Thousands of groups applied for S13. Only 255 groups were selected for interviews. Only 53 companies ended up getting funded.
My advice: Stop worrying about perfecting your application or trying to game it. Stop worrying about trying to get into YC. Submit it, forget it. Go build a company. You don't need their validation, and you certainly don't need their permission.
As a 21 year old, "stopout/dropout" computer programmer that is living in Boston, competing with new grads with cs degrees and such, this advice is my exact mentality. Im not going to try to game my resume and cover letter, Im going to submit the application and make myself a better engineer day by day, I dont need a company's validation or permission to do so.
Definitely. I like your mentality. At the same time thought I actually like reading these articles. Not entirely for their content but I like seeing 1) the kinds of people going through YC at the moment, 2) their company, 3) how their company is doing at the moment. Also I think these articles are helpful in showing people that the YC application process is a no bullshit process. PG is pretty open about the process but it is nice to hear it described from someone other than the big dog himself.
This. There is certainly going to be a lot of noise when they read applications and watch peoples' pitches, and they definitely have far from having 0 false negatives --- that goes for both the selection and interview round. Just push forward even if YC doesn't pan out.
My advice: Stop worrying about perfecting your application or trying to game it. Stop worrying about trying to get into YC. Submit it, forget it. Go build a company. You don't need their validation, and you certainly don't need their permission.
Just go freaking make something people want.