How to get rejected by Y Combinator

I sat in their office, waiting for my final interview. Next to me sat a team from Nigeria, and another one from an Ivy League. But I was doomed. Not because my company wasn’t good enough, but because I forgot my hockey stick (growth curve).

My company has a major flaw that I never realized until I was in a room being interviewed by professional investors. They managed to find the flaw in my business model in about 2 minutes.

“How can you grow to $5 billion in sales?”

The real problem was not how I answered this question, but having reality slap me in the face. My company isn’t going to have a hockey stick grow curve, no matter how much of a smooth talker I am. My business is just normal. And the truth is even worse, I didn’t really want investment. I just wanted to be in Y Combinator.

You see, although my company is a code school for kids, and we market an online program and web app, the truth is we have a normal business model. We have growth, profit, and have lots of demand, but we can’t scale to $5 billion. Below is our actual growth curve, including the cost to open 3 additional schools this year (we have 8 schools total & about 400 students). We’ll probably make some really decent money after we stop growing, but its fun to open locations, and we can afford it. So onwards and upwards.

I wasn’t surprised when I received the rejection email later that evening. But it was personalized, and I appreciated that. They referenced my business plan to “grow like Starbucks”, but they mentioned that investors wouldn’t be interested in waiting while the growth occurred.

I knew from the start that Y Combinator isn’t interested in brick-n-mortar stores. I fooled myself into thinking my code schools were “techy”, so I had the edge. But its just not true. We are just a normal, old fashioned business.

But don’t stop from applying. It was flipping amazing to be interviewed at Y Combinator. Their energy and brain-power is incredible. I love the Silicon Valley. It is like Disneyland for adults.

My advice for anyone going to the interview is: don’t worry, they will see through you in 1 minute. If you have a company that will scale, then they will be interested. If you have an old fashioned mom n’ pop code school for kids, then you better buy a hockey stick.