You guys are a class act..<p>We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding.
Please don't take it personally. The applications we receive get
better every funding cycle, and since there's a limit on the number
of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot
of genuinely promising groups.<p>Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know
we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group
to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that
we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall
just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing.<p>http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html<p>We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number
of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected
will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate
it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn
from our mistakes.<p>Y Combinator Team
If scoring of YC applications is anything like upvoting/downvoting of HN comments I do not think anyone should link their self-worth to getting rejected.<p>My impression from talking with various YC partners at the Open House / Startup School was that the ones most qualified to evaluate my application have not seen it. But at the scale YC is operating now this sort of thing seems inevitable.<p>Moral of the story: never put all eggs in one basket, have Plan B, C, D, E ... ZZZ, preferably around being able to fund yourself with revenue, while still scaling your product business.<p>Just like us :)
If you're hungry enough, being rejected may be the best thing that will ever happen to you. Don't let a YC Reject letter stop you from continuing your dream.
"it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it;"<p>A little like writing to the girl/guy that rejected you with great news that you've landed in Hollywood. By the time you get there they will know it.<p>Anyway, by "successful" what do they mean anyway?<p>Someone else funded you? (go to crunchbase).<p>Or you've gone public?<p>Or you've sold the business?<p>Or you're on the front of the WSJ?<p>Isn't the info they are looking for in all the obvious places? Patronizing to suggest "tell us about your success" as if they can't go to the trouble to uncover it themselves somehow.
Well, I had applied to StartupChile and got accepted, but wanted to see how my luck would turn if I applied the same startup to YC. I would of prefered to be in SF with the great mentors and angels, but hey StartupChile give you $40k with no take of equity.
Couldn't agree more. Having said that I feel these are taken way too seriously/emotionally and it is important to understand that you can build your own startup to product/market fit, revenue and profitability whether or not you get into YCombinator or other incubators. YC and other incubators are a great help, but should not be considered a ticket to (possible) success.
A friend of mine who completed YC told me that there was a guy who got rejected 4 or 5 times before getting accepted. Just remember always be positive and keep working hard :)<p>Cheers!
One of the best rejection I've ever gotten.<p>Since I applying for this round YC, we came up with new amazing idea. I agree that our first time application was poor, it was just an idea without working beta. I'm sure that we should increase our efficiency, it doesn't mean that should work harder. Just more efficiency!
While its a bummer to get this sort of rejection letter, I somehow think that if one of the ones that didn't get in didn't keep moving forward after this - deserve to had not gotten in anyway. This absolutely shouldnt stop you.
How old is that why not link? If they're interviewing 70-80 groups, doesn't that mean that nearly everyone who interviews gets in? I mean, last group was over 60, wasn't it?
I'm not sure why people beat themselves up so much for not passing a candidate filter where teams of people select a candidate from a list based on various criteria and instinct. It has been mathematically demonstrated that these processes fail at doing a better job than throwing a dart at a wall containing a list of all the candidates.<p>When I get a rejection letter for anything, I shrug and treat it like losing a raffle. I don't sweat it, the ticket candidate selection process is not based on merit, it's based on randomness.