- The speaker discusses the benefits of applying to Y Combinator (YC) and encourages entrepreneurs to organize their thoughts and gain clarity by answering the application questions.
- Applying to YC has a low time commitment and a potentially high upside, making it a worthwhile trade-off.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of creating luck by putting oneself out there and taking risks, including applying to YC.
- The speaker addresses common reasons people give for not applying to YC, such as being too early or too far along in their startup journey, and refutes these reasons by highlighting YC's flexibility and ability to help founders find product-market fit.
- The speaker also addresses misconceptions about the YC experience, emphasizing the unique benefits of being a YC founder, such as real-time access to mentors and access to internal tools and resources.
- The speaker advises against overthinking the decision to apply to YC and encourages entrepreneurs to get comfortable with taking long shots and persisting in their efforts.
- The speaker mentions a few valid reasons not to apply to YC, such as not wanting to work on the company long-term or not believing venture capital is the right route for their business.
- Tips for the YC application include filling out all sections, paying attention to grammar and punctuation, and following directions for the founder video.

- The selection criteria for YC applications include following directions and being detail-oriented.
- Written answers should be clear and concise, avoiding unnecessary length.
- Application reviewers consider factors such as the founders' backstory, their idea, the current state of their product, and evidence of customer interest.
- Impressive or unique aspects of the application are also taken into account.
- It is important to communicate the basics of your startup clearly in the application.
- Misleading or intentionally obfuscating information in the application is disqualifying.
- Extraordinary claims require evidence to support them.
- The presence of technical talent on the founding team significantly improves the odds of getting an interview.
- Co-founder matching can be a helpful way to add technical talent to the team.
- YC does not require networking or warm intros, and claims of connections to YC for equity or money are likely scams.
- YC interviews are a 10-minute Zoom call where basic questions are asked to understand the startup.
- Over-preparing and treating the interview as adversarial are common mistakes to avoid.

- YC interview advice that treats the process as adversarial is bad
- Interviewers are the ones who will work with accepted founders
- Founders should avoid reciting memorized speeches, not listening to questions, and stretching the truth
- Preparation is important, but too much can lead to robotic answers
- Being coached to intentionally confuse or mislead is not helpful
- A successful interview involves answering basic questions well, demonstrating a mastery of the business, being credible and self-aware, and being authentic
- Feedback from unsuccessful interviews should be addressed in future applications
- Applying to YC is simple and has high ROI
- Creating luck by putting oneself out there is encouraged

The speaker discusses the benefits of applying to Y Combinator (YC) and encourages entrepreneurs to gain clarity by answering the application questions. They address common reasons for not applying and highlight the unique benefits of being a YC founder. Tips for the application process are provided, including the importance of clear communication and avoiding misleading information. The presence of technical talent on the founding team improves the odds of getting an interview. The speaker advises against over-preparing for the interview and emphasizes the importance of being authentic. Feedback from unsuccessful interviews should be used to improve future applications. Overall, applying to YC is simple and has a high return on investment.

YC Group Partner Dalton Caldwell shares his strategies for how to think about applying to YC. This talk goes beyond the information on YC's website, and reflects Dalton's latest advice on the topic. (Fun Fact: An earlier version of this talk is frequently mentioned by YC founders as instrumental in their decision to apply to YC and to getting in!)

Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs

Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 
00:00 - Intro
00:17 - Why It's Worth Applying to YC
01:11 - Creating Luck
02:16 - Weird Reasons Not to Apply to YC
02:27 - I Am Too Early
03:36 - Being a YC founder is different than watching YC YouTube videos
04:42 - How to Stop Being Discouraged From Applying to YC
06:21 - Other Reasons Why People Don't Apply to YC
07:16 - Don't Overthink
09:05 - YC's Application Tips
10:37 - YC Application Reviewing: The Basics
15:59 - What Are Your Odds of Getting an Interview at YC?
18:12 - How to Prepare for Your YC Interview
22:22 - What Makes a Successful Interview at YC?
23:38 - Post Interview Feedback
24:38 - Outro

Topic of today's talk is how to apply and succeed at Y Combinator.

So to begin with, let's talk about why it's worth applying to Y Combinator.

It's a good idea to sit down and think about your startup.

This is evergreen advice regardless of YC.

And so going through and answering the application questions to organize and clarify your thinking, super helpful.

It'll help you think about your own business and maybe find some edge cases.

And so I think that's worth doing for everybody.

In addition, if you're sitting there watching this presentation, the odds that YC is a good fit for you is pretty good.

And then let's talk about the cost benefit analysis of applying to YC.

We very intentionally designed the application to be fast and easy to fill out.

