Nearly 5 years ago, a few months after being rejected from YC for the first time, I came across your Show HN and started using Webflow to build a mockup of my product's sign-up page (I did not know how to code at that time).
Over the next 2.5 years, I reapplied to YC five more times. I interviewed twice in the second round. I eventually got rejected every time. From the ideation stage, to $1M in revenue, YC has an application of mine for every milestone in between (until I did not need to raise money anymore).
My company, Y Athletics (https://yathletics.com), is a profitable business with no investor funding and 7 figure revenues. We've delivered products to over 25,000 paying customers all around the world. We don't solve problems, but we create some amazing products that people want.
This post about Webflow made me nostalgic as it was during that time that I started to read HN religiously (and now I discovered that Vlad and I applied and were rejected in the same batch as well). My first landing page was made on Webflow. I learned how to code using Codeacademy. My first 100 users came from a comment I posted on an Ask HN thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6617551). Seeing others building their startups inspired me to continue building mine. My company would probably not exist if it wasn't for HN. Thanks for everything!
As an angel investor solely focused on Y Combinator with more than 100 startups under portfolio, my observation indicates being rejected by YC can be equally inspiring as being admitted, because over the time, I found out some startups may survive and then thrive better if they are not admitted by Y Combinator. Therefore, I feel great that Y Athletics has been a $1m profitable business without YC or any other angel investor like Zillionize!
There are some really amazing stories in this thread about how HN helped launch some really great products. And such a variety of innovation. Really the only thing I can find in common is that their websites allow you to enter a discount code. I can only assume these benevolent entrepreneurs pass out these codes to give a little back to loyal customers, or maybe even a small community who helped spotlight their company. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud ;)
It's a pain to ship outside US (because of taxes/shipping prices) , but aside from that you make great products. keep going, and it's nice to see some bootstrapped examples too.
The crazy thing here for me is that YC rejected you as a business with $1M in revenue. I think any business with $1M in revenue has tremendous potential.
It’s not that crazy. YC wants businesses with the potential for billions in revenue. If your ceiling seems like it might be millions or tens of millions, you don’t meet their criteria.
Sorry if you've answered this elsewhere before, but what's with the logo? It almost looks like an exact copy of Y Combinator. Was that the case when you were applying?
Yeah our logo has not changed since inception but it’s not a copy of YC or anyone else. Take a closer look here - http://bit.ly/2obM60y (first image is our logo)
I applied to YC six times over the last 2.5 years with the same idea - https://yathletics.com . Got rejected every time but interviewed with them twice. The first time I applied was before I launched our first product and had $0 in revenue. The last time I applied, our yearly revenue was almost $1M, and we're still just getting started.
The reason for rejection was same at both times - I didn't have a clear strategy of how to grow my company into a big business. (For those that don't know, YC gives you a pretty clear explanation of why they rejected you and what they want you to do better.)
We make products that our users absolutely love and have seen phenomenal growth, and YC understands that. But it seems like it's very important to them that you are able to clearly articulate what your business will look like in ten years when it's a billion dollar company.
I have no doubt that I will make my company into a billion dollar business. But I simply don't know how I will take over the world yet. I strategize what needs to be done over the next 1 year and focus only on that. Sure, it might not be a trait for successful founders, but I firmly believe that staying focused on building great products is key to my business. The vision for how I will turn this into a billion dollar company will gradually come with time.
This is not just a YC thing, it's par for the course for most SV VC's. Their MO is to spread lots of bets around, expecting 99% of those bets will go to 0, 0.9% may just break even, and 0.1% may be the next Google, Facebook, etc. and make back far more than all their other losses combined.
That's a bit of a simplification and exaggeration, but the general idea is that if you want to raise money in SV you need a plausible case for how your startup will either become a unicorn (>= $1B valuation) or disrupt some really big established thing. YC also has appears to have a preference for technological advances - "breakthrough technology" - over the status quo.
Looking at your website I would have the same question as YC - competent-looking execution and product design, which if continued could potentially make it to >= $1B market cap, but it appears your business model is, at best, attempting an incremental improvement over UnderArmor and the like. What big problem are you solving, or big established things are you disrupting? What new market or industry are you creating? What breakthrough technology are you deploying that enables you to execute better than entrenched competitors in a way they can't easily replicate?
My sense is that's more along the lines of what they're looking for.
