Honestly I don't get it. While the story is cool, it really just seems like you're comfortable blowing several thousand dollars on what, lets be honest, is a very, very unlikely chance at securing a domain name.

I know this story speaks of SV culture in some way; huge risk, huge rewards and the idea that no one can stop you. If the venture pays off, it makes you a hero. If it doesn't, well you get a cool story. But you're aiming to be head of your own company, you need to make wise business decisions. This doesn't look like one, and just shows (me) that you're willing to make large gambles for a chance at winning the lottery. Where do you draw the line?

> "PG knew exactly what I wanted to do, it was the quickest anyone has grokked my idea. I could almost see this divide conquer algorithm working in his brain as he traversed the idea space, it was spectacular to behold."

These PG hagiographies are getting good.

...PG hit me with a particular question about acquiring a particular type of user, one I should have been able to answer, one I’d practiced dozens of times over the past few days, one I had several strong answers to. I don’t understand why, but my mind simply went blank. The interview ended a minute or two after.

Sounds like an incredibly minor detail to base the decision on considering everything else appeared to go well. I've no doubt PG and the team are all about small details but that doesn't quite add up for me.

Either way Steve, you did great to get as far as you did and a YC rejection is only a minor hurdle along the way so best of luck bud.

Fwiw, I had a very similar YC experience as a solo founder in front of PG, Trevor, Robert and Jessica (S12). After the rejection email I had an acquisition offer from a market leader (term sheet). Decided to turn it down and raise a round. Going after the market. Currently closing with top-tier investors and launching product.

First, thank you very much for detailing your Y Combinator experience with the rest of us; you will no doubt help out many other startups planning to apply to Y Combinator.

During the entire interview, I imagine PG and his partners were likely analyzing and processing your idea, your capacity to execute your idea, and your potential to succeed compared with the potential for other top-tiered candidates to succeed. Also, they were likely looking for signs, any sign (based on prior failures), that were predictor of failure.

In my opinion, you were likely turned down because either they weren't convinced that you (along with your idea) have the potential to succeed more than the candidates they were considering, or your case showed signs of potential failure. Note that the signs of potential failure is not necessarily reflective of you or your idea, it is simply based on actual factors that Y Combinators have seen in startups that had eventually failed. I have read about this from PG himself right here on HN.

If Y Combinator turned down a potentially primed-to-succeed applicant because the applicant did not convincingly answer one question (while being very convincing on all the other questions), then I am definitely mistaken about all I have read about PG and Y Combinator. These chaps are well-reasoned and thoroughly experienced investors, I don't think they will turn down a potential DropBox for missing one question—well, I hope not.

Do these "how I blew it" articles make anyone else uncomfortable? They always seem so self-deprecating, presumptuous, and often very seriously glorify YC and/or PG. Reflecting on an experience, especially one that you were hopeful about, but didn't go the way you wanted is good. But being so attached......

Further to the money fixation. Has no one considered that I might have actually tried to raise money from Falcone? When I get him in a room, you can bet that I'll be trying to get the domain and some capital from him before I'll try to buy it off of him with my own cash. What do you think is more likely to be successful, a billionaire throwing down a relatively small amount of coin to invest or him hearing out an offer to acquire the domain for 5-6 figures without laughing me out of the room. We might have different values but to me 2-3 grand for a holiday and a roll of that dice is chump change.

"but when I finished I filled the BCC with as many permutations of what his email address could be and then hit send."

I've figured out a great way around this. Install rapportive in gmail, compose a new message and start guessing emails. If the email is correct, rapportive will pull up all the information for that person. Bingo! There's the correct address!

After the story of you flying over to doorstep a hedge fund manager, navigating the many layers to get there and ultimately solving the problem, I don't see YC saying no to be a problem.

Learning experiences and such, grind it out and keep going.

You shouldn't have left Silicon Valley so soon. There are several VCs who would have had a meeting with you.

I also went through the single founder interview experience and blew it, but for different reasons.

I had the domain knowledge and experience, but PG said my demo was too simple (which it admittedly was - it was a MVP to test some assumptions I had about the market).

