29 ms·

Tales from the trenches: our Y Combinator Interview Experience

101 points by tomaitch 17y ago

henryl 17y ago
What happens if you're building an extremely complicated product (not web app)? Is a demo still required?
- zhyder 17y ago
  Nothing is _required_ but lack of a demo will make it much harder to convince an investor that your team gets the market and can build the right product, especially in 10 minutes. You'll have to compensate for that somehow. If it's a hardware gadget, can you produce renders of the device and mockups of the UI? How have you been able to convince others so far?
  - henryl 17y ago
    We had an old demo but we have since revamped the entire architecture. Would a video suffice?
    - JabavuAdams 17y ago
      "Required", "suffice". It seems you're looking for guarantees where none are possible. Think in terms of increasing your odds. IMHO, a good demo can help you sell. You're selling your team. What can you do to help yourself convince investors that you are smart and can execute?
bentoner 17y ago
Congrats! Did you guys move back to Melbourne after Y Combinator?
- tomaitch 17y ago
  We're back in Melbourne now, planning to return to the Valley in a couple of months and bracing ourselves for the immigration minefield.
  - siong1987 17y ago
    May I know what do you have to do to get working visa in the states? I am having the same problem right now. I am currently now in US on student visa.
abstractwater 17y ago
An amazing story, congrats to both of you. I do think your long time friendship (and 6 years in business together) gave you and will continue to give you an advantage. That's even apparent from your writing and I'm sure it emerged through the interview (such as when your friend "rescued" you and viceversa). Good cofounders are rare. Good luck!
ananthrk 17y ago
Make sure you think and talk about your idea so much that you understand it so intimately and can visualise it so vividly that you get really excited at the thought of it succeeding. Talk to as many people as you can, and learn what you have to say and how you have to say it to get people excited at the thought of how much better the world will be once your product exists. Brilliant! Congratulations on your successful first step!
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
eterno 17y ago
Is it just me, or do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy. If you care so much for third party approval from PG and folks (not that they are not nice/smart ppl) but then just go to a B-school dude and get that nice degree which will surrogate for your competencies in the real world. BillG didnt need no YC, neither did Google guys and neither did the ipod god - infact even PG didnt need no YC, so please stop this gushing/blogging over your yc interviews as if they are like the biggest thing to happen to your entrepreneurial careers. Its beginning to sound almost like a b-school interview and I wudnt be surprised if YC starts attracting the entrepreneur wannabes for the 'stamp' that they missed from going to a b-school.
- pg 17y ago
  Actually we did have a prototype of YC: we had an angel investor, Julian Weber, who gave us our first $10k, got all our paperwork done, taught us the rudiments of business, introduced us to one of our two next investors, and let us demo to them in his NYC loft. We were very lucky to have Julian, and we would have been even better off with YC, which is a superset. In addition to all the above, you get other startups as colleagues, and startup-specific advice.
  - eterno 17y ago
    Exactly, and for those guys who do not get into YC, they still have the option of getting a 'prototype of YC' - which in your own words is almost the same as YC. I am not saying YC is bad - far from it - I am myself a big fan. The only thing I was pointing out was that the YC interview rejection/acceptance should ideally have only as much importance as being rejected/accepted from probably another angel investor - which happens more often than not in the startup world and consequently should not be given a lot of importance. The entrepreneurs who are in the trenches shouldnt really care as much about a rejection or two - its no big deal and even an acceptance might not be a big deal - but if you build something that people want and have something to show for it then feel free to jump over the moon.
    - systemtrigger 17y ago
whatusername 17y ago
Interesting? Do YC refund/pay for flights? I'm thinking return tickets to SF, plus say 2 nights in a hotel for 2 is probably coming close to $5K(AU$). That's a pretty significant chunk of the seed funding that YC gives you. On that note though - congrats guys - always great to see some Melbournians doing great stuff on here.
- tomaitch 17y ago
  We actually stayed for 11 days - we weren't going to fly all that way with the possibility of being unsuccessful, only to return immediately without having any fun. But we did it on the cheap, and you're in the ballpark with the cost. YC reimbursed us USD $700 like everyone else. Yep it was a big punt, but totally worth it.
vamsee 17y ago
Thanks so much. This helps us immensely.
axod 17y ago
Link goes to a 404 Not Found :/
nl 17y ago
You guys are adiso or something, right? My wife just used you to find a flight
randallsquared 17y ago
"I was already so convinced of how much better our product was than our competitors I’d forgotten the specifics of exactly how it was better in a way that could easily be explained to someone else." I have this experience all the time (not just in this sort of situation). Thanks for telling us about it!

