exactly what I did. I quit my job, moved to SF and realized that if I didn't get insurance I would have to pay a huge penalty at year end. I looked in to affordable insurance and found out California offers free insurance if you have zero income.
People are free to do whatever they want with the grant and not go any further with YC but it's obvious that the good will and grant will cause a large percentage of them to not do that.
It will be up to the wider community to educate the young impressionable kids who take the money that they have no obligations to YC and that there is no such thing as loyalty in the valley. YC is sure as hell gong to chuck them to the road if they don't work out.
Unfortunately a lot of these kids will probably feel guilt over taking the money and feel like they have some kind of obligation to take deals that are much worse for them.
I love Cialdini, thanks for linking. I recommend his book on Influence to everyone.
I did think about this reciprocity initially when I heard no equity involved, however I don't think YC & Co's problem is getting startups to agree take their money after mentoring? Their issue is likely getting enough investment opportunities to put cash into as fast as they can raise it. ( ie-pretty fast ). For that they need a bigger opportunity pipeline.
So, i basically agree that they are getting first dibs, but due little to Cialdini's rule on reciprocity. I'd point more towards 'Liking' (ie building the trust early) or 'Authority' since they are getting in the door first with founders and are likely the initial startup mentor.
What I see, is that this program is just a simple (relative) way to ignite some ideas that are on the cusp of being implemented, remove some of the founding barriers, and start a conversation with their team earlier on in the process (no one wants to be the third on the list to call to invest in a great co.). The standard YC class schedule and size limitations are likely the gating factors to their growth, especially when interest in 'startup investing' isn't declining, and YC has already made moves to make it easier for non-accredited investors to invest.
Maybe this is in line with what you were referring to.
You can definitely apply while still having your job, but you must be willing to work on it full-time for at least the duration of the Fellowship program. We hope you'll commit to it longer than that too -- if your startup is promising, you'll be working on it for many years to come.
However, I read an answer by one of the YC staff and they told the commenter that a current college student could apply, as long as they were willing to take the semester off. So it sounds like they are serious about the full time work requirement.
YC is an entire team and as with every great team, the most influential work is being done by people we shall never know. Kudos to everyone there.
That being said, this Sama is one freaking impressive DOer. From the time he came in to now, this feels like the YC you would expect 10 years from now.
Don't underestimate that 12k + YC network and help. Most unicorns that came from the YC program started with 20k not long ago.
Too much money can kill a small and inexperienced team, be lean, scrappy and bootstrap to prove then raise to grow.
This is fairly aligned with what I described before, making tiny bets or investments across large number of individuals or startups.
Having said that $12,000 is too small of a figure to make a realistic impact. Rather it would be better to focus on boostrapping and making that amount every month, and continually reinvest in your business.
YC's first batch, the Summer Founders Program, was just 6k per founder for 5-7% equity -- teams were expected to make that last for three months (as opposed to YCF's two), and were required to pick up and move on top of that. That funding was enough for Reddit to get started, and we think there will be other great founders who will be able to start good companies with this amount too.
A very interesting proposition! I am thrilled to see this kind of model come to life.
> Selected teams are strongly encouraged to move to the Bay Area for the program, but it’s not required.
I wish it wasn't so strongly encouraged. To move anywhere on a whim for 8 weeks is crazy to me, especially since the processes and tools for remote work are so readily available. It's becoming increasingly important to know and understand how to work with team members and stake holders all over the globe, so why not encourage that mindset from the very beginning?
From my point of view this is very much aimed at the just graduated crowd. These are young people thattypically just graduated in May, maybe took the summer off or had a summer internship and are debating what to do next. 12k to them is more than plenty for living with Mom and Dad for a few more months or going on an 8 week adventure to SF.
Of course this will be a great opportunity for someone debating quitting a job or something, but it seems the most available people will be those just out of college.
To that end it will be interesting to actually see what types of people that this program works for and are accepted.
If you have good ideas, that's great, but it's not that important. We primarily want to see that you and your co-founders are a very determined, smart team working on an interesting idea. We expect a lot of ideas to keep evolving as teams work on their companies, and any business models would of course change with that as well.
Don't try to send us business plans -- we won't look at them.
This could shift how technology is funded on a scale much larger than YC already has. Teams probably need more like $50k, but even $12k is going to be the difference for some great people. Congrats to YC for pushing things forward, again. Let a million flowers bloom!
