My Acceptance Into Y Combinator

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A strong team: With Anthony and Tom aboard, I had talent ready to build an early version of the app. A strong team takes idle daydreams and turns them into practical solutions.
Rapid prototyping: You can’t expect to impress Y Combinator with just an idea. Rapid prototyping will teach you the most important lessons quickly: what works, what doesn’t work, and what it’s going to take for your product to succeed.
Real user feedback: With a prototype in place, you can take your product to users. What are the blind spots you can’t see? User feedback will shore up your weaknesses by the time you apply.
Will all of these levers pulled, I had something my first idea had been lacking: momentum. By the time I applied to YC with SwipeGood, the rapid iteration and working proof of concept meant I was finally a serious contender.

I decided that on my seventh attempt, I wouldn’t netherlands telegram data treat my YC application like a lottery ticket. I would be more strategic.

I met with founders who had gone through YC and I pitched them our idea for SwipeGood, asking for their expert feedback. I got mixed reactions—some founders thought the idea sucked, and others were more encouraging.

One founder was excited enough about SwipeGood that he emailed his recommendation to Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham directly. Two hours later, Paul emailed us back with an invite to the program.

On the one hand, it blows my mind that once I finally had a viable startup idea, it only took two hours to get accepted into YC.