news.ycombinator.com• Apr 21, 2024• 1 min read
Tell HN: When to apply to Y Combinator (YC S22 alum advice)Disclaimer: I'm a big YC fan. I became one before I got accepted to YC, even before I applied for the first time.TL; DR. If you're a first-time founder looking to build a one-billion-dollar (or more) fast-growing company - there is no better way to start than to get accepted to YC. If you have other life plans (which is absolutely fine), YC isn't for you by design.I wrote this post with the HackerNews crowd in mind. My entrepreneurial path started on HN, and I felt distraught seeing the HN audience take YC as a magic pill to succeed in any life choice. It's just not, and it's not trying to be.Dang's post received many negative replies about YC, and many of those don't make much sense: YC is not to help you build any company you want. YC is to help you build something really, really ambitious. That's how VC works.Me and YCThe best thing I ever did as a startup founder was to accept that, most likely, YC (PG, Michael Seibel & Dalton Caldwell, in particular) know better how to start a sta