12K is more than I'd make in a month (because I'm a terrible negotiator when it comes to money - and old) but what do they want you to get done in what 5 or 6 weeks?
I have to say that I love this idea. It addresses the biggest deficiency in the typical Silicon Valley VC funding model, in that it requires moving to Silicon Valley. It also bridges the gap in low-level seed funding which stops many ideas from becoming reality. Perhaps you could call this "catalyst-stage funding" since it will probably reduce the activation energy for getting many ideas started (to use a physics analogy).
So, in short, go YC, you rock!
That said, I have a few questions:
1) Any idea of how many slots are open for this round? I expect you will get many more applications than YC normally gets.
2) Some teams may have members with families who won't want to move to SV and will work remotely. Other teams may have members who can and want to move. Some teams may have a mix. What are your thoughts on splitting a team, having some remote and some in SV? Would this provide advantages over having no one in SV, or would splitting the team have so many downsides that it would be better to be all remote?
3) For a team that already has a prototype and is beginning to work on getting customers, but is not able to relocate, would YCF be a good choice?
1) Around 20 -- we want to keep this test batch small. If successful, we'd grow future batches.
2) I think it would depend on your company and what you're trying to do. I can think of advantages to either way, and if accepted it's something we can talk about.
3) If you're just starting to get customers (or struggling with it), still apply. It will be a judgement call on whether you're too far along and should just apply to YC W16, but relocating or not won't make a difference in that assessment.
Wow. I am super impressed that this is being allowed remotely. I really hope this is foreshadowing a shift in being more supportive of remote teams for the larger YC program.
What kind of progress are you expecting teams to make during the 8 weeks?
How greatly do you anticipate this program impact getting into the "real" YC winter batch? Do you expect that after 8 weeks most good startups would be "ready" to be accepted into the winter class?
Do you expect that after completing the 8 weeks, teams will be ready to raise funds?
We want teams to make as much progress as possible based on wherever they're starting at (ie for an idea-stage team, it could be building a prototype and getting it into the hands of some users, for a prototype team, launching and getting customers)
We hope we'll be able to help teams a lot -- YCF teams will be held up to the same standards as all other YC applicants though if they choose to apply. There won't be special treatment for YCF teams.
Maybe -- we at least hope they'll apply for funding from YC!
One of the hardest things to do is get enough past the idea stage to get to a prototype to attract an investor. A little cash can make that happen a whole lot faster.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 744 ms ] threadMy company released lots of products, all of them had critical acclaim and high user reviews, but we ran out of money before releasing our main product, and we never had marketing money, so our sales are nowhere interesting.
I am wondering if you consider this early enough or not. (we had no investment beside from extra money from the original founders).
If you still have successful ancillary products and just want to develop your flagship product with YC's help, consider applying to YC W16. Applications for that will open up in August.
Question: my organization is a nonprofit co-op. I know YC recently started accepting nonprofits - what's your opinion on them for YC fellowships?
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1: http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene-...
What kind of progress do you expect founders to make by the end of the Fellowship? Put another way, if the goal of participation in Y Combinator is for companies to build enough traction to become top-tier candidates for an institutional fundraise, what is the outcome that participants in the Fellowship should hope to achieve?
What advice do you have for such ideas?
It's OK to be working on something that's hard to imagine how it would grow to be a really big thing, that's how most ideas start out. (Apple made hobbyist computers, Google was another search engine of 1000 -- how big of a deal could they have thought these would become?). It's important to be open-minded to the pathways of how your idea could become something big as it keeps growing though, and it's good to stop and think about those ideas every once in awhile.
I am a grad student working on a purely research based concept that I feel could make a good start to a company. However, I'm fully committed to the research at the university for the next year. The YCF would be used to get this project from just a thesis to an applicable concept. Would this be a good start to what YC is looking for?
We would put full-time focus on this, but we can't really close up shop completely, we could put projects on hold, but we'd need to at least lightly manage/delegate tasks when things come up occasionally. Is that going to work?
0% for $12k is obviously a great deal, but my main stumbling block has always been the loss of income from dropping paid work, and $12k over two months is barely half an engineer's salary - let alone to cover multiple team members.
That said, it may well be enough to make someone like me think "well, at least I won't be earning zero dollars..."
Plenty of people who could create great things are also saddled with families and expenses that run to 80+% of their disposable incomes. It's all well and good to suggest that an individual can live on ramen noodles, but a family and young children cannot and should not have to. That leaves only a few options left for such people to start a company: do it on the side in evenings/weekends; and save up a nest egg then quit/reduce your job to work on the startup.