101 points by tomaitch 17y ago

henryl 17y ago

What happens if you're building an extremely complicated product (not web app)? Is a demo still required?

zhyder 17y ago
Nothing is _required_ but lack of a demo will make it much harder to convince an investor that your team gets the market and can build the right product, especially in 10 minutes. You'll have to compensate for that somehow. If it's a hardware gadget, can you produce renders of the device and mockups of the UI? How have you been able to convince others so far?
- henryl 17y ago
  We had an old demo but we have since revamped the entire architecture. Would a video suffice?
  - JabavuAdams 17y ago
    "Required", "suffice". It seems you're looking for guarantees where none are possible. Think in terms of increasing your odds. IMHO, a good demo can help you sell. You're selling your team. What can you do to help yourself convince investors that you are smart and can execute?

bentoner 17y ago

Congrats! Did you guys move back to Melbourne after Y Combinator?

tomaitch 17y ago
We're back in Melbourne now, planning to return to the Valley in a couple of months and bracing ourselves for the immigration minefield.
- siong1987 17y ago
  May I know what do you have to do to get working visa in the states? I am having the same problem right now. I am currently now in US on student visa.

abstractwater 17y ago

An amazing story, congrats to both of you. I do think your long time friendship (and 6 years in business together) gave you and will continue to give you an advantage. That's even apparent from your writing and I'm sure it emerged through the interview (such as when your friend "rescued" you and viceversa). Good cofounders are rare. Good luck!

ananthrk 17y ago

Make sure you think and talk about your idea so much that you understand it so intimately and can visualise it so vividly that you get really excited at the thought of it succeeding. Talk to as many people as you can, and learn what you have to say and how you have to say it to get people excited at the thought of how much better the world will be once your product exists. Brilliant! Congratulations on your successful first step!

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

eterno 17y ago

Is it just me, or do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy. If you care so much for third party approval from PG and folks (not that they are not nice/smart ppl) but then just go to a B-school dude and get that nice degree which will surrogate for your competencies in the real world. BillG didnt need no YC, neither did Google guys and neither did the ipod god - infact even PG didnt need no YC, so please stop this gushing/blogging over your yc interviews as if they are like the biggest thing to happen to your entrepreneurial careers. Its beginning to sound almost like a b-school interview and I wudnt be surprised if YC starts attracting the entrepreneur wannabes for the 'stamp' that they missed from going to a b-school.

pg 17y ago
Actually we did have a prototype of YC: we had an angel investor, Julian Weber, who gave us our first $10k, got all our paperwork done, taught us the rudiments of business, introduced us to one of our two next investors, and let us demo to them in his NYC loft. We were very lucky to have Julian, and we would have been even better off with YC, which is a superset. In addition to all the above, you get other startups as colleagues, and startup-specific advice.
- eterno 17y ago
  Exactly, and for those guys who do not get into YC, they still have the option of getting a 'prototype of YC' - which in your own words is almost the same as YC. I am not saying YC is bad - far from it - I am myself a big fan. The only thing I was pointing out was that the YC interview rejection/acceptance should ideally have only as much importance as being rejected/accepted from probably another angel investor - which happens more often than not in the startup world and consequently should not be given a lot of importance. The entrepreneurs who are in the trenches shouldnt really care as much about a rejection or two - its no big deal and even an acceptance might not be a big deal - but if you build something that people want and have something to show for it then feel free to jump over the moon.
  - systemtrigger 17y ago

whatusername 17y ago

Interesting? Do YC refund/pay for flights? I'm thinking return tickets to SF, plus say 2 nights in a hotel for 2 is probably coming close to $5K(AU$). That's a pretty significant chunk of the seed funding that YC gives you. On that note though - congrats guys - always great to see some Melbournians doing great stuff on here.

tomaitch 17y ago
We actually stayed for 11 days - we weren't going to fly all that way with the possibility of being unsuccessful, only to return immediately without having any fun. But we did it on the cheap, and you're in the ballpark with the cost. YC reimbursed us USD $700 like everyone else. Yep it was a big punt, but totally worth it.

vamsee 17y ago

Thanks so much. This helps us immensely.

axod 17y ago

Link goes to a 404 Not Found :/

nl 17y ago

You guys are adiso or something, right? My wife just used you to find a flight

randallsquared 17y ago

"I was already so convinced of how much better our product was than our competitors I’d forgotten the specifics of exactly how it was better in a way that could easily be explained to someone else." I have this experience all the time (not just in this sort of situation). Thanks for telling us about it!