It was an intense, yet very fun 10 minutes of my life...

Great post, but your choice of colors make reading it incredibly hard on my eyes (it's the end of the day here).

From Reuters: Zap.Com Corporation, incorporated in 1999, is a shell company. The Company was established for the purpose of creating and operating a global network of independently owned Web sites. Harbinger Group Inc., the Company's principal stockholder owns approximately 98% of its outstanding common stock. As of December 31, 2011, the Company has no business operations. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company had no revenue.

"So you're telling me there's a chance." - Lloyd

Zap is a great name. But there's no harm in starting with PayWithZap.com, like you're currently doing, then acquiring zap.com down the road when you have real capital or revenue. Owning zap.com now is a premature optimization, a nice-to-have.

To be honest I thought this was going to be the usual YC navel-gazing, but actually found it to be an amusing, interesting read.

I would not give money to a guy who writes on black background either.

If your business is good, answering a single question incorrectly should not cause a good investor not to invest in it. If your business is bad, answering a single question correctly should not lead to an investment.

A single answer should not be the difference between getting an investment and not getting one. Can you imagine Warren Buffett passing over a stock he was prepared to buy just because the CEO couldn't answer a particular question instantly?

Most people would rather have an excuse to fail than have a reason to be successful.

Firstly great story and very entertaining :-) Certainly i would have used it on the application as it makes you stand out and gives the interviewers something interesting to ask about, thats what application forms are for after all.

When it comes to jumping on a plane to try and blag the domain name I think its actually a pretty smart move, on the open market that name would have gone for 6 or 7 figures certainly far more than you could have afforded on seed funding, in which case its worth dropping a grand or so as a gamble that you might get it for much less, I'm guessing you were hoping they'd say they weren't using it and just sign it over to you?

Hey you took a chance and gambled 1000 bucks in the hope of it paying off many times over, it didn't but thats life.

Best of luck man :-)

I own a credit card company and maybe I could help you. I'll send an email later today :D

I don't know if recs are weighted based on that particular recommender's history, but they are definitely weighted based on how well the recommender knows the applicant, and how strong the recommendation is.

I still recommend that applicants seek out YC alumni when applying, but this is because they will give you good feedback on your application and advice on the interview process, not because their recommendation of someone they met once over coffee will move the needle.

Remember seeing you introduce Twillio at Tomorrow's Web a while back and was hugely impressed.

I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of very cool stuff from Zap in the future ;-)

I love the story. The title of this story sounded like it was a note venting out frustration and telling everyone that though dejected, I will make it without YC. But unlike the title, you are so full of positive energy and I hope others at YC could have seen that. I am sure you will make you dream come true. Keep hustling and wishing you the very best of luck.

Sort of off-topic but I thought that the use of "take a punt" was interesting. Before I realized he was European, I thought it a strange phrase. Obviously in (soccer) football, taking a punt (a kick to try to score) would be a good thing, but it first registered to me as an (American) football reference of punting (rather than going for a touchdown).

If there's one thing that administering, taking part in, or hearing about interviews over the past few decades has taught me, it's that you never did as adjective as you think you did. In fact, you're usually pretty far off the mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc

Great story. Shows just a glimpse of the many different angles you need to take as an entrepreneur to try and make things work. (or not work)

I don't know if this story is illustrative, helpful, or whatever. But to me it's a damn fine read.

How much is zap.com worth? I would imagine at least 6 figures.

Anyone got a TLDR on this? It looks interesting, but I don't have the minutes to read it to get the juice.

zap.com is a public company http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ZPCM

That probably explains why there is little interest in selling you the domain. It would probably be a huge PITA for them, even if they wanted to do it.

tl;dr;

1. Spent lots of time and money(thousands of pounds) trying to meet with CEO of hedge fund just to get one of the domains in their portfolio. 2. Failed. 3. Explained that he is co-founder of twillio europe. 4. Used above story as some kind of self proof of ability 5. Decided that he failed YC interview because of a silly mistake 6. Drew lots of lessons and conclusions.

yawn