Suggesting that willingness to forgo having a family is a pre-requisite for entrepreneurship is fallacious.
I guess the "YC Fellowship Application" is a link to it? I wasn't sure where to click besides 'submit' and was a bit afraid it'd submit a blank form and lock me out of a real submission later! (It didn't, of course – the submit button is just an anchor tag pointing to https://yc.submittable.com/submit/44764)
edit: we've changed it to link directly to the application form now. Thanks for pointing this out.
Our company makes open source sex toys, and we've got an ever-growing list of places that just won't work with businesses related to adult products (stripe, square, mailchimp, kickstarter, ...). Fingers crossed that YC doesn't care.
The main thing is to save money while you are working! It gives you freedom.
If your school policies are as flexible as mine (I was at CMU, which is awesome when it comes to leaves), definitely consider taking a semester off.
5 years down the line, it won't matter that much. So it's not the big battle you should be fighting.
For remote teams with viable ideas that YC is interested in funding, how remote can such teams be? Can teams apply from outside the US; from Europe, Asia or Africa?
We hope accepted teams will still apply to YC (the timeline for that will be a little bit later than the normal application period.
If you aren't accepted to YCF, you're definitely welcome to apply to YC W16 with no penalty as well -- try to make good progress though in the interim period.
That said, if you wanted to apply to the normal YC W16 batch after YCF, you'd still be asked to make the move.
I was wondering what is the expected next 'round' of investment after successfully finishing the program.
Could one join the usual YC program or should he raise a larger amount of money after the program?
Two questions:
1) If we are still looking for / selecting technical co-founders, can we apply?
2) Does the entire team need to dedicate itself full time to this? Alternatively, if the "paying bills" job is quite light (2-3 hours per day), and we are willing to forego some sleep, can we still apply?
Cheers
2) We prefer that you are able to work full-time on the product for the 8 weeks of the program.
The same way students can take a semester off, could employed people take a sabbatical to focus on this?
Cheers
e.g. "We've been working on this project() for over a year on evenings and weekends, collectively contributing >1500 effort hours, and we have spent $75k on rent and expenses. To keep that going, and have each member meet their familial costs, at least some of us need to earn money from consulting. However, if sufficient follow-on funding can be found, we'd be very glad to answer yes, and focus on this exclusively."
It's a hardware project requiring a fair amount of warehouse/build space, hence the expenses.
"Can a single person apply for funding?
Yes, but the odds of being accepted are lower. A startup is too much work for one person."
I'm pretty sure you don't mean it is "too much work" for success to be a possible outcome, but that's what your copy says at the moment.
I don't understand why there are so many downvotes on something that is, indeed, a verifiable statistical fact. Can you downvoters write a message that elaborates on why you have such a strong reaction to this data?
Apple would not exist without Steve Wozniak
Google started as a partnership
Allen sold qdos to IBM which established Microsoft
Also, Larry was always the primary driver behind Google; it started out as his thesis project, PageRank is named for him, and he'd already started crawling the web by the time Sergey joined. Sergey's initial startup idea was to order pizza via fax machine. Google obviously wouldn't exist without both of them, and Larry was smart enough to share equity and credit equally, but a startup at the YC fellowship stage is much more likely to look like Larry's thesis project than Google when it took VC.
I'm not arguing against single founders, it's perfectly possible, but most companies are not started by a single founder, they are collaborations and are all the better for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S83fysRwn4&feature=youtu.be
I'm currently on F-1 (student) visa, and I'll be graduating soon. And I think this may represent some other people's situation as well.
In order to maintain the visa status after graduation while working, I'll need an OPT (Optional Practical Training). OPT is supported by the school AND a company that hires the person full-time, and is commonly used before the employee gets an H1-B. Clearly if I work on an idea full-time, I won't be working for a established company in full-time. Will YCF be a able to help in this case if accepted? For example, by hiring the team as YC employee in paperworks for the 8 weeks, but allowing the team to work on their own ideas?
You don't need any help from YC to do this - talk to your international student office, they process lots of OPT applications. Read the instructions on the USCIS website. They are very clear on this, you can start a company, you don't even need to incorporate to satisfy those requirements (although, this is not legal advice, talk to your international student office, and their lawyers).
