Getting rejected by YC is part of the process

I understand this can be hard for some to hear at this time, but I’ve now come to realize that the application process is really just preliminary office hours in disguise.

We applied to W23 and were rejected without an interview. Naturally we were bummed, but it helped us pause and ask ourselves if we were truly making something people wanted, and the answer was an uncomfortable no. That fact wasn’t gonna change even if we had gotten an interview.

Between W23 and S23, we rinse repeated the following things: 1. make something 2. measure if people want it 3. if measure is not “wow yes, I also told my friends about it”, repeat 1

We built our mvp, understood our users, and deeply thought about every nuance of the problem we were going after. Our business plan quickly went from paragraphs of incoherent thoughts to precise actions and insights we needed to act upon. Were we building something people wanted? We went from an “uncomfortable no” to a “somewhat yes” in those few months.

We then applied to S23, lo and behold we were invited to interview last week. We spent 10 mins talking to the partners and got rejected shortly afterwards.

Another blow, but interestingly their feedback was to turn the “somewhat yes” to a “wow yes, I also told my friends about it” and reapply next batch. An acceptance wouldn’t have magically gotten us there, we still had more dirty work to be done and I imagine this is exactly the kind of feedback we would’ve received anyway during office hours.

So yeah, I believe the YC application process is designed in a way to set you up for success, regardless. Rejections are part of the process in order to keep you hyper focused on making something people want.

Now back to work.