The Y Combinator application procedure or How we almost made it — part 1 (of 2)

Everybody’s best friend Zuck at YC

Y Combinator (often referred to as YC) is the world’s best startup accelerator. It is often considered the ultimate validation for early stage startups. I’m sure I don’t have to sell you guys on YC, but two things you should know about them:

1. Some of their alumni include Docker, Reddit, Stripe, DoorDash, Airbnb and Dropbox!
2. The combined value of all their alumni businesses is more than $80 Bn!

We applied to Y Combinator for S17 after missing the W17 deadlines. When you’re the co-founder of an early-stage-deep-tech-startup (read: shit on fire, every week), some deadlines get relegated to the back of priority queue. In any case, we did remember to apply for the S17 batch.

The application procedure goes something like this:

1. The login — First you make an account on Hackernews or if you have one, login using it. Then start a new application on the ycombinator portal.
2. The form — The first step consists of an extremely detailed questionnaire regarding everything about your startup
3. The video call (optional) — If they like your pitch, you might be called for a brief video interview with one of the YC partners. I have heard of startups who’ve avoided this and went straight to the next round, but we did have a call, so I’ll explain it
4. The final interview — If the video call goes smoothly, you get called for the final interview at the YC head office in Mountain View, California
5. The result— After the final interview, waiting for what seems like an eternity (but is actually only a couple of hours!) and finally hearing the results

Being a two part blog series, I’m covering points 2–3 in this post while the second part has details about the last two points.

The login:

This is really self-explanatory and you shouldn’t be needing a blog post telling you how to make an account with hackernews. In any case, the steps involved are:

1. If you don’t have a Hackernews account to login with, you’ll have to create one now. It’s pretty simple and should be done in less than 5 minutes.

2. Once you’ve logged in with your account, go to apply.ycombinator.com to start a new application!

The form:

Bonus: There are actually two forms here!

Assuming you’ve managed to start the application procedure, you should be faced with an extremely long questionnaire known as the Company Application. Honestly, this is the part of the entire process that we spent the most time on and I had the most difficulty with. Grab a cup of your favourite coffee (or whiskey — whatever floats your boat) and settle down for a long ride.

Here are a few handy tips that should help with filling out this intimidating form:

1. Brevity is not the solution. This isn’t Twitter. Take your time and explain yourself well. Don’t leave out important facts in an effort to make the answers shorter.
2. Give examples and numbers wherever you can. Support your assumptions with reasons and your claims with data.
3. Convey your message clearly. ‘Clarity of thought’ is the single biggest takeaway from the first step, according to me. So make sure everything you say is very relevant and important.
4. Remember to keep saving each draft of your application using the Save For Later button!
5. The order of importance for the questions can be found in this excellent YC post (written by PG probably?). It also has superb examples of answers that work and the actual application submitted by Drew Houston for DropBox! I highly recommend going through this multiple times and I used this post as a reference point for most of my questions.

The answer we gave for the all important ‘What is your company going to make’ question. Notice how detailed it is.

5. You’ll also have to submit a founders’ introduction video in this form (in the form of a Youtube link). All the details (and a few handy examples) can be found on this yet-another-excellent-YC-resource. Though we spent about 45 minutes and three takes to shoot it (the first two had to be discarded because the audio was bad), we didn’t really have a written script and we kept it as natural and free flowing as possible. You can see our intro video here and judge for yourself.

Once you’re done filling this form, you’ll also have to fill out a separate form where you get to brag about yourself as a founder (yay!). This form is called the Founder Profile, and every single founder has to fill this up separately. In case you have difficulty finding this, this screenshot should help:

Look for the ‘Update Founder Profile’ button

The Founder Profile form is really straightforward for the most part. It starts with bunch of personal info questions including education, work experience and online profiles.

The most interesting part about this form are the two questions in the Skills section, namely:

1. “Please tell us about the time you, shvlksen (your hackernews username), most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.”
2. “Please tell us in one or two sentences about the most impressive thing other than this startup that you have built or achieved.”

We spent a lot of time trying to think of the perfectly funny and impressive answers to these. Looking back now, I’d say don’t stress yourselves out over these. If you can’t think of something off the top of your head, let it be. If you can think of something, no matter how trivial, put it down and save the form. If something strikes you later on about any of the questions in the Company Application form or the Founder Profile, you can always go back and edit the answers.

I wish I could share my answers to these questions with you all but it would probably get me into trouble (the legal kind!).

Once you’re satisfied with your draft application, show it to your co-founders (if you haven’t already), along with a few smart friends and/or mentors. Don’t listen to external advice too much, this is your baby after all.

After you’re done with both the forms, submit your application and allow yourselves a night off. You’ve done all you can, for now.

So there you have the first part. The second part can be found here. If you found this article to be helpful, please hit the 👏 to help others find it! If you have any suggestions of your own or a funny story from your YC application time, leave a comment below.