Our Y Combinator Interview
TLDR; We learned to be more clear and concise to secure an interview spot this time around; how the interview gave us an incredible and organic ramp up period that resulted in many accomplishments; what we learned from the interview and how we used rejection to fuel success; and how we’re grateful for the opportunity and excited for the future.
Parakeet is extremely grateful for the opportunity to be interviewed by the industry’s best. I can say without a doubt that we both learned a lot from our experience and made some significant improvement’s based on our SPOILER ALERT: dreaded rejection email.
This is the story of how Parakeet was one of the lucky startups to get an interview by the prestigious silicon valley accelerator, Y Combinator. Most importantly, what some of the important learning lessons were and how if used correctly, you can leverage it to give you a new perspective and motivation during the early-stages of your company.
The Application
Back in September, Alex and I were traveling in Oaxaca, the southern state of Mexico, coming to an end with our MVP iteration of Parakeet — we had begun in February and had locked down in the house to complete our latest product.
Sitting in a beautiful hotel lobby in the historic city of Oaxaca de Juarez, I had a day of meetings scheduled with YC alumni. Thankfully, they had given me their time to help improve our chances of success by talking about their personal experiences.
In the application alone, we learned a lot about our startup — when you’re in the weeds, designing and developing an application in no more than 6 months, it’s easy to lose track of messaging and other critical aspects of your brand and offerings.
Fast-forward 1 month later, in mid October, and we received incredible news via email — that our application had been accepted and that YC was interested in meeting us for an interview.
To add a bit more context, this was my 3rd time applying for YC — prior, I had built a video streaming application called Subchannel in 2017 and a farm-to-table application called UrbanCrop in 2019 — both applications were rejected and I had never received an interview spot. So to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement.
Reflecting back on my two previous applications, I quickly noted some of the key differences that had set Parakeet up for success this time around:
Keep it short and sweet
I have a tendency to write what could be short, very long.
The reality is YC partners have 1000’s of applications to read, and it seems obvious, but if your answers are not clear, concise, and to-the-point, most likely, they’ll skip over it and mark it with the big rejection stamp.
In addition, YC partners — rightfully so — have a belief that if it takes you a long time to explain what you’re doing, you yourself probably don’t really understand your company.
I built Parakeet to solve my own work-related frustrations
Although I was and still am genuinely passionate for Subchannel and UrbanCrop, I had no experience with anything related to making videos, nor was I a farmer. This time around, I built something to solve key pain-points in my day to day job as a software developer and project manager.
I feel confident in my ability to execute effectively because I know and understand team collaboration and effective communication, which is what Parakeet is all about.
The Interview
Fast forward from October, when we received the good news that our application had been accepted, and December 9th, the date of the interview, and Parakeet had come along way. We had launched our MVP successfully, acquired over 100 users, raised friends and family investment, better defined our product roadmap, and built a small following through various social media groups.
A week prior to the interview, we had created flashcards to practice some of the anticipated questions and in general.
We “walked” into our (Zoom) meeting and were greeted by 4 partners, and of course, were immediately asked “So tell us what you’re working on.”
In all, we felt that the nearly 15 minute meeting went well— the partners were extremely friendly and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. It felt natural, organic, and ultimately, a great exercise for our team. With this said, I walked away nearly confident that we did not get in. There were definitely areas that we could have improved in.
Too much time trying to convey the idea
For one, it didn’t seem that the partners understood what we were trying to build immediately, which is never a good thing. We spent way too much time trying to explain how it worked, why we’re different, and in the end, it still didn’t feel like the partners understood our arguments — which of course, was a reflection of our inability to convey clearly and concisely in the moment.
After the first question, I felt that we spent too long answering each question, which given the fact that you only have 10 minutes, is not conducive to a successful interview.
The Aftermath
Later that night, we received the email that we were rejected, which I felt coming.
The email in some ways seems pretty positive — for one, they complimented the team briefly and pointed to how they were impressed with our abilities to create a “near-complete” looking application between the two of us.
Their main concern was how we could successfully insert Parakeet into the current designer/engineer workflow with the likes of Figma owning the space earlier on in the flow. Completely valid. I think initially, this was the hardest fact to deal with — was that I completely saw their point and we weren’t entirely sure what to do about it immediately.
The emotional cycle of rejection
We’ve all been there — and if you don’t think that you have, you’re lying to yourself. Rejection is part of daily life and how we deal with it is a combination of our childhood, experiences and character. Everyone in some way, is on a journey to find emotional resilience and learn to deal with rejection better.
For me, I felt disappointed and defeated at first. My inner critic saying “Hey! you’ve been trying this for 4 years between 3 different startups. You should give up and get a job!”
Of course, that lasted all but a few hours. After, I felt renewed and more excited than ever — the criticism was incredibly valuable and we could use it to better our product market fit.
But I’d be kidding if I didn’t say that the next few days would be sprinkled with a combination of multiple emotions. I’ve made habit of keeping a journal every day for more than 5 years; that’s my coping mechanism, which is always filled with hidden perspective in my reflection.
The next steps we took
First, we needed to decide if we should continue how we were or facilitate some drastic pivot. At first, it seemed more obvious to focus on identifying an opportunity to pivot, but after giving it much thought and talking it through with our mentors, we decided to pivot our focus slightly, but continue the product evolution that we had outlined prior.
We have a product and users — many of which really love what we’re doing — and our culture is built upon small pivots every step of the way, so when taking this into consideration, anything drastic would be just that… drastic.
One week later and we’ve made some really meaningful changes.
- We created a focus group with a combination of mentors and users to help facilitate the release v2 MVP.
- We defined exactly what our v2 MVP would include and how we will go about finishing it.
- We outlined 2021 Q1/Q2 goals and growth milestones.
- We ramped up our social media and community engagement strategies.
Check us out
Thanks for reading! We’re extremely excited for the opportunity to learn from our interview experience and use it to better our product. If you liked our story, please check us out or signup for beta where we’ll continue to send development updates.
