[tomaitch]

To some degree I'd agree with you more now having done YC than before.

If you live in the USA and have ways of working yourself into Silicon Valley or some other startup culture, or have some other kind of access to seed funding and mentorship, then you don't need YC to succeed.

For us here in Melbourne, it was much harder. There's a few successful tech entrepreneurs from the 80s and 90s but they don't really get the web. And the angel and VC communities are tiny and unsophisticated.

Sure we could have backed ourselves, left our Melbourne lives behind and headed for Silicon Valley in the hope of finding a way to make things work. And had there not been any other option, perhaps we might have tried that, although at our age, probably not.

YC allowed us to fast-track the whole process. In the space of 5 months we went from just another unknown little startup from Melbourne to demoing our product to some of the world's most astute tech investors and being acclaimed by fellow startup founders and high-profile Valley identities alike.

That's not to say we've succeeded... we have a huge task ahead of us. But YC has helped us do in a few short months what might have taken us years any other way.

[tomaitch]

I should add that what we gained from YC more than anything else was confidence.

With what we know now, we realise we possibly could have come to Silicon Valley and successfully launched our startup without YC-backing, although it still would have taken much longer.

But we didn't know anyone who could introduce us into the culture, and we had no way of knowing how much potential we had and how reasonable it was to believe we could succeed. We weren't even convinced that our idea was a good one until YC backed it.

So I guess, if you're already confident, you don't need YC.

[plinkplonk]

"if you are already confident you don't need VC"

Eterno said "do real entrepreneurs need to be less excited about this YC interview thingy." and "please stop this gushing/blogging over your yc interviews". I think his ire was targeted at the "gush" factor vs the more rational question of whether a YC acceptance would be useful (I imagine it would be).

I have some sympathy for this view point. The blog entry certainly seemed to have an element of "gush" to it, along the lines of a Biz school admission process. That said, hey if two entrepreneurs find every detail of the YC interview process worth gushing about, what is our problem? :-).

If i were ever to apply to YC (and I probably will once I come (back) to the United States), my reading is that except for the actual presentation preparation most of the other thinking should have been done while a startup is being conceived of , well before YC acceptance becomes a factor.

"How will you distinguish yourself from your competition" for example is (I would think) an obvious question entrepreneurs have to answer well before a YC interview. Preparation for the YC interview would more or less be just be figuring out what to fit into the 10 minutes I get. It should take about an hour or so I imagine.

I didn't quite get the ecstasy/depression/all-consuming preparation vibe in, for example, "We walked back towards downtown Mountain View, talking a little but not making much sense, as the intensity of the experience dissipated. As my composure returned," This sounds like someone coming down from a drug high!

In my (undoubtedly too cold blooded for some) view, PG, Trevor, Jessica etc are just very talented, nice, well connected people, not demi-gods to be worshiped or placed on a pedestal to the degree where their approval (perhaps in the form of a YC acceptance) invokes some kind of mind fogging ecstasy and their disapproval a corresponding level of disappointment, which is a bit of the vibe I got from the post.

So I understand what the OP meant by (paraphrasing) "you are entrepreneurs. Don't gush!", but hey it is your blog write what you want! :-)

[axod]

Why do you feel you need Silicon Valley / culture / mentorship etc?

If you have a good idea, just do it. Doesn't really matter where you are if you have the determination to succeed.

[david927]

I live in Europe and there's not much in the way of concept level funding here. I completely understand the OP -- having any help, let alone a few months of funding, the mentorship and Demo Day is definitely worth getting excited about, especially if you're not already in a hub area.

On a funny note: We just had TechCrunch party here in Prague over the weekend, and it was like an AA meeting. No investors, just startups pitching to themselves and consoling themselves. When you're starting you take all the help you can get. So don't tell me about it doesn't matter where you are -- it matters.

[axod]

It matters if you let it matter. If you feel you need to go the whole Angel->VC schmoozing route, then definitely location matters. But there's a lot of other ways to get started.

[tomaitch]

It matters if your business is the type that can't prosper on determination alone. That kept us going for 6 years. Eventually we needed money and a supportive environment.