| I applied as a solo founder with no idea, so I knew a rejection letter was inevitable. In all fairness I am not quite ready to build a company, I just hope my application was read once or twice. So who am I? Just a guy who started as the online banking help desk at $1B bank. I took the position just to get my foot in the door, and promptly proved my awesomeness with jack-of-all-trades problem solving that revamped their IT department from the ground up. My accomplishments drew c-level attention (walking into the CEO's office and telling him how much money I save him helped) so I'm now the lead sysadmin and further promotions are in sight. But like many here on HN, developing software is my passion and what I really want to do is start my own tech company. I'm taking small steps. I've completed 2 bonus projects to build custom web-apps for the bank intranet. Semi-formal contracts between myself and the CIO for the bank to purchase software I built on my own time and maintain my own IP. Yes it is awesome that they let me do this. From that point of view, I'm already developing and selling software to a small business, I just need to expand. If I had explained myself this way in the application I may have generated some more interest. Instead I mentioned that the timing wasn't very good and I want to learn some things from gauntlet of challenges ahead in my current job. Applying to YC was another small step to help push myself in the startup direction. My main goal was just to get my name in front of someone at YC. If my video was watched then I consider it a smashing success. |