This is a great comment, and I whole heartedly agree that the questions you are asking are along the lines of what most VC's will have in their heads.
I don't see my business as solving any real problems. But I believe you don't need to solve real problems to have a business. I can very well frame my business as one that solves a problem, but that would be marketing speak rather than reality. There are billion dollar companies that don't solve problems and that's esp. true in the apparel industry.
I'm not going to delve any further into my thinking of the 'problem solving' approach because there is a more important point that was possibly misunderstood in my original comment. A lot of the responses to my comment are based around the merits of the idea itself, but YC has been pretty clear that they fund people over ideas. The way I look at it, the idea is just a medium for them to get to know the founder(s). There is no such thing as a 'billion dollar idea'. Most billion dollar businesses did not become that way over a short period of time [1], esp. not in the apparel industry. Every company started with something small and what you do in your initial years is just the stepping stone of creating opportunities to become something bigger.
But back to the point - I believe YC uses your idea to understand the founder, and my point was that one of the traits they look for is the founders ability to clearly articulate what their business will look like in ten years. The emphasis here is on the founder's characteristics rather than the merit of the idea itself. So, while I agree with your thought process on what a VC looks for, I disagree that YC looks for the same thing. That's why they are an incubator rather than a VC firm.
On a less related note: I don't apply to YC for the sake of raising funding. My company generates enough revenues, and we have enough positive cash flow and great credit terms with vendors. The value addition I seek from YC is more to do with better figuring out the business rather than access to capital. The reason YC is the only investor I talk to is a very personal one: My company would not exist without HN. I don't have a background in engineering, but since I started reading HN 5 years ago, I really resonated with the community (although I never participated). Back in those days, there used to be more front page articles about startups and the community seemed more tight-knit. I started learning how to code through codeacademy and that was the inflection point that gave me the confidence that I can actually build things, which eventually resulted in me building YA. I worked with many YC companies and still do business with some of them. So, the real reason I apply to YC is because I've gotten a ton of value from it's community and naturally want to have a closer association to them and the partners that run the organization. The sad part is that as they grow bigger (which is better for the world), the appeal of being in the insider community gets smaller. I just hope I get to participate in a cycle before that feeling goes away all together.
A lot of companies with up to $30m potential are unlikely to get funding from what i've seen. Its not that their not worthy or bad ideas, its just VC's are gonna looking for a pie big enough to take their slice from, and to do that your ultimately looking out for the next company which will significantly shift the needle within a particular area.
I'm a runner, and just ordered two pairs of socks! seems like a great business to me. I have no insight into what could/couldn't be a billion dollar business, but I'm also positive that not every successful company needs to be a billion dollar business.
No disrespect to GP, but at a glance, it's a specialty online store. I'm sure it's great and doing well, but it's not a "take over the world" kind of breakthrough idea.
I like the socks quite a lot. they are much thinner and more lightweight than balegas, but they fit my foot a bit better and they breathe really great.
If you like a thinner sock, these are the best I've tried.
I'll report back! my preference is for Balegas over Thorlos, I feel that Thorlos quality has dropped off in recent years. I'm happy with Balegas, but go through them fairly quickly, as I run 200-250 miles/month.
> We make products that our users absolutely love and have seen phenomenal growth, and YC understands that. But it seems like it's very important to them that you are able to clearly articulate what your business will look like in ten years when it's a billion dollar company.
In life in general the "talk a good game" part plays particular significance in people's decision making even if what is being said doesn't hold water. Of course if your idea is super special in some way or you have some other huge advantage that gets peoples attention that doesn't matter but that covers edge cases, not normals.
Your journey sounds great and more power to you! I too kinda believe that you should build a great product first and figure out everything later, but this attitude wouldn't work if you are planning on to get funding, because that's the first question people ask :|
I don't but I plan to write about it soon. I've written some articles in the past that will give you some idea (links below), but I now have supplementary thoughts that I want to add to those articles to give a more complete picture.
one of the things that make you feel tired after long flights is noise pollution. we don't realize it because it's something we expect during flights but our mind and body is essentially sitting through hours of loud humming that takes a toll on us.
The solution for me is good noise canceling headphones. If you fly often, invest in a good pair and it will do wonders for you. It has for me.
