How to get into YC
About this event
Many people in Network School want to apply for funding from programs like NS-Fellows, YCombinator, etc. I've personally gotten into YC twice. In this event, I'll share my own personal playbook for how I think about preparing for applying to YC, but I think the lessons are applicable for any type of funding program.
I'll cover some non-obvious things I learned
Focus on 1 point in your YC pitch
Founder conviction > investor conviction
How I "guess" what an investor cares about
Why YC partners actually don't know as much as you might think they do (but are still very smart and honest)
I'll do a walk-through of my own application to YC (what I think worked, what didn't work and how I'd approach the application.
I hope this will be a helpful perspective / data point for all of you applying for funding in the coming months!
My Story
From 2018 to 2020, I launched 2 companies. Both were accepted into YCombinator. The first company was a computational drug-discovery company for Alzheimer's Disease (accepted YC S18, but now dead). The second company was a CRM for construction trade contractors (accepted YC S19). I launched both companies while I worked at Uber as a software engineer. In both cases, I started with 0 experience in the healthcare or construction industry.
Helpful prereading:
https://www.michaelseibel.com/blog/how-to-pitch-your-company