BTW, we offer a mobile, location-aware solution for events and attendees to use before, during and after any event. The solution is free to anyone to use!
Make sure your founder is also really committed to it. I had one co-founder who kept his daily-job, was married and then, after some months, gave up when we had deadlines and much harder work was required.
Talk to him now about vesting plan and make sure he is for the long haul. Good luck!
We didn't make it. We seriously believe we have a strong aplication: experienced people (developers), revenue model, an advanced demo, and already very very good reviews from other people.
I am sure now that YC looks at two things basically:
-a team larger enough to have at least 2 guys working full-time until Demo Day (we had only one)
-younger coders (20-28) at most. We are 29, 31 y.o.
If you don't have those two things, you probably didn't make it in this round, since it was more competitive, even if you had a demo and your solution was very interesting.
Needless to say, we will move forward faster than ever now.
Most of the negative things I got in life turned out to be positive later if I look backwards. I hope it's true with YC rejection too. :)
If you think 29/31 is old - what about me? 37? I am doomed, LOL!
Somewhere in his essays, PG mentioned that startups are achievable within 21 to 38 yrs of age. So I was thinking this is my last chance - what the heck? I will still do it, because I believe in it and my users do!
I applied knowing my company didn't fit the profile and that my chances were slim (one founder, a couple decades out of college, family, not based in MV or Boston.) Rejection is never pleasant, but the experience was positive overall and I take my hat off to Y Combinator for pioneering this unique approach to helping startups. I know other investors are watching closely and some are beginning to emulate them. All good. It would be most helpful if YC could provide statistical profiles of companies that applied and those that made it to the next round. Would also be interesting to know how many YC is planning to fund (given the current economic stituation.)
I recommend you to enroll on the iPhone Developer Program (it's free if you plan initially to develop for the iPhone simulator only).
I recommend you then to download Apple's documents under 'Getting Started Documents', including memory management and play with the tutorials.
Apple has plenty of resources on their program, they did a good job supporting developers. Good luck!
Let's do an interesting exercise. Facebook has 100 million users. Let's suppose 10% of that user base would be willing to pay a $1.99 to have a premium account (like unlimited number of photo albuns, customizable look&feel etc). That would mean almost $20m dollars monthly revenue, much much larger than their burn-rate. College students don't pay for SMS? Why some of them wouldn't then pay this small amount to Facebook?
Sure, this is a very rough estimation based on old subscription-based business model. A product in a free market operates much differently than if you charge US$ $.01. But it only shows that Facebook has many ways to become successfully profitable. They are only being cautious.
Online Newspaper X has over 20m online readers. Most of them have at some point subscribed to print publications @ $200+ per year. If it was a membership site at just $2 per month, wouldn't they be able to keep some readers? 10%? 5%?.
You're not telling me someone making $80k per year would replace the newspaper she reads every day to to save a few cents a read?
Wouldn't people pay to use google? What if it was just $0.50 a month? or $0.01 per search?
The concept that if people use a site, it's worth money, has not proved itself.
If we are going to look at profitable online communities then look at MMORPGs. It may be outside the realm of facebook and linkedin but there is plenty of profitability to be had beyond myspace clones or even websites.
World of Warcraft takes in 12.99 - 14.99 per user per month and has approximately 10 million active subscribers. Plus additional profits whenever an expansion comes out.
Yes, I agree! We can debate the conversion rates. My whole point is that simply asking whether Facebook will be ever profitable is a simplistic question. They can become profitable already. The question is that there are probably much better ways to monetize their site and typical audience than requiring subscription.
Like PG mentioned, when Google came along, the best way to monetize search engines was to become a "media" portal and pollute browsers with ads and pop-ups.
Best of luck to all applicants!
I think the financial situation in the world only helps separate the wheat from the chaff, i.e. those true entrepreneurs wishing to work hard through the bad (now a bit longer) and good times to build a real business from those with a "strike-it-rich-fast" attitude, typical of economic bubbles. I also believe YC is expected to see an improvement in the quality of the applications.
I think for some solutions the quality of data is very important, sometimes crucial. Think LinkedIn, Facebook, which are sites that count very much on the quality of the data they collect for advertisement purposes.
Facebook for instance enforces that you enter a valid email address to belong to a network (e.g. Cornell University etc).
Maybe someone creates a solution, a 3rd-party app which could do the trick (maybe even use Twitter for that). Ideas?? :)
Just be direct and honest! Something like "You know, I always wanted to start a company and do something exciting. I think we would make a terrific team and would like to hear your opinion." Good luck!
I think client software is seeing a revival with mobile platforms like the iPhone OSX and Android. Right now the best experience in those devices is delivered by native client apps. Script languages like Flash and a browser with a larger screen enables rich web applications and thus reduces the need to write a native app for platforms like Windows.
Absolutely true! Great companies are a result of smart and hard-working entrepreneurs who form great teams.
I believe being nice does not exclude neither the confident nor the shy types. But being confident should not mean cocky or arrogant. In a start-up you should be willing to learn everyday and sometimes you won't hear nice things. Those who learn and adapt fast, and are also nice thrive and build great companies.
