Does this also mean that applications that do not get accepted under the initial deadline can re-apply with a new idea? If so, will the submission process be able to recognize this as "new" so it is given a fresh review by YC rather than viewing it as an "update" to an existing application?
Hrm, I should have known you lot would think of unanticipated ways to use this option. That wasn't the original intention, and if everyone did that we'd be so swamped with repeat applications that we probably wouldn't be able to read them all. How about if I add a feature for people to update an application that was submitted by the deadline, and we'll make a pass through those too?
To better get the "seriously, apply on time if at all possible" idea across, I'd emphasize that harj is monitoring late apps.
"If you apply on time, all 4 YC partners will definitely read your application. If you apply late, our employee will skim through it to see if it looks promising, and only if he thinks it does will any of us even see it."
Think: you know who will initially vet your application (as opposed to the normal process) so you can think how to hook him in. And if you successfully do so your now "recommended" to one of the partners.
Could be an advantage for a smart thinking founder :)
you'd do more harm than good with this approach. you'd be much better off concentrating on communicating what you perceive are your strengths as a team rather than guessing what you think might hook me in, which will likely be wrong anyway.
It seems unlikely to me that that advantage outweighs the disadvantage of having to survive an extra pass, and the disadvantage of pushing busy people to make a decision on you when they are particularly busy. (My experience is that busy people become good at saying no out of self-defense.)
no, everyone on the team reviews the apps. i'm just contacting groups that seem interesting but i want to have some more information about. if you applied early you had a higher chance of being contacted, which is an advantage since you have an extra opportunity to impress.
no don't read anything into it, there are only so many applicants I can reach out to. there's almost certainly far more that I haven't looked at yet than ones I've looked at and decided not to contact.
>we say that "groups that apply early have a significant advantage." We're referring to Harj, who has already started to engage with groups that seem promising.
Sounds like he's reading the apps and contacting groups if he thinks anything is unclear. All 4 YC partners read them all, at least officially.
As volume of applications gets even more ridiculous, I could forsee a future where he screens them all and marks them either "skim" or "read", where skim means "I'm pretty sure they have no hope, just skim it it make sure I didn't miss anything" and read means "I'd definitely consider interviewing them." but they're probably reluctant to do that since it's important that they get the best groups possible, and I highly doubt they'd do that on harj's first cycle. They'll have to be really comfortable with his judgment before they let him prejudice their readings of applications.
To cut down the volume of applications, YC should charge an application fee, like most colleges. That will quickly filter out the crap. An app fee is not evil. Id pay $25 or so to guarantee honest, thoughtful consideration by the YC 4.
I think what you've really done here is change the deadline from March 3rd to "right before the program starts". Sure, applying earlier is better than later, but that was already the case.
I wouldn't want people to think that. Actually it is going to be much harder to get a late application accepted. We'll dutifully process all the regular applications in batch as usual, whereas we probably won't look that closely at late applications unless we see something exceptional.
No, the number of applications doesn't seem to have decreased. We decided to do this back in Jan when we moved the application deadline earlier, because there's now a 3 month gap between the application deadline and when the cycle starts, and we know from experience that when people start startups, they don't always know they're going to 3 months beforehand.
We've thought about it. We may one day. But there is some stuff that usually happens between cycles, like organizing Startup School. Plus we need some time off. During the YC cycle we are very busy, like the startups themselves are, because time is so compressed.
Maybe a little, but I doubt it. Sounds like they've known this is a problem for awhile: someone decides to start a startup right after the deadline, hears about YC, wants to do it, but has to wait a long time (beginning of April- beginning of January is 9 months) to hit a cycle.
But by moving the deadline earlier, they made the problem that much worse, which got them thinking about the problem, which lead them to decide on this approach.
PG has said in the past that YC don't have an upper limit on the number of groups to fund. This isn't a zero-sum game: if having no deadline means they get more applicantions of which a steady percentage is fundable, then it's worth doing as long as they don't overstretch their resources.
I assume that the bar will be (much?) higher for late applicants. I think this is a way to make sure that YC doesn't miss out on the next Facebook. When the bulk of returns are made on the outliers, this makes sense.
It's also curious that the iPad application RFS was released 3 days ago and presented an extremely tight deadline on applying with that in mind. Now there is plenty of time to apply if you've got the iPad in mind for YComb.
Someone take this idea and apply: iPad Software that mums can use to do some elementary diagnoses on the various illnesses that their children can get, get to talk to other people about it and recommend doctors/medicines.
Or how about this: iPad software that contains the instruction manuals for like every electronic device ever (TVs etc).
Or the simplest, yet best of all: iPad software that, after you weigh yourself, you tap once on it to say how much you weigh. Over the course of the day, it tells you when to stop eating to reduce weight. After a meal, you tap what you just ate (chicken wings) and it adds to your calories.
If I were applying for YC I'd go for that 3rd one. Feel free to use these ideas, I'm not going to make them myself.
As far as the third one is concerned, there are many apps that do that already for the iPhone. E.g. Lose it! (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lose-it/id297368629?mt=8) which comes with a big database of food with nutritional info, preprocessed meal from brand names… It's well done, but it gets pretty cumbersome to enter what you ate.
HTML 5 is supported on the iPad, you can install an application that looks pretty native (including local storage) that doesn't have to go through the crazy Apple approval process. Neven Mrgan made a game in HTML5 that illustrates how well this works: http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/257187093/pie-guy
i like the second one the best. I'm pretty certain that most of the manuals are out there in PDF format already. Organizing / finding them all would be a bit of work, but it's doable.
There's a bit of a copyright problem, there- You can't just scan in documents and offer them out as PDF, hoping for the best.
The way early-stage companies sometimes get around this is to allow user-uploads, and then close their eyes and humm to avoid knowing what's in them. See: Youtube, Scribd.
But why would companies care about their manuals being in users hands? Imagine the app launches first, then starts negotiating with the companies - I doubt that one would get sued.
Very interesting, Paul. Hope the experiment works.
Staging all the funding opps is a great idea, but as you point out, it sucks to have to wait six months. I hope this makes for a good compromise for everybody concerned.
This is a pretty interesting development. I'm wondering how YC will handle rejections now - when you know you want to interview someone, that's pretty straightforward. There are probably plenty of definite "no"s, too. Not having the hard deadline will surely tempt you into watching the progress of startups that you're undecided on for a while before making a decision, a bit like the "big" VC courting ritual. (though considering PG's past comments on the VC funding process, I'm assuming it won't be as frustrating for the applicants)
I want a smart alarm clock that knows that where I've got to be in the morning and wakes me up earlier if the roads are blocked or there are major delays on the train.
I wish I would've seen that the application window was opened sooner, so I wouldn't be one of those last-minute applications. That's what I get for thinking the HN front page would keep me up to date on YC activities ;). I'll be subscribing to the YC blog RSS feed now...
Is there a correlation between number of follow-up questions and on-site interviews? Is there a time window (just before/just after the deadline) where more follow-up questions are typically asked?
If you have an Internet-based business and don't have any particular emphasis on your location ("helps you navigate the local subway"), then "based in NYC" means very little; you could always relocate for at least a summer.
As for "doesn't really require any funding", the money represents the least important reason to work with Y Combinator. We didn't apply because we thought $17k would make the difference between our business succeeding or failing. We applied because we want the business guidance, connections, meetings, resources, investor days, and the opportunity to work on our project full-time distraction-free.