This is great for comparing cotton or cotton blend shirts. I'd love to see the same data for shirts that don't use any cotton. We make fabrics for our own brand and usually stay away from cotton partly due to the problem of fit variance after wash.
The thin font on Y Athletics used for "A Revolutionary Shirt" and "The Odorless Sock" is too thin to read easily. I suspect they may have not tested on all types of displays.
Web developers, no matter what platform you like, ALWAYS test your thin fonts on as many platforms as possible and make sure it is easy to read.
http://yathletics.com - a men's activewear company that's going to make only one product per category.
I think apparel brands offer too many choices so I'm creating a brand that keeps it simple but at the same time invests in making very high quality products. For ex: the first product we launched is our athletic shirt - SilverAir. It's made using silver which kills the odor-causing bacteria in your sweat, so you can wear the shirt for the entire day and feel fresh, or reuse the shirt more often (i do).
The fabric is completely new and something we made from scratch. Without letting cost be a factor, we sourced some of the best yarns you can buy and achieved a feel that is super comfortable while being lightweight and breathable. To manufacture, we use seamless knitting machines so the body of the shirt does not have any stitches on it. (trust me, the silver is what sells but the most loved feature by our customers is the material and how you feel as if you're not wearing anything - in a good way)
1) I started building this out for myself and for some of my male friends who shared the same sentiment.
2) Men and women shop differently and I feel as if women want more choices so the model does not necessarily work for them. That said, I've received a lot of interest from women for the first product we launched so plans may change in the future.
Keep in mind that women buy a lot of clothes for men. So even if you're just making menswear, don't forget to target women in your marketing and research.
As a backer and project creator who's running a Kickstarter funded startup, I couldn't agree more.
I love your example but I want to point out that the same obstacle you mention with games is applicable to most of the other industries that are funded on Kickstarter. The root problem in all cases lay in a startup's:
1) need for an audience
2) need for capital
What kickstarter has successfully done is build a loyal audience that's massive in size. I came to really appreciate this after seeing more than 80% of my funding come from people visiting kickstarter.com who didn't know about my project beforehand. This was huge. And not only does it give you the visibility and the capital required to execute, it validates your idea to a large extent.
Good luck with your campaign! If you don't mind I have a few questions if you happen to know the answers:
1. Did those 80% of people see it through a "featured campaigns" thing or was it totally organic?
2. How did the remaining 20% find your campaign?
3. Can we see the campaign page? :)
Thanks. The campaign ended a while ago but here are the answers:
1. We weren't featured by KS but it was on the "popular projects" page throughout the life of the campaign. It initially got there by a combination of backers finding it through "Recently launched projects" + backers who signed up on our website to be notified of the launch (the former being the majority). By the end of Day 1, it was #1 in its category and stayed there for a while. Here is a link that shows the trend of the project funding if you're interested: http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/yathletics/silverair-odorle...
2. Remaining 20% found it through our own marketing efforts + other websites/blogs writing about the project
- I owe a lot of what went into creating this to HN because I consume 80% of my knowledge from here.
- The website is made on a YC company's platform (strikingly) using basic code I learnt from another YC company (codeacademy), and I'm working with a third YC company (crowdtilt) to launch the post-kickstarter website.
I understand why you may not find it to be directly relevant, but I love the crowd here and wanted to share it. The following is not a shameless plug but is meant to give you an insight into how much of a startup this really is: https://medium.com/entrepreneur-advice/c88326a21d42
Hey, love the product (hence I posted it)! Have you considered shipping from Jordan/Israel for european customers? I know it gets probably a lot more complicated but $20 shipping on a $30 shirt is kind of a bitter pill (plus I know my country will charge me another $20 import tax so we are at a $70 t-shirt...). All the best with the kickstarter!
Right now, the packaging is scheduled to take place at our distribution center in North Carolina. I will definitely keep your suggestion in mind and if the logistics allow, I'll see if I can work something out.
SilverAir - An athletic shirt that doesn't smell and designed to be worn at the gym and for everyday wear.
demo@ http://www.yathletics.com
It's cool because:
It's made using pure silver which kills the odor-causing bacteria in your sweat, so you can
-wear this shirt for your entire day and feel fresh,
-reuse the shirt more often (i do).
