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i don't think i'm explaining this well. I apologize for that. i looked at your company. you and your cofounder had deep technical expertise in an area that was white-hot at the time (obviously not a perfect comp, but that was the year zynga ipo'ed on the strength of mobile gaming). so i am not surprised at all that you got into YC without any connections. im sure there are many deeply technical founders in "hot" areas such as AI, robotics, etc that are currently getting into YC without connections. note: again, not a perfect comp, but they probably looked at you and thought that this has dropbox-like potential. also, perhaps you will disagree that the space was "white hot" based on your own personal experiences -- my rebuttal to this would be YC was probably ahead of the curve, as it usually is, as that space definitely became white hot if not around that time period, then shortly thereafter. my point is that there are thousands of founders that apply every year to YC, who do not have PMF, prior exits, or obviously industry/technical knowledge in "hot" areas -- out of these folks, the ones that get in, i am guessing, had really good connections. i honestly don't think i'm saying anything that outlandish. VCs don't even try to hide that you need to be connected with a "warm" intro to get their attention -- they make that publicly known. while there are always exceptions such as you and your cofounder, i don't think YC (which is for intents and purposes a VC with a better business model, a 3 month founder bootcamp, and afaict no LPs) is any different. |