And so The downside is you apply and you don't get in, but you only spend a tiny bit of time doing it versus the potential upside being very big.

And so those are all some reasons why it's worth applying to YC.

I've spoken about this in past YC talks, and I've noticed a lot of applicants that have gotten into YC reference this talk that I gave years ago.

So I wanna remind you all of kind of my philosophy about creating luck.

Certain people are luckier than others, but 1 of the ways you can create luck and become luckier is to put yourself out there more.

To create this luck, you need to take risks.

You can systematically put yourself out there to be in situations where good things can happen to you or surprising upside things can happen to you.

On the flip side, if you avoid situations where you face rejection, like applying to YC, you're reducing the surface area to get lucky.

And so I think this is pretty good evergreen advice regardless of what you're doing, which is if you're looking for a startup idea, if you're trying to learn how to do sales, if you're trying to recruit great employees, you want to put yourself out there and take risks.

You want to try a lot of different stuff.

And the more you can develop this luck creation skill, the better, and deciding to apply to YC itself is a way to create luck.

I also wanna go through a lot of the weird reasons people come up with not to apply to YC.

Again, I've talked to lots of founders and so these are all coming from many conversations I've had in person with folks.

If you look at the history of great YC companies that have gotten in, many of them pivoted after they got in.

And so if that's not too early, I don't know what is.

Many folks haven't quit their job that get into YC.

There's honestly no such thing as too early.

And so I would not count that as a valid reason.

Again, it's pretty funny because we have folks that get into YC that have, I don't know, half a million dollars in annual recurring revenue.

Also a common 1 here these days is, oh, I'm too far along because I've already raised some money.

We have folks that apply and get accepted to YC that have raised literally a million dollars, often more depending on their specific situation.

And so if you don't have product market fit as per the other talks you've heard here, there's a good chance that you are not too far along from YC and much of the help we can give you is to kind of 0 in on and focus on finding product market fit, all right?

And so I wouldn't say to yourself, well, I'm too far along for YC.

A lot of folks have seen our videos like this 1 and they think this is like a reasonable approximation of being in YC.

So let me just run through a few of these reasons why being a real YC founder is different than watching these videos.

First off, we are real people, believe it or not.

And by being in the batch, you get our full attention.

We text with people all the time and you get to know us in person.

And so you get these one-on-one office hours with your group partners, folks like me, and I'll tell you a secret.

We tell you that we would never say on the internet.

We have to be, you know, we're careful about what things we say in this format.

And there's a whole breadth and depth of knowledge that you will only hear if you're in YC.

In addition, there's a bunch of internal tools for founders inside of YC, work at a startup, all of our proprietary fundraising data and tools, our series A fundraising tools, et cetera, et cetera.

So there's lots of stuff that go on behind the scenes.

It could not be more different than watching some videos on the internet.

Another 1 that comes up a lot is a potential applicant is discouraged by someone in their life.

Someone is trying to play the role of gatekeeper, and that person is saying, oh, don't apply to YC, you know.

And then there's a few different reasons why they may say that.

You could ask someone that's saying, oh, don't apply to YC, some of these questions.

Hey, so you're saying I shouldn't spend a few minutes filling out this application and applying and maybe getting in, and I get half a million dollars up front.

And so if it's an investor discouraging you, you should ask the investor, oh, so are you going to invest?

Because if the investor is not willing to invest themselves, they're simply saying they don't want to see you raise, but they themselves are not going to invest.

Next, sometimes folks are in some market or some city or somewhere, And there's folks saying, stay small, stay in this country, stay in this city, don't think of this on a global scale.

And again, we fund people from all over the world, from every city, from every country.

And you wanna ask them if they're discouraging you from actually dreaming as big as you can dream.

Because sometimes they are, and I don't think that's great.

And then finally, sometimes folks suggest not applying because some other theoretical thing might happen.

Like maybe you'll do this, maybe you'll raise a series A, maybe you'll raise a seed round.

And again, I want you to think about asking the person, are you discouraging me from seizing an opportunity right in front of me for some theoretical thing that might happen?

And I think you'll kind of see where they're coming from.

So anyway, I think these are questions you can ask someone that's discouraging you from applying to YC.

And again, maybe they'll have something good to say, maybe they'll want to invest, I don't know.

Next up, a few other reasons people sometimes don't apply.

1, they think their company is too different or unique for YC to understand.

Again, if you look at our top companies list, you'll see we fund companies in every vertical from every country.

Sometimes people are based in a location, and they're not sure if we fund people in that location.

If you look at all the countries For companies we fund, we fund them all over.

Sometimes people are worried that we funded a startup in the same space.

It's pretty common, especially if it's a great startup idea, to have multiple companies in the same space.

And so we don't hold that against someone.

