Well, today was a bit if a disappointing day. Not because YCombinator rejected us or anything but because in the end, I didn’t apply. I have watched many of the YCombinator videos on Youtube, seen many podcasts and had a rationalization late last night while I couldn’t sleep. We are not the right fit for YCombinator. They are massive successful at what they do, and Im 100% sure they know more than I do… I don’t necessarily think they are right on their criteria.
So I can’t tell you how many videos I have seen where Michael Siebel preaches about having to have a technical co-founder. I think this is probably my biggest sticking point but time will tell. They may be wrong or it may be me. So I think people can be successful without being technical even if they are starting some tech based company. Like every skill in the world, it can be hired out. The key is to have enough capital to see it through. My business partners and I are all non-technical but have build successful businesses. None of us have fancy business degrees but what we do have is hard work and determination. From our previous hard work, we have bootstrapped (maybe self funded is the right word here) a functioning product with ZERO technical skills. Like I wrote about yesterday, even if we had a technical founder, we would still likely need to hire out our app development and devops work. I just don’t understand why YCombinator really pushes so hard on this aspect. I understand it would be great to have someone working for ramen coding for 15 hours a day but that just isnt realistic in every scenario.
We don’t fit the mould. Two families with kids living in the DFW area of Texas. We can’t pick up our lives and move to San Francisco. I found it odd in the application that they ask where you live now and where you will live after YCombinator. I understand there is a lot of VC and expensive tech people in SF, but that also can hurt a startup. Expensive office space, needing higher salaries to just get by, etc. Maybe Im over-reading the question but they ask you to justify your position. My reason is I have family support here. When we need someone to watch our child, we have that. We own a house and have low bills and don’t need to take money out of the company to survive but if our bill 3-4x, it’s a different story. You can find programming talent all over the US, not just NYC or SF.
My business partners and I are probably considered “old”. We are not in college or right out of college and I think that is also a positive. With life experience we have learned a lot and with our old businesses we have learned even more about what to do and more importantly what NOT to do. I couldn’t imagine trying to start a legitimate company if this was 20 years ago when I was in college. While that age offers a lot more flexibility, I don’t think if often has enough maturity to make things great.
Should we have still applied to YCombinator? I’m really not sure. I decided not to based on large assumptions: we don’t have a technical founder, we are too old, and we can’t pick up our lives and move to SF for 3 months and definitely can’t afford to stay after that. I was just watching an interview with Brian Chesky of AirBnB and he basically stated while YCombinator was helpful, they didn’t suddenly get some success overnight from them. In fact, it seems they didn’t get much success until they got $600k from Sequoia Capital. Did YCombinator help them get that money? Probably. I did some research and saw a couple other reviews of YCombinator and they seem to say its more about networking that anything else. The mentors you have don’t necessarily understand your business niche. The 3 months spent in SF seems to consist more of a weekly office hours and a dinner. The rest of the time it is up to you to network with other startups if you have it in you and simply dedicate that 3 months to hardcore working with hopeful motivation from everyone else.
$125k for 7%. While I don’t think thats a horrible trade, heck, they are betting on you, it may not be the best trade either. If you’re a 20 something year old college kid, the money seems like a ton and would be super helpful. But even in the FAQ, they say the money is more used to try and stay afloat. You need all of that money if you’re living in SF. I think the biggest thing YCombinator has going for it (from the founder perspective) is demo day. The opportunity to just get in front of dozens of VC all at once and see if anyone is interested. I think my perspective of money has changed since we have owned other businesses in the past. I’m thankful we have been financially smart in the past which has allowed us to have money to develop Fix it Today. While an influx of cash would always be helpful, we were looking for more help and knowledge than money.
Are we old, misfits that don’t conform to the YCombinator mould? Probably but that is ok. I’m betting on us and we will continue to push forward without them. If we get to the point we need to raise money, we will just do it the old fashion way and waste a ton of time and effort emailing people rather than focusing on growth. Can we bootstrap to the end? I hope so but I do know with more money, means you have the ability to grow faster. Where are we in the growth of Fix it Today? We are in the very early stages and I’m thankful to have heard a Brian Chesky talk he gave about 8 years ago to Stanford students or something. It makes me feel better knowing that we are following the same path. The ebbs and flow of business, the seeing money drain from the account, etc. Thing’s don’t work overnight. I do want to say I do agree with something from YCombinator.. that is don’t give up. I believe it may have been Michael Seibel that said his best advice to founders is to not give up. We won’t.
