We often accept people who reapply. The best known is probably Drew Houston of Dropbox. There were at least two in the most recent batch: FanVibe and PagerDuty. For the PagerDuty guys it was the fourth time they'd applied.
There are multiple explanations. We care more about people than ideas, but we don't care zero about ideas. Especially if a startup is passionately committed to what seems a bad idea; we'll usually reject them no matter how good the people are.
When people reapply it's often with different teams. I think all 3 cases I mentioned did.
People do change somewhat between applications. Someone who's only 25 gets 4% more experience each year.
And also, as we say in the email when we turn people down, we're often simply wrong.
We applied with PagerDuty twice (first time rejected at the application stage, second time successful). The other two times were different ideas (rejected at the interview stage).
I'm actually curious now if we set the record for most rejections prior to an acceptance.
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A prototype is enough for us.
We often accept people who reapply. The best known is probably Drew Houston of Dropbox. There were at least two in the most recent batch: FanVibe and PagerDuty. For the PagerDuty guys it was the fourth time they'd applied.
If YC selects based on people and not ideas, what changes between applications? Does the submitter grow in some meaningful way, and that sticks out?
There are multiple explanations. We care more about people than ideas, but we don't care zero about ideas. Especially if a startup is passionately committed to what seems a bad idea; we'll usually reject them no matter how good the people are.
When people reapply it's often with different teams. I think all 3 cases I mentioned did.
People do change somewhat between applications. Someone who's only 25 gets 4% more experience each year.
And also, as we say in the email when we turn people down, we're often simply wrong.
Do they re-apply with different ideas or the same ones but more developed?
We applied with PagerDuty twice (first time rejected at the application stage, second time successful). The other two times were different ideas (rejected at the interview stage).
I'm actually curious now if we set the record for most rejections prior to an acceptance.
Yes, I think 3 is the record.
Persistence! I'm impressed.
Ah - thank you, I will try my best to apply in this round!:)