Last minute tips for YC Interviewees
This isn&#x27;t true at all.<p>Literally nobody doesn&#x27;t have any traction.  Literally nobody has no big possible future.  Literally nobody doesn&#x27;t understand something that other teams don&#x27;t.<p>Like, literally 100.000% of startups that are at that interview stage pass every one of these tests with flying colors.<p>Don&#x27;t believe me?<p>Let&#x27;s go through what it would take to fail any of these metrics.<p>--------------------------------------------<p>1.  Let&#x27;s imagine that a startup doesn&#x27;t &quot;use plain language and is concrete&quot;.<p>Here&#x27;s what it would have to sound like.  I googled &quot;computer science web service patent 2015&quot; so that I could quote the obscure language some link uses.  Here is something that isn&#x27;t plain language, and isn&#x27;t concrete:<p>A top link, to here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;patents&#x2F;US8689181" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;patents&#x2F;US8689181</a> , seems good.  Let&#x27;s go with it.  Here is their language: &quot;A process performed on a server includes configuring the server to enable script for a Web service to be defined dynamically, where the Web service includes an application program interface (API) for enabling access by, and interaction with, a computer program executing on a device other than the server. The process also includes compiling the script to produce machine-executable code for the Web service, receiving a call from the computer program to the Web service, executing the machine-executable code in response to the call to produce an output, and sending the output to the device.&quot;  This is the top link by Google.  Since it&#x27;s  a patent, it&#x27;s not written in plain language.  Since it&#x27;s a patent, it&#x27;s not concrete.<p>Question:  CAN YOU IMAGINE <i>ANY</i> STARTUP WHO WAS INVITED TO A Y-COMBINATOR INTERVIEW SAYING THIS,<p>&quot;So, first I&#x27;d like to talk about our product.  We&#x27;ve basically invented a process to be performed on a server, that includes configuring the server to enable script ofr a Web service to be defined dynamically, where the Web service includes an application program interface (API) for enabling access by, and interaction with, a computer program executing on a device other than the server.  The process also includes compiling the script to produce machine-executable code for the Web service, receiving a call from the computer program to the Web service, executing the machine-executable code in response to the call to produce an output, and sending the output to the Device.  So that&#x27;s what we do.&quot;<p>What percent of applicants will actually literally give a pitch like that?  0.0000%.  A full 100.000% meet and exceed with flying colors the standard &quot;use plain language, be concrete.&quot;<p>--------------------------------------------<p>2.  ...Then zoom out, and be sure to show why that could be something much bigger<p>Is it possible that any team whatsoever fails to zoom out, or show why it could be bigger?  Well, let&#x27;s imagine it.  Let&#x27;s say that some team has come up with something without zooming out at all from it.<p>&quot;We&#x27;ve invented a cable that can connect a new iPhone to a Macbook while also charging both.  Competitors aren&#x27;t making this yet, but we already are.  We don&#x27;t have any plans to make any other products now or in the future.  We&#x27;re really, really, passionate about and focused on this one.  We live to make iPhone 7 to 2016 Macbook connection cable chargers, and that&#x27;s it.  We would never consider selling anything else, nor would our customers want us to.&quot;<p>Even without that last part, can you imagine any such company has even been invited to a YCombinator interview?  Is it possible to imagine any company not zoooming out?<p>No.  A full 100.000000% of all pitches by companies invited to interview for YCombinator exceed #2 with flying colors.<p>--------------------------------------------<p>3.  Traction gets you in the door, the big future gets you the check<p>Let&#x27;s imagine that there&#x27;s no bright future.  Let&#x27;s imagine a team that says &quot;We&#x27;re at $2,000 sales today, but within 5 years I think we could easily make it to $18,000 or even $22,000 per month in sales.  If we continue to dominate our niche, we can have a solid market of literally a thousand people, if we include the Asian market.  This company will be worth $700,000 as long as we are able to keep executing.&quot;<p>It&#x27;s ludicrous on its face.  No company is there with that pitch.  A full 100.0000% of companies have a big future ahead of them.<p>--------------------------------------------<p>4.  Know your numbers<p>&quot;What are your sales today?&quot;<p>&quot;No idea.&quot;<p>&quot;Have you sold any?&quot;<p>&quot;Not sure.&quot;<p>&quot;Well you&#x27;re shipping.&quot;<p>&quot;We&#x27;re shipping, yes.&quot;<p>&quot;Okay, how many?&quot;<p>&quot;Dont&#x27; know.&quot;<p>&quot;Well, what is your cost to getting customers?&quot;<p>&quot;No idea.&quot;<p>&quot;How many people visit your site?&quot;<p>&quot;Don&#x27;t know&quot;<p>&quot;What is your growth rate?&quot;<p>&quot;Don&#x27;t know.&quot;<p>&quot;How many fingers am I holding up?&quot;<p>&quot;Sorry not sure.&quot;<p>it&#x27;s ridiculous.  Obviously 100.00000% of all companies know their numbers.  This isn&#x27;t even debatable.<p>--------------------------------------------<p>5.  What do you understand that nobody else does?<p>again let&#x27;s imagine that there isn&#x27;t something. &quot;Oh we don&#x27;t know anything special.  We&#x27;re just doing the same thing everyone else is.  Actually our business model is from a For Dummies textbook we found from 1997, we&#x27;re just following it.  One thing that we can say is that the book does appear to be out of print, so we do have that going for us.&quot;<p>Nope.  Everyone understands their business better than their competition.  Everyone has secret sauce.  It&#x27;s ridiculous to even suggest otherwise.  We&#x27;re not talking about florists where they happen to be the only florist in that town so far, which is why they opened it there.<p>--------------------------------------------<p>Conclusion<p>So these tips are absolutely, completely useless in every single way and will NEVER get you an investment.<p>Here is how you ACTUALLY demonstrably get an investment.  Ignore all of the above and wow them with a story.<p>That&#x27;s it.  That&#x27;s how checks demonstrably, actually get written.<p>I&#x27;m not opposed to the fact that this isn&#x27;t widely advertised, but to waste the writer&#x27;s time writing things that aren&#x27;t true, and to mislead people into wasting their time following it, is pretty misleading.<p>I&#x27;m here to tell you it&#x27;s bullshit and won&#x27;t get anyone an investment, ever.<p>-<p>EDIT: Downvotes already, but I don&#x27;t care, this is right and the article is wrong - and, worse, is wasting your time.  It doesn&#x27;t matter what downvoters think.  If anything above were wrong, then I would edit it - I see your voting feedback and I&#x27;ve responded to it by making sure that I am being very precise and correct above.  Downvoting won&#x27;t make it right.