1. What are the tax implications of these fellowships for non-US citizens? The reason I ask is anyone with any experience of the IRS will want to avoid dealing with it if at all possible.
2. Will accepting such a grant mean the recipient will have to file a tax return with the IRS?
3. What about withholding taxes? Will the non-us recipient need to file a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E form?
Can I still apply?
Would YC Fellowship be open to later stage startups?
We've already gone through a previous accelerator, done some fundraising (below series A) and have employees. Moving would be difficult for us since our key business is in fashion (we're in NYC) and also employees. As founders we're happy to go down to SF once in a while, but the remote option would suit us perfectly.
thanks!
I'm just concerned if they're going to cut out later stage startups who have fundraising but re-launched or pivoted.
This program sounds amazing. We took 30K from a good friend and they took some equity. Can we still apply? We would be willing to forfeit on the 12K
Can you let me know the timelines for the following,
1. When are we likely to have our interview? 2. When are we expected to kickstart our work?
We are currently working in a company. Answers to the above questions will help us to plan on quitting our regular job.
The fwd.us initiative seems dead in the water, so can't do much there. This is a much more clever, more politically astute approach to finding possible candidates.
We thought about trying to combine them, but they seem too different.
According the PG, the big ideas are not obvious at first, so how can you make good decisions on so many ideas in so little time? Probably YC is going to filter the apps through 1-2K YC founders or something and then have a score sheet, silos of expertise, etc. Basically selection by committee.
Though I like the concept, I am skeptical of the judging, as well as the sheer number of apps coming in worldwide - too much white noise which hurts the ability of the many US based startups trying to get a seat at the table.
$12k is not a lot of money in the grand scheme, but it is a huge grant to many talented founders/teams who otherwise wouldn't be able to take this leap.
Are the key differences - that the Fellowship is a grant, not an equity investment (for $12K, rather than the larger YC investment), that it lasts for only 8 weeks, and that the Fellowships aren't required to move to the Bay Area?
Maybe if the founders of AirBnB had been given $12,000 they wouldn't have needed to make money though illegal spamming.
If I wasn't tied down at my job for the foreseeable future I would jump at this chance to go hard on an idea out of my "future/dream projects" design docs folder that I only get to sporadically put time towards.
But the bar will still remain higher for solo founders given all of our historical data.
I think this project could be very helpful in my situation, I have a great idea that is progressing (Deep Learning/AI Image Recognition SaaS) but would have a hard time putting together a suitable team that could survive with our current obligations in San Francisco (families, house payments, etc.) Maybe getting myself working on it full time could get it to the point where it could sustain itself enough that YC proper could work out financially for a bigger team. Very excited, I'm definitely going to apply.
As a next move, I'd like to see them go "pre-team" and put talented individuals with complimentary skill sets together behind a single idea.
Full disclosure: I have worked with them
> but as always we’ll consider solo founders too.
Please be extremely open minded about solo founders. I feel that is one consideration that hasn't been adapted with the changing tech landscape.
This is something I always worry about too. I have several really amazing people that I could partner with on a few different things but due to financial obligations there isn't anyway they'd be able to join full time unless there was an investment. So pitching as a solo always makes me nervous that I'll be immediately discounted even if I could bring in a partner shortly thereafter.
It's a fair point, but you have to take into account the fact that a lot of those people won't join you when you do get investment. It's the same thing as when two founders show up and talk about their rolodex of talent they have waiting to be hired as soon as there's money in the door - it's a useful data point, and certainly something to consider, but a good percentage of those people will typically not work out, or won't like the terms, or will want too much money, etc. So you can't treat it the same as the people who have the team onboard now.
Full disclosure: I work for EF - but if you're experiencing the sole technical founder problem you should check us out.
Can a single person apply for funding? Yes, but the odds of being accepted are lower. A startup is too much work for one person.
A statement such as "A startup is too much work for one person" seems unusually stark and absolute for a company as progressive as YC. There are always exceptions, as mattkrisiloff as noted below.
I've been running my own solo small business for 8 years now. No need to mince words, it sucks. Trying to do the same, but with a startup? Where rapid growth is the key indicator for whether your business is dead or alive? I honestly don't believe most people are capable.
They are very strongly advising people to get help. It's good advice.
The real question is why you're even contemplating being a solo founder. Discounting you actually wanting to be solo (that's a whole different kettle of fish) the reason is probably because it's really hard to find a co-founder. Co-founder dating doesn't work, meetups have terrible SNR, etc.
