Little quiz:
What’s the best way to get YC partners excited about letting you into a batch?
Turns out it isn’t by perusing their most recent “request for startups” list and building something that fits one of their theses.
I sat down with Akhil Reddy, the founder of YC-backed Thera which is actually my payroll platform of choice for all my businesses (and they let you earn points just for running payroll, like it’s your AMEX).
Aside from building great software, Akhil has reviewed over 60 founders’ YC applications after getting in himself.
He’s seen what works and what doesn’t.
We talked about YC, his own journey, and why he believes Rippling and Deel are leaving a huge market open for the taking… that he’s now building Thera to fill.
One Thing YC Looks For
YC is the most successful accelerator in the world.
Airbnb, Stripe, DoorDash, Coinbase, Reddit, and so many more name-brand startups have come out of it.
It seems every new founder wants that badge of approval at one point in their career.
Back when I was running Launch House we got thousands of applications from founders each year too.
I personally reviewed a ton of those. And then I got to see which founders went on to add value to others in the community and build big companies themselves.
So it was interesting to me when, during my conversation with Akhil, he mentioned that the most successful founders he’s seen go through YC have the exact same thing in common that we noticed at LH.
Akhil said that “the biggest tell if someone is goin to accomplish great things is if they’ve accomplished big things in the past.”
Now, “big things” can mean a lot of different things. Big things could be building a big company before, sure. But it could also mean mastering the violin as a child. Or setting up a homestead so you can live entirely off the grid. Or writing a book that gets published and actually does well.
You get the idea.
It’s interesting because it doesn’t mean that you have to have the “business” experience. You don’t need to have worked at a Tier 1 startup, or have gone to Harvard.
What it really says is that the best predictor of startup success is a demonstrated history of being able to solve hard problems. In whatever arena that was for you.
The natural question is “well, what if I haven’t done anything big yet but I know I can?”
The answer is basically go prove it.
Akhil says he tells everyone that the most important thing on your second or third YC application is your slope between applications.
By the second time you apply you’ll want to show some sort of progress, whether that’s in the form of traction, or having raised some capital… anything that shows you’re on the rise.
Your trajectory is most important than your starting point.