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Tell HN: Winners of Apply HN for YC Fellowship 3

196 points kevin | 3 comments | 05 May 16 01:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source

Last month, we decided to reserve a few spots in the next Fellowship batch (F3) for the Hacker News community to decide who they’d like to fund. Startups applied publicly via HN and the community “interviewed” and voted for their favorites.

Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11440627

We ran a poll for the top applications and the voting was so close that we decided to fund one extra startup. Here are the winners:

AutoMicroFarm (264 points): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11454342

Feynman Nano (208 points): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11443122

Casepad (200 points): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11452884

I’ve talked to the founders of these three startups on the phone already and I’m really excited about working with all of them. We’ve disclosed all the vote totals in the original poll thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11615639). Of course, the application that got the most votes isn’t on the final list and we’ll discuss that in the thread below.

We received 343 applications via Apply HN and over 1700 comments were generated across those posts. I was quite impressed by the quality and depth of the discussions on these applications and really loved the moments when HNers would take the time to provide quality feedback to the founders on their applications.

Thank you to everyone for participating in our little experiment. It takes a lot of bravery put your passion out there to be judged publicly and it takes a remarkable community to treat that courage with kindness and respect. It makes me very proud to be part of HN.

While we haven’t definitively decided whether we’ll do this again at this point (we’ll want to see how the companies do in the batch), I’m delighted and optimistic about what the community accomplished here.

We’ve already received a lot of great feedback from many of you on how to do this better, but please feel free to share more below.

Show context
gilrain ◴[05 May 16 01:36 UTC] No.11633351[source]▶
I voted for Pinboard as a member of this community, even when I likely would not have voted normally, because Maciej is a smart, charismatic founder who I knew would do something brilliant with the opportunity. I'm sure there are many HN members who voted similarly, which very well might look like a comparatively odd pattern.

I'm sad that the community choice was not allowed to be made by the community, and doubly sad that the majority of us who voted for Pinboard, in good faith and within the spirit of the event, will not be able to enjoy what Maciej would have done.

Congratulations to the winners, nonetheless; this wasn't their fault.

replies(1): >>11633436 #
trowawee ◴[05 May 16 01:58 UTC] No.11633436[source]▶
Seconding this. I voted for Pinboard because A) I use and genuinely love the service, and I was excited to see what Maciej could do with the money and B) because Maciej's statement of semi-purpose:

> I am hoping to attract a certain protest vote of the silent majority who enjoy this community, but are uneasy about the values of its founders and more broadly, Silicon Valley.

accurately reflects my feelings towards HN/SV, and I think having a dose of skepticism in the fold would be good for YC.

replies(1): >>11633541 #
nxzero ◴[05 May 16 02:21 UTC] No.11633541[source]▶
Pinboard & the community should just do it without YC/SV.
replies(1): >>11633614 #
idlewords ◴[05 May 16 02:37 UTC] No.11633614[source]▶
I anticipated this outcome by becoming profitable eight years ago.

But I still want my $20K.

replies(4): >>11633752 #>>11633765 #>>11633908 #>>11636308 #
rev_bird ◴[05 May 16 03:07 UTC] No.11633765[source]▶
I'm trying to figure out a way to articulate why "I still want my $20K" seems to me.

The way this whole thing was handled stinks, and I'm sorry you got screwed by a poorly thought-out "contest." But it seems like the YCF deal isn't solely about the money -- they're trying to find companies to work with. Honestly, did you... want that? Or just the $20,000 that keeps getting mentioned?

replies(1): >>11633881 #
idlewords ◴[05 May 16 03:40 UTC] No.11633881[source]▶
YC's values are so diametrically opposed to my own that I thought it would be interesting for everyone to have me go through the program.

As for my demands to get paid, I had a clever idea about how to use the money, and I'm miffed that I won't get a chance to do it.

replies(4): >>11633966 #>>11633996 #>>11634912 #>>11647585 #
_xhok ◴[05 May 16 04:24 UTC] No.11633996[source]▶
You're saying (a) YC's values are diametrically opposed to yours, (b) your call with Kevin wasn't successful, and (c) YCF isn't designed for companies like yours—but adhering rigidly to the original guidelines you still ought to get your bag of cash.

Basically you tried gaming the system, with your fanbase who voted for you despite your comments like "I will go through YC like a bowling ball," and now you're protesting that YC won't let you. You don't even like YC. May I ask, out of curiosity, why you're doing this?

replies(2): >>11634031 #>>11635120 #
idlewords ◴[05 May 16 04:37 UTC] No.11634031{3}[source]▶
It's odd to criticize me for gaming the system given the name of this website.
replies(3): >>11634041 #>>11634051 #>>11638802 #
1. _xhok ◴[05 May 16 04:44 UTC] No.11634051{4}[source]▶
No, that part's fine. But you're protesting that an organization you've more or less openly criticized won't let you game them.
replies(1): >>11634302 #
2. zorpner ◴[05 May 16 06:16 UTC] No.11634302[source]▶
More specifically, an organization that's willing to burn a huge amount of credibility in order to avoid a tiny investment in an already-profitable (cf pg on ramen profitability) business whose proprietor doesn't fully conform with their arbitrary values. Given this, is the overall diversity of other YC founders any surprise?
replies(1): >>11634336 #
3. ◴[05 May 16 06:24 UTC] No.11634336[source]▶