It's an unfortunate (for the rest of the world, YC might disagree) fact that the best place to find a co-founder are places like Stanford. Elite US universities, which encourage entrepreneurship, where external factors align to create lots of liquidity around able co-founders.
So while I think something like the YC Fellowship is great, the team has missed the boat. The actual problem in very early stage startups is not money, but suitable co-founders.
(Of course I'm totally biased, since I run a startup program based on this concept in the UK [1].)
[1] http://joinef.com
But if you strike out alone, good luck! I can't speak for everyone obviously and I can't generalize and say it only works this way. Just giving my two cents.
Essentially a variation of Cialdini's "reciprocity" principle (among others..)
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/six-principles-influe...
People are free to do whatever they want with the grant and not go any further with YC but it's obvious that the good will and grant will cause a large percentage of them to not do that.
Unfortunately a lot of these kids will probably feel guilt over taking the money and feel like they have some kind of obligation to take deals that are much worse for them.
I did think about this reciprocity initially when I heard no equity involved, however I don't think YC & Co's problem is getting startups to agree take their money after mentoring? Their issue is likely getting enough investment opportunities to put cash into as fast as they can raise it. ( ie-pretty fast ). For that they need a bigger opportunity pipeline.
So, i basically agree that they are getting first dibs, but due little to Cialdini's rule on reciprocity. I'd point more towards 'Liking' (ie building the trust early) or 'Authority' since they are getting in the door first with founders and are likely the initial startup mentor.
What I see, is that this program is just a simple (relative) way to ignite some ideas that are on the cusp of being implemented, remove some of the founding barriers, and start a conversation with their team earlier on in the process (no one wants to be the third on the list to call to invest in a great co.). The standard YC class schedule and size limitations are likely the gating factors to their growth, especially when interest in 'startup investing' isn't declining, and YC has already made moves to make it easier for non-accredited investors to invest.
Maybe this is in line with what you were referring to.
However, I read an answer by one of the YC staff and they told the commenter that a current college student could apply, as long as they were willing to take the semester off. So it sounds like they are serious about the full time work requirement.
That being said, this Sama is one freaking impressive DOer. From the time he came in to now, this feels like the YC you would expect 10 years from now.
Having said that $12,000 is too small of a figure to make a realistic impact. Rather it would be better to focus on boostrapping and making that amount every month, and continually reinvest in your business.
> Selected teams are strongly encouraged to move to the Bay Area for the program, but it’s not required.
I wish it wasn't so strongly encouraged. To move anywhere on a whim for 8 weeks is crazy to me, especially since the processes and tools for remote work are so readily available. It's becoming increasingly important to know and understand how to work with team members and stake holders all over the globe, so why not encourage that mindset from the very beginning?
Of course this will be a great opportunity for someone debating quitting a job or something, but it seems the most available people will be those just out of college.
To that end it will be interesting to actually see what types of people that this program works for and are accepted.
Don't try to send us business plans -- we won't look at them.
So, in short, go YC, you rock!
That said, I have a few questions:
1) Any idea of how many slots are open for this round? I expect you will get many more applications than YC normally gets.
2) Some teams may have members with families who won't want to move to SV and will work remotely. Other teams may have members who can and want to move. Some teams may have a mix. What are your thoughts on splitting a team, having some remote and some in SV? Would this provide advantages over having no one in SV, or would splitting the team have so many downsides that it would be better to be all remote?
3) For a team that already has a prototype and is beginning to work on getting customers, but is not able to relocate, would YCF be a good choice?
2) I think it would depend on your company and what you're trying to do. I can think of advantages to either way, and if accepted it's something we can talk about.
3) If you're just starting to get customers (or struggling with it), still apply. It will be a judgement call on whether you're too far along and should just apply to YC W16, but relocating or not won't make a difference in that assessment.
How greatly do you anticipate this program impact getting into the "real" YC winter batch? Do you expect that after 8 weeks most good startups would be "ready" to be accepted into the winter class?
Do you expect that after completing the 8 weeks, teams will be ready to raise funds?
We hope we'll be able to help teams a lot -- YCF teams will be held up to the same standards as all other YC applicants though if they choose to apply. There won't be special treatment for YCF teams.
Maybe -- we at least hope they'll apply for funding from YC!
One of the hardest things to do is get enough past the idea stage to get to a prototype to attract an investor. A little cash can make that happen a whole lot faster.