And then finally, people that have applied before are upset about it and don't wanna apply again because they feel upset about not applying.

Again, we're gonna talk about this more later, but I can't stress enough that it's actually a plus to have applied multiple times and not a negative.

I think my last point on this section is a simple piece of advice.

Just like anything with your startup, don't overthink the decisions.

If something seems like it might be a good idea, give it a shot.

And we see a lot of people with these really complex ideas about the best time to apply to YC or when to apply to YC or what startup ideas to apply to YC with, you know, don't overthink this.

Certainly not conducive with folks we've seen build big companies.

And look, a lot of the reason people don't apply to YC is because they're pretty confident they won't get it.

I would just suggest to everyone, get used to doing things that you think probably won't work and get comfortable being uncomfortable in this way.

I think it's a really good lesson to set yourself up to do things that are kind of a long shot.

And the fact is most of the folks in the most recent YC batches are not first-time applicants.

There's some folks that applied 5 times, 6 times, 7 times.

Those folks had persistence, they showed character, and it worked for them.

And so use this as just 1 little lesson on not being afraid of doing something that you think has a relatively low odds of success.

Here's a few good reasons not to apply to YC.

1 is you don't wanna work on the company for very long, say you want to just work on it for the summer or 6 months and then go get a job, okay, yeah, you know, don't apply.

Another 1 is if you don't think venture capital is a good route to take, all right, that's fair.

I mean, because YC investing is a form of venture capital, right?

And so if you don't want to pursue that type of business, probably a good reason not to apply.

And then also, if your business is not a technology startup, say it's more of a traditional business where there's no technical component, there's no programming, there's no biotechnology.

Okay, that's probably a good reason not to apply, that's not really our sweet spot.

Let's shift gears and let's talk about the application and let me give you some tips for your YC application.

You don't need permission, you don't need to email us, You don't need to send us a deck.

Let me give you some tips on your application.

A lot of the worst applications, I'm saying worst, but the ones that are just not strong, the founders did not take the time to fill them out.

Okay, that's obviously someone that didn't put much effort in.

Pay attention to little things like grammar, punctuation, capitalization.

Little stuff like that, if you don't do it, certainly shows to us that you may not be that serious about applying to YC.

Make a founder video that follows directions.

We put directions on how to do the video.

Sometimes people don't follow the directions for whatever reason.

Our entire application process has these detailed instructions.

And we definitely take into account if you follow them in our selection criteria.

This is 1 of the ways to tell how detail-oriented someone is, if they just follow directions.

And so pro tip, read all the stuff, follow the directions.

We definitely weigh that in our decision.

Next, your written answers should be clear and concise.

You don't get bonus points for writing something that's so long we can't scroll down the screen.

Be clear, be concise, answer the question directly.

Let me talk to you about what it's like to be on our side of the table, someone that reads applications.

And so here are the questions that I ask myself when I'm reviewing someone's YC application.

Today at this moment in time, is it built?

I really wanna know what the current state of the union is on the product.

In addition, is there any evidence that people want this?

In addition, is there evidence that the founders are serious and serious in this sense is the following, that they really want to do a startup, right?

For instance, if someone has left their job to work on this full time, that's an evidence of seriousness.

If someone has applied multiple times and every time they apply, they make more progress, that's evidence of seriousness.

Like it's trying to get the sense if they're just throwing in the application for fun, or if they really are serious about doing a startup.

And then finally, I look for what's impressive or unique or special about the application.

Sometimes the idea is an idea I've never heard before.

And so I really look for something that really stands out about the application.

What I do with this data that I just told you that I read as an application reader is I tell myself a little story.

And so I might say something, again, this is all in my head, but I might say something like, oh, this is the story of 2 friends.

We're both programmers working on infrastructure at Facebook and they quit their jobs 3 months ago to build a new cloud hosting company.

They built a basic demo and have 1 first customer and that customer is using it on this website and I can go look at the website and our plan is to become the top hosting company for all React apps.

If I can tell this kind of story about your company by reading your application, it means it was a good application.

On the flip side, Weak applications obfuscate everything.

And so I, as a reader, can't tell what's going on.

I don't understand what the idea actually is.

Like, why do these people know each other?

They might have customers, but I can't actually tell.

And so it's basically impossible for me to tell a story about you because I don't even understand the basics.

To me, this is actually a deep truism for all aspects of your startup, which is, if I can't even understand the basics of what you're trying to communicate to me, you're not even in the ballpark of convincing me, right?

Like if I don't even know, if I can't parse what you're trying to say, the odds of you convincing someone is basically 0.

And so you wanna really make sure people understand the basics.

I just pulled it off to give you an example of what a clear description is.

