> The week after Christmas, we drove our entire lives up to our new apartment in NYC, got my wife settled in the city, and then I flew out to San Francisco to live on the other side of the country from her for 3 months.
> And it was, without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life.
The one trait I've noticed about these articles is the applicant must have a significant amount of planning.
It doesn't sound like YC is something that you wake up on Monday and say, "I'm going to live in California for 3 months on savings without a reliable source of income and hope I can turn my idea into a business."
Strangely enough, a lot of the most successful startups we've funded applied at the last minute. E.g. David Rusenko of Weebly told me he applied 30 min before the deadline.
That could be because a) anyone who can put together a coherent pitch in 30 minutes already knows the problem space and solution very well, and/or b) there isn't time to lie or exaggerate in 30 minutes, so if you fund them, they are actually as good as they said they were.
Mostly a). The people who apply at the last minute don't usually have the idea at the last minute. They apply with something they've already started working on, or at least thinking about.
Or c) a person applying at the last moment has enough confidence in his or her product that applying to YC seems optional rather than urgent.
That said, it would be strange if all the people who applied at the last moment, even all the successful YC alumni who did, did so for the same primary reason. I'd wager that it's more that there's a cluster of desirable founder traits that correlates with applying late, of which in any particular good founder a different one can dominate.
anyone who can put together a coherent pitch in 30 minutes already knows the problem space and solution very well
I'd guess most of the successful YC companies knew the problem space very well when they applied. That's probably a universal prerequisite to making something people want.
Is there any data available on how much forethought and planning went into the decision to apply and the app/vid themselves?
From what I've learned talking to YC startups and reading about others it seems pretty mixed, that some spent many hours planning and some made the decision at the last minute.
I'd argue that the unpolished application videos are the best. I really like the video that the guys from DirectedEdge submitted (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nTFBO5lvGc). This video demonstrates that there is chemistry between the two founders, identifies the problem/opportunity, and clearly explains their solution. I wasn't in the room, but this video appears to be spontaneous.
I can't speak to the timing of it all. But, given the data points available I'd say rough videos and applications free of marketing speak are the best.
Yes and no. In my situation (OP), I had about a month to find a place for my wife to live in NYC (until I got there after YC), find a place for our team to live in SF, and find someone to rent the place we owned in the DC area. And it all worked out. Sometimes the time constraints can be a good thing.
I think the planning phase is whether or not you are going to go all in and pursue your idea as a business opportunity; regardless of YC. YC happens to be something that makes you decide that. Could be other things, but some people need something to push them a little.
> And it was, without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life.
Out of context this wording is kind of funny/sad.