Y Combinator only accepts 1-2% of the startup applications it receives per cycle. Their class size has shrunk to just over 250 startups for the 2022 summer hybrid cohort. Here’s what this year’s YC founders had to say about the experience and how they landed a spot.
Y Combinator’s startup accelerator is well known for its exclusivity, accepting only 1.5-2% of the 20,000+ applications for each summer and winter cohort.
For founders who make the cut, the opportunities the accelerator offers are nothing short of life-changing: they have the chance to meet and raise funds from some of the world’s top seed investors, and they can tap into a network of alumni. which includes the founders of Stripe, Airbnb and Dropbox for their advice.
Crafting the perfect app is crucial to a startup’s chances of making the cut. The process, she thought, has changed a bit since the accelerator went hybrid. Instead of making the trip to Silicon Valley, the entire interview stage is taking place remotely, and it can be hard to judge how a particular conversation with a Y Combinator partner went after a Zoom video call.
Insider spoke with five startup founders who were accepted into Y Combinator for their winter and summer 2022 cohorts. Here are their top tips for building a successful app.
Keep your written answers concise and clear
For Knowtex founders Jocelyn Kang and Caroline Zhang, who landed a spot in the Summer 2022 cohort, just starting the online application was stressful at first. The two met during undergrads at Stanford and teamed up to build a startup that streamlines medical note-taking with artificial intelligence.
The two didn’t have much more than an idea and a prototype when they applied for the accelerator, doing so two weeks after the initial application deadline. “We didn’t come up with the idea until we got to YC,” Kang said.
Both felt that the app was well designed, because it forced them to present a clear and concise description of their startup.
Alan Nowogrodski and Marshall Johnson, the co-founders of Caddy
Caddy
Even for founders who have a more established idea for a startup, it’s okay not to have a perfect answer for every written message. When Alan Nowogrodski and his co-founder Marshall Johnson filled out their summer 2022 application for sales programming startup Caddy, they were candid about the areas where they were still figuring out their business strategy.
“You don’t have it all figured out, because neither does anyone else asking for it,” Nowogrodski said. “But it’s nice to be the kind of person who could write an issue, understand what’s going on, and communicate it effectively, because those are super powerful skill sets for attracting employees, attracting investors, getting people excited, and selling to customers.” “.
He added, “If you can’t communicate effectively, chances are you’re going to fail anyway.”
Practice for the interview well in advance.
After submitting the written portion of the application, founders should practice in case they make it to the first round of interviews.
“We reviewed at least three different versions of our application and six to 10 practice interviews,” Zhang said.
They wanted to have a direct answer to any question YC associates asked them in an interview, since initial calls are only 10 minutes long. “They want two-sentence answers, basically,” Zhang said.
According to Saurabh Jain, a summer cohort member and co-founder of HR benefits software startup Feather, just getting an interview is a good indicator that YC has responded well to your application “because not everyone gets to the interview,” he said.
Saurabh Jain and Aahan Sawhney are the co-founders of HR startup Feather and were accepted into Y Combinator’s Summer 2022 cohort.
Pen
At the interview stage, one of the most important things founders can do is emphasize why they are the right people to run this startup right now.
“I think what worked for us for our side is the team, because of our technical expertise and our years of experience,” said Jain.
Zhang also felt that the importance she and co-founder Kang placed on their partnership was key in getting them to call back: “YC really puts the team first and my co-founder and I already had a very strong relationship with each other,” she said.
It is also important to note that the interviewed partner will have done their homework on the company.
Caroline McKeon, Alex Brown and Daria Balatsky, co-founders of Alga Biosciences
algae biosciences
“They do a really good job of diligence on what we’re doing beforehand,” said Caroline McKeon, co-founder of climate-tech startup Alga Biosciences. She and her co-founders conducted the application process fully remotely for the Winter 2022 cohort, conducting their interviews from one of the co-founders’ rooms.
“Our groupmate really understood what our idea was and had his finger on the pulse of what we were doing and what the right questions were,” he said.
If the interview goes well, a founder should know right away if they’ve made the cut, especially if they apply close to the deadline. The co-founders of Caddy and Knowtex told Insider that a day after their second interview they heard that they had been accepted.
All of the founders said that the most important thing you can do is practice for each step of the application process and be as agile as possible in explaining why you and your startup are a good fit for YC.
“Articulating something with very few words or in a very short time is more difficult than giving a 10-hour speech,” Nowogrodski said. “It could have been just one day and one online application, but the goal is to put a lot of effort into that short application and one short meeting to get it all right.”
Source: www.businessinsider.com