About 3% of YC applicants will get an interview. You'll need a winning YC application before you get to the interview round. A good application will get you an invitation email ("We want to see you in Mountain View") and a 10 minute interview. Remember: an invitation email gets you an interview. You're NOT in Y Combinator just yet.
| At least seven people decide Y Combinator applications, not just one. | http://ycuniverse.com/who-is-ycombinator.php |
| "How to Apply", by Paul Graham | http://ycombinator.com/howtoapply.html |
| "What We Look For In Founders", by Paul Graham | http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html |
| "How To Prepare For The Y Combinator Interview", by Paul Graham | http://ycombinator.com/howtoprepare.html |
About 97% of applicants, however, will get a rejection email. So it doesn't come as a surprise when you get it, this is what it will say:
We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally. The applications we receive get better every funding cycle, and since there's a limit on the number of startups we can interview in person, we had to turn away a lot of genuinely promising groups.
Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing.
http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html
We're trying to get better at this, but the hard limit on the number of interviews means it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes.
Y Combinator Team
Paul Graham's essay How To Prepare lists the following questions likely at a Y Combinator interview.
The question of "How are you going to make money" seems to always be a part of the interview. Y Combinator also doesn't seem to like the answer "We're going to sell ads". So here's a couple bonus links to help you prepare a better answer.
13 Ways To Get To $10 Million In Revenues (Part 1 of 2), 13 Ways To Get To $10 Million In Revenues (Part 2 of 2).
That's just long enough to make a fool out of yourself. Show up prepared by studying these experiences from others.