Do you see they're very concrete about what it is, what it does, who uses it.

They say a hundred thousand organizations use it.

So me as a reader reading this, crystal clear what GitLab is.

And look, they did it in just a few sentences.

Here is a fake thing that I wrote because I don't want to shame anyone.

I don't even know if this is really exaggerated.

These are the kinds of things I read in applications sometimes, where there were words here, the words say things, there's words I recognize, but if you ask me to summarize what these 3 or 4 sentences are and tell a story about what you do, or what it is, or how it's different, I would not be able to tell you.

So there you go, please don't submit stuff like this.

I wrote this and I have no idea what this is.

Our entire system rewards honest people acting in good faith.

If there's some hint somewhere in your application or elsewhere that you are being misleading in your answers, your application will be rejected.

We're sympathetic to honest mistakes, but anyone that's doing intentional obfuscation or misrepresentation of things in their application, like revenue or traction, your founder background, your educational history, you name it, that's disqualifying.

You know, It's pretty common to see people kind of try to misrepresent revenue or make it look like it's monthly revenue when it's really annual revenue.

As an application reader, this is like automatic disqualification.

In addition, I want you all to understand extraordinary claims on your application require extraordinary evidence.

And so if your claims are, hey, we have no users, cool.

There's not a lot of evidence you would need to show there.

But if you want to argue that some big, impressive company is 1 of your customers, you should be prepared to back that up or demonstrate that they are actually 1 of your customers.

In the case of GitLab, it wasn't a problem for them to demonstrate who their customers were.

Next, a lot of People ask questions around what their odds are of getting an interview at YC.

It's very hard to answer this question, but I'm gonna do my best because it gets asked so much.

Probably the biggest variable for if someone is selected for interview is the quality and quantity of the technical talent on the founding team.

So if there is a team that's applying, or at least 1 of the founders is at a skillset level to be hired into a technical role at a top YC company, they have 5X better odds than teams that don't.

And quick note on this, internships are okay.

So say you were an intern at Stripe or Airbnb or a place like that, okay, that counts.

And so it's very helpful to have technical talent on the founding team.

And this includes biotech, hard tech, things like that.

This isn't just software, but definitely something we look at.

And then as per this talk we did earlier in Startup School Dispatch about tar pit ideas, teams where there aren't technical founders and they're working on an unlaunched tar pit idea, those folks have the lowest odds.

How can you improve your odds of getting an interview?

Well, first off, add technical talent to the team.

And so this is why we have co-founder matching.

There's a number of folks even in the current batch that met via co-founder matching and it works, we love it.

What a great way to add technical talent to your team.

Quick note on this, the entire YC model was built to not require networking.

That is not how YC works in our funding decisions.

We built a system that is optimized for funding complete strangers that fill out a form on our website.

There's no tricks here, it really is that simple.

And if you ask alumni, the folks that I fund are complete strangers that I have not met before.

So be aware of folks out in the world that claim they can help you get into YC.

They claim they're connected with some other investors and they want something, they want equity, they want money.

And so you should be aware that there's lots of folks out there in startup ecosystems that kind of victimize aspiring founders.

Giving these kinds of people equity or whatever in your company does not help you get into YC, I'm sorry.

Let me give you some interview tips and preparation.

If you're selected for interviews after applying, there's just a 10-minute Zoom call with us.

We expect all the founders on your side to be there.

There's usually 2 to 4 folks from YC on the call on our side.

And you should assume during the interview that we have the application that you applied with open on our screen, and we're looking at your application while we're asking you questions or taking notes.

All right, this is how our workflow works on our side.

Now, the first thing to understand is that Interviewers are trained to ask basic questions to help us understand your startup.

And these questions are highly context dependent.

Some folks over-prepare for interviews in a way that is not relevant to them, and they're surprised by the questions we ask you, you shouldn't be surprised.

So for example, if you are pre-launch, we often ask questions that are relevant to a pre-launch company.

If you are in a regulated space, say FinTech or insurance or things like that, we're gonna ask you questions related to your regulatory strategy.

If you're in a space where there's many competitors, we're gonna ask you about your differentiation.

And so I'd encourage you to walk into the interview with an open mind and expect to begin the interview answering these basic questions.

And hopefully this will turn into a quick conversation about different topics once we understand the basics for our initial questions.

Probably the biggest mistake I see in folks preparing for their YC interview is to treat it like an adversarial process.

They treat it like, I don't know, applying to college or I don't know how to explain it, but we're like the other team and their job is to work against us.

And there's a lot of YC interview advice out there that I think is pretty bad because it treats this as an adversarial process.

See all Y Combinator transcripts on Youtube

How to Apply And Succeed at Y Combinator | Startup School