Like most founders, I’ve been trying to get into Y Combinator for years.
Their brand is so notable that some even take getting in as startup success (it isn’t).
How It Started
The first time I applied to Y Combinator was in 2019.
I had an idea for a customer support outsourcing company and I believed it was a multi-million dollar opportunity — but not a billion-dollar one.
This shows how little I knew about what YC and indeed all VCs valued.
If you’re applying to YC, and you don’t believe your startup could be worth a billion dollars someday — you’ve already lost.
And in my case, months after pitching, I only got the generic “We wish you luck…but NOPE” email from them.
But getting into YC was my dream so the next year I tried again.
**I tried to write this on IH but the formatting was clunky, read the full article on Medium: https://thelennyjohnson.medium.com/how-to-actually-get-into-y-combinator-tales-from-a-founder-f376a0444920 **
YC is an elite institution and the only way to get in is to:
That's it. If you don't have one of those three you're toast
cool