A YC Fellowship rejection
Talk about it on HackerNews
Yesterday, about 6,400 persons received an email starting with:
Thank you for applying for Y Combinator Fellowship. We’re sorry to say that your startup was not selected for an interview.
I also received that email, but I’m still glad I applied.
YC Fellowship is like a startup Cheat Code
Sam Altman introduced the YC Fellowship on HackerNews a month ago. It was upped by a thousand users and was like a unicorn for early-stage startups. Two months of accelerating, $12K and all the advantages of YC including the advice of top-founders, this was the dream of all startups founders.
Above all, being selected for this first batch would be a huge reputation jump for a startup. It’s not hard to imagine a lot of investors being attired for these new projects.
First, no count was announced but quickly, @mattkrisiloff broke the news, only 20 teams will be selected for this batch.
Everyone was expecting a lot of applications, especially for early-stage startups having only a prototype or just an idea.
The 14th of August, the day of the selection, we all received an email indicating that the results will be announced with a four day delay.
The value is in the application
If you’ve sent your application for the YC Fellowhip, there is a great probability that you’ve also been rejected. You can see this as a failure, and, let’s not lie, it is. But it’s only one of the lot you’ll encounter in the life of your startup.
The value here is in the application you spend time making. It made you think about your product and how to present it to total strangers. Chances are that you’ll use this presentation the next time you’ll meet someone new at a party.
Share your application
I want to get the most out of this opportunity and so I’m publishing openly my application including the video presentation for Mimory.
You can send me yours (guillaume@besson.co) and I’ll add it to this post.
Until then, don’t stop working on your product and sharing it with the world ! The fellowship is only a boost, what’s possible at YC is possible on your own, it’s just a little longer.
