I'm both happy and sad that they're not doing the same thing this year. I really liked interviewing all the companies, but it also monopolized a couple days. I think they took my advice an all of them actually, so it didn't feel like a waste of time.
Nice post! You said you hadn't realized your idea wasn't exactly unique until after you had started working on it. Some may call this a stretch, but I think this is similar to Steve Wozniak often creating things that already existed, just not to his standards or accessibility (i.e. costs, limited time and place, etc.) When a startup doesn't have it's hopes up on just trying to be the first to accomplish something, but more importantly to create a quality, accessible product, that is probably when things come together for them.
Sounds so easy! 40 hour mock up, off the cuff interview, and head to the bar! I can handle that.
But seriously, I'm sure all the hard work that's not mentioned in the post is starting to pay off. Congrats, and thanks for the encouragement and advice.
Just to clarify a bit...Dan is one of the best "off the cuff" speakers that I know, and Tom is almost inhuman in his ability to work for countless hours straight and turn out an amazing product.
The Ticketstumbler advice is definitely spot on:
- Make sure that you know your shit when you're going in for the interview. Know your competitors inside and out (there will be laptops open during the interview and active googling will be conducted while you're talking), and be able to articulate why you're different.
- Be confident in your idea, but also be open to suggestions/recommendations. Push back if you feel it's necessary, but being open and flexible are traits that YC is looking for.
- Anticipate obvious questions and have intelligent answers ready.
- Definitely have a demo/prototype.
We'll be writing up a more in depth blog post in the next few days on the Anyvite blog, but just wanted to toss some ideas out there now in response to the TS blog post.
"Anticipate obvious questions and have intelligent answers ready." Does that include putting the answers in the presentation? I suppose their might be some that wouldn't really fit there even if they were predictable though.
Otherwise, I'm not sure if intentionally withholding them until the QA part is a good way of looking stupid or smart...
There is no presentation. No powerpoint, no projector, none. This isn't a business meeting. You walk in and they fire questions at you. You respond as best you can and realize that your only ability to steer the conversation is with the responses you give.
Ah, what with the talk of the mock up I assumed you at least put up something as a visual basis. Sounds... refreshing, actually, even if it puts you on the spot, it frees you to show your stuff personally, as opposed to through prepared materials.
Yep, you actually just walk into the office with your laptop in hand, set it down on the table, everyone gets up and stands behind you to watch as you start driving and talking...then they start asking you questions, you get derailed answering the questions, and suddenly ten minutes have gone by.
I'm not yet convinced that the hard work ever pays off, it just begets more hard work ;)
It's like, if you have 2 apples and eat 1, how many apples do you have? Normal life? One apple. Start-up life? 17 apples. Want to know what happens when you eat another one? No. No you do not.
Our interviews went pretty well despite getting absolutely grilled by Pete from Songkick. It was probably one of the sharpest, toughest interviews I’ve ever had.
Pete is such a nice friendly guy it makes me smile thinking of him grilling someone (though, of course, he can). So who was being "good cop"?
Pete was the only one from Songkick that interviewed us. He was much nicer after the interview :). It wasn't a mean grilling - just a thorough one. He was/is very impressive. Also, it didn't help that we were on a transatlantic conference call.
"...we spent the next 8 years playing Starcraft"
Heh. Reminds me of my friends and I falling into it. Somehow, I can't help but think Starcraft could be a useful if crude litmus test to divide people into social groups. I wonder if there are any entrepreneur focused lan parties...
Great story. I'm sure quite a bit of other startups and applicants can relate to your situation and its always great hearing about the lead up to getting funded by YC.
