Y Combinator: Application & interview advice from a Winter ’18 alumni

Getting into Y Combinator was a dream come true for me.

Getting in as a solo nontechnical founder with very little traction was also a very unique experience that I did not believe could happen.

YC’s program and being an alumni has definitely lived up to the hype; I feel like every month that passes I learn about new benefits I get from being part of such an amazing community.

I’m writing this post to summarize my advice on getting in, from the online application all the way to the final interview stage.

Lastly, I learned later on that I was the first person from Ecuador to get funded by YC, and I hope this helps encourage more Latin American entrepreneurs to apply and learn about the program.

What is Y Combinator (YC)?

For those who don’t know, Y Combinator (also known as YC) is considered the world’s most successful startup accelerator.

Twice a year, YC invests in a large batch of startups and takes a percentage of ownership in those companies. All the companies go through a 3-month program (“the batch”) focused on helping them improve, grow, and secure funding.

As of 2018, 10,000+ companies apply globally to every batch and only about 130–150 get funded (roughly ~1% acceptance rate).

When the 3-month program is over, you become an alumni and still get access to tons of resources, an incredible alumni network, mentorship from some of the most successful people in Silicon Valley, the brand benefits that come with being a YC alumni, and more.

In the 13 years since its founding, YC has funded more than 1,900 startups that are now collectively worth over US$100bn, including many products/companies you use or read about every day, e.g.: Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Instacart, Coinbase, Gusto, Quora, and many more.

Plenty has been written about why YC is amazing, and YC itself has of lots of content publicly available showing the reach and expertise of their organization (see here, here, here and here as starting points). Here’s my advice on applying and getting in:

Online Application Advice

I think that anyone who is serious about trying to get into YC should just go read everything on their website: www.ycombinator.com.

Between Y Combinator’s blog, Paul Graham’s essays, Startup School, and more, there is a mountain of free content that YC publishes that goes into painful detail about what they look for in great startups.

When applicants ask YC alumni or partners for help, it’s usually obvious who has or hasn’t done their homework by going through this content.

Also, if you Google advice on getting into YC, you’ll find enormous amounts of valuable information ranging from public alumni applications all the way to specific posts from alumni, such as this one.

YC is publicly giving you the recipe to get in with all of their content. I did not come from Silicon Valley; I learned everything about how to apply to YC online.

Assuming you’ve decided it’s a good time for you to apply to YC, here’s my advice on writing your application:

• Learn how to write concisely and without jargon. YC hates jargon, and has probably heard most startup ideas dozens of times. Don’t use hyperbolic and sales-y language. Just write concisely and get to the details that truly make your specific business exciting and investable (traction, market, team, insights, etc.)
• Launch something so that your application focuses on real user data and not hypotheticals. Doesn’t matter if it’s just spreadsheets and free trials (that’s what I had when they funded me); any traction is better than none. It’s much easier to say “we’re going to be worth $1bn when we get XXX more customers doing what’s already working today” than to say “we haven’t launched, but we’re going to be huge someday.” It’s also easier for people to discredit hypotheticals and you as a founder for not showing real progress or data to back up your claims (traction can be anything from email signups, to pilots, to paying customers).
• Bottoms-up market sizing is a preference at YC. Instead of using absurd numbers like “recruiting is a $200bn industry and even getting 1% makes us huge,” it’s much better to instead say “We charge our customers X today, and there are Y potential customers in the world, and X*Y = $billions of dollars. We’re going to start with niche Z of customers, and grow to Y from there.” It’s really important to show them that you have a long-term goal but a very short-term plan of action. And you must convince them this could be huge ($1bn+ company) if it works.
• Get it reviewed by alumni. If you give them enough time before the application deadline, YC alumni are usually happy to review your application and give you feedback. You can also just compare it to other successful applications that have been published online. I did this with dozens of alumni just by cold emailing or finding intro’s.
• Specifically, address these points in your app: 1) Describe your company in 1 sentence without jargon. 2) What’s your traction (i.e. what have you done and in how much time?). 3) Why are you the right people to build this? 4) Who is on your team and can you build technology? 5) In a few short sentences, walk me through how you believe you can become a billion dollar business or reach $100m in annual recurring revenue.

Interview Advice

If you’ve made it to YC’s interview stage, congrats! Here’s how I would prepare:

1. Read all of YC’s materials about the interview format plus whatever you find online about how to simulate interviews.
2. Write up a script of answers to the main questions you find online (this is easy when you’re full time on your business, but have heard it can be tricky to make sure all cofounders are on the same page on who answers what)
3. Do some mock interviews with whoever you can and time them to 10 minutes to get used to the dynamic and answering questions concisely.
4. YC cares about: a great team, a big idea, and how much you’ve gotten done thus far to prove that what you’re aiming for is plausible. If you focus on these three things, you should be fine. Getting to the interview stage is the hardest cut, so there’s definitely real interest.
5. Enjoy the process! Remember there’s luck involved — so just prep hard, and go in with a great attitude and energy.

The interview is 10 minutes long and it flies by. I’ve found that companies who have launched something and have some kind of traction have a better interview than those who haven’t.

I think this happens because when you have some data around what you’re doing, the YC partners will be more curious about how and why your thing is working as opposed to how you’ll hypothetically make it work one day.

So if you get invited to interviews and have no traction, maybe get some traction no matter how small before your interview day!

Pro tip: Get to YC early the day of your interview to get a sneak peek on which YC partners will be interviewing you. Odds are, there’s some YouTube video or blog post of those partners that will help you prepare.

Conclusion

If you want to build a big, high-growth technology company, Y Combinator is a priceless and relevant experience that will help you get there and make you interact with a highly valuable community who wants you to get there too.

I’ve tried to help a few companies get into YC, and I never seem to be able to predict who will get in and who won’t; however, I believe doing all the things in this post can only increase your chances.

I wrote a short post about my experience during YC as a solo nontechnical founder and key takeaways from the program here.

Even if you don’t get in, I encourage you to consume YC’s content and apply, as both those things will almost certainly improve your startup, for free.

Good luck!

Deepak

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