The fabric is completely new and something I made with my manufacturers from scratch. Without letting cost be a factor, we sourced some of the best performance yarns you can buy and achieved a feel that is super comfortable while being lightweight and breathable. To manufacture, we use seamless knitting machines meaning the body of the shirt does not have any stitches on it. (trust me, the silver is what sells but the most loved feature by our test customers is the material and how you feel as if you're not wearing anything - in a good way)
I'm building this company single-handedly over the last 10 months, and I had to teach myself bits n pieces of everything: apparel manufacturing, design, coding, law, filmmaking & editing. The product is launching in 4 days on kickstarter and I'm now in lockdown mode with tons of progress to make. Your feedback on anything is welcome.
The online shopping experience for this brand will be fresh: there will be no choosing from tens and hundreds of products because we make just one per category with superb design, quality, and finish. Shoot me an email if you're curious about anything.
How much? $54 Retail, but when we open on kickstarter next week, we want this to reach as many people as possible and are going to give it out at (almost) cost:
Hey Jack. You'll be surprised how expensive international shipping can be. We've done our research and it comes to a minimum of $25 for most countries.
Since domestic shipping is included in the shirt pricing, we've subsidized the international shipping by $5 to be fair to all customers.
This definitely looks awesome, I'm in for a couple for sure.
How long does a shirt stay non-stinky? The video said silver is weaved into the fabric, but I'm assuming it doesn't coat the entire thing. So eventually bacteria will start to collect, correct?
How long a shirt stays non-stinky varies between person to person. Most of our test customers have worn it for between 3-5 days without any problem. Needless to say, they were impressed.
The other benefit is that it keeps your shirt fresh for its lifetime. You'll notice that in regular synthetic shirts, there is a permanent smell after a few months of wear. That problem goes away with the silver.
And yes, you are correct that silver is knitted into the shirt. But it's actually not a coating at all because the silver is inside some of the yarns; so it's permanent and the bacteria will not collect over time.
You should market the environmental factor also. I saw a youtube thing a while back that pointed out the majority of energy usage in clothing is from washing, not from manufaturing. If this shirt neds washed half as often, that should be a major bonus.
We mention this in the detailed description/features of our product page (it's not on our website as yet). For the video, we tried to focus on some key features instead of all.
This sounds good, there should be more shirts like this around. I'm curious if you are aware of Silverescent fabric, which is much the same idea, and if your have made additional unique improvements?
Hey Robert. I definitely know Silverescent as that's made using the same technology. I really admire Lulu because they make some great products.
The improvements we have made are in the feel, finish, and performance areas. You'll find a slightly higher percentage of silver in our fabric, it is lighter in weight, and the feel of the fabric is improved.
If you like Silverescent, you'll love what we're making.
Cool concept. The video mentions musty smell persists after washing clothes. Wrong detergent choice or washing habits? I've never had that problem even after running 24KM in gym clothes.
Thanks! The first batch will be produced in either V-Neck or Crew-Neck. When we launch our kickstarter, we will see which one is more popular. But If we exceed our initial funding goal, we will offer both options.
As for the musty smell, that's a problem I personally face and I've validated that problem with a lot of my friends, peers, and customers. It doesn't happen on cotton but it happens mostly on the 100% polyester athletic clothing (which is the majority of all sportswear).
You're right though. Not everyone has this problem and maybe wrong detergent choice or washing habits play a part in that phenomenon. We just wanted to make sure we have the best anti-odor performance and the silver technology is the best in the industry. If you end up getting a shirt from us though, what you'll find to be the best feature is the feel and performance of the material we developed with the anti-stink part being the cherry on the top. That has been the case with 100% of our users so far.
Over the next 2.5 years, I reapplied to YC five more times. I interviewed twice in the second round. I eventually got rejected every time. From the ideation stage, to $1M in revenue, YC has an application of mine for every milestone in between (until I did not need to raise money anymore).
My company, Y Athletics (https://yathletics.com), is a profitable business with no investor funding and 7 figure revenues. We've delivered products to over 25,000 paying customers all around the world. We don't solve problems, but we create some amazing products that people want.
This post about Webflow made me nostalgic as it was during that time that I started to read HN religiously (and now I discovered that Vlad and I applied and were rejected in the same batch as well). My first landing page was made on Webflow. I learned how to code using Codeacademy. My first 100 users came from a comment I posted on an Ask HN thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6617551). Seeing others building their startups inspired me to continue building mine. My company would probably not exist if it wasn't for HN. Thanks for everything!