tjculbertson

It is a shame. Just looking at her profiles and accomplishments you can tell she was special. Not to mention having the guts to switch from accounting to development as a woman in a male dominated industry.

May you rest in peace Faigy. I will pray for you and your family.

I like this idea. But I agree, it's a problem and this is probably one reason for experimenting with this. It sounds like the number of apps are already crazy, so not sure how YC will be able to sort through them all with more than a crap shoot probability of success.

According the PG, the big ideas are not obvious at first, so how can you make good decisions on so many ideas in so little time? Probably YC is going to filter the apps through 1-2K YC founders or something and then have a score sheet, silos of expertise, etc. Basically selection by committee.

Though I like the concept, I am skeptical of the judging, as well as the sheer number of apps coming in worldwide - too much white noise which hurts the ability of the many US based startups trying to get a seat at the table.

Amen brotha. That is the difference between employees and entrepreneurs when the bubble bursts.

That's the tradeoff that you make here is that it's not just about the money is it? I don't think YC has ever been about the money for a startup- even at $100K or whatever it is. It's about "access"...into the SV network, which gives you instant credibility to parlay that name into other funding, recruiting, partnerships, etc. So if you are a savvy entrepreneur you can leverage the fellowship in almost the same way as the YC batch.

Maybe this is also a way for YC to sort of draw a line in the sand between wantrepreneurs and the real deal. If you have an idea that keeps you up at night and you have decided to go all in, then this will give you a chance to prove it. no?

So would you consider SpaceX to be a service company and not hardware? They build rockets to deliver stuff for customers. I think defining whether a company is a HW company is too narrow. If you need to build HW to build a business of serving customers, or need to build HW to sell to customers, you need to build hardware in either case.

I think you're right. YC was lacking all of the resources that other HW accelerators provide (it's highly specialized). But looks like they now know what HW startups need, so look for YC to be a force in HW.

Yea, I think just sheer growth. PG mentions growth and Sam taking over at about minute 3 or 4 in the video above. So who knows.

This is an interesting point on the timeline for YC in that their apps increased 40%!

PG says they now have 3 silos, like 3 mini YC's reviewing. But if you have 1400 alums reviewing apps, by definition you are going to have scoring that is biased against finding black swans, regardless of how many silos you create.

As you say, the problem is too many apps and not enough time for a smaller amount of alums to review the apps.

One answer might be going to a rolling application process to avoid the washout that happens with a wave 40% bigger than you anticipated. And/or opening other offices, which is most likely in the works.

Glad to hear that. Yea, it's a bit of a gut shot - some pain, then anger, then acceptance, and then, as someone else said, back to work; The 7 minute YC rejection workout.

Awesome...lots of useful intel here. Please do update when you have some more results. Intuitively, I'm thinking a mix of as few words as possible to convey the use/value because I'm only going to give you about 5 secs of attention span. So at that point, I am either leaving or I want to know a little more, so there is where it gets interesting on how much and what kind of things produce the best results..maybe also a testimonial or two to build confidence.

Its not an app, but check out the www.theleanstartup.com I like how its rich with info in just the right places, then it draws you in deeper. Thanks for the info.