The YC email arrives ...

GEEK #1: So read the message. Did we get in?

NERD: READS EMAIL, looks dejected, tears streaming from eyes. Starts blowing on sleeve. Honking sound.

'... We're sorry to say that we can't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally, because most of the proposals we rejected, we rejected for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the applicants ...' [0]

GEEK #2: "So did we get in?"

NERD : "No, we didn't get in."

GEEK #2: "Why, do you think it had something to do with me saying, 'I wanted to give it a try for 3 months then go back home and continue my PhD.?'" [1]

GEEK #1: "You what?"

NERD : "I told you, first we do the startup, make a good product, then the PhD., then we party, not before."

GEEK #1: "What about this?" ... interesting offer, "show off hackenpreneur skills?"

GEEK #2: "Isn't 'hakenpreneur' one of the Thunderbirds?"

NERD: "Thats Hacken - backer" [2]

ALL: Read article, mouths words, absorb information [3]

GEEK #2: "You do almost the same thing, same place, similar money, coding! LOOK! They even give you a idea to start working on."

GEEK #1: "Sun Tzu says: 'a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store.'" [4]

NERD : "Hmmm. What about our idea?"

NERD : You know. Our idea to revolutionise the storage and retrieval of unstructured data across the Internet. We have a demo, we've launched, got great feedback, users. We have what it takes. It will probably change. We can adapt.

GEEK #2: "Goggle stopper!"

NERD : "No, Google stopper."

GEEK #2: "Thats the code name, 'Goggle Stopper'."

GEEK #1: "Sun Tzu also said 'when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity' [5]

GEEK #2: Ancient Art of War, I love that game. If you get enough knights, take the bridge you can ...

NERD : But if we work for something else, we miss out on working on our own stuff, the people stuff, the business stuff. We could always go home, scrape some money together, polish our idea, skills and pitch again?

GEEK #1: "Sun Tzu also reminds me that, 'our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards'". [6]

NERD : Every day we aren't working on our own product, is a day wasted. Nothing will stop us!

GEEK #2: You're right. Why would we want to work on other peoples ideas? We're street wise. We do things on our own terms.

NERD : Working for a boss, sucks.

GEEK #1: Right. [5]

GEEK #2: You tell 'em boss.

Reference

[0] I read this straight off a 'mauricecheeks' post ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=9464 It is by far the best current Plan B that I have read.

[1] I know someone who did exactly this. Sad story.

[2] Really Brains name is "Hiram Hackenbacker" ~ http://www.google.com/search?q=hiram+hackenbacker

[3] Dharmesh Shah, "Why Not All Great Hackepreneur Get Picked By Y Combinator"

[4] Sun Tzu, "Mit Classics, II. Waging War, #15" ~ http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html

[5] Sun Tzu, "II. Waging War, #4", Ibid.

[6] Sun Tzu, "II. Waging War, #16", Ibid.

[7] Straight out of 'Alien', Brett.

Of his reasons, 1 and 2 are mistaken. If a startup with a single founder looks especially promising, we don't simply reject them; we get them to find one. And we have no bias toward consumer apps. Two of the most successful startups we've funded (neither is launched yet) are doing stuff for businesses. The reason we fund more consumer apps is simply that more apply.

BTW, we're soon going to announce a third plan B, which we hope will be a better alternative to this or Techstars: to work for a YC "alumni" company. While some (e.g. Loopt) are quite established, others are so new that you could be the first hire, which is very much like being a founder.

If you really need to be told a plan B you shouldn't start a startup.

Plan B is just start building something and stop worrying about getting other people's approval! If you make something cool, then you will be able to find other founders, money ... etc.

Thats a cool proposition, something to consider for those of us who dont get accepted YC. However, I think 99% of the experience founding a startup is from the fact that it is based on YOUR idea, not someone elses. From that comes the insane relentless drive to push the limits. I would have a hard time programming 20 hours a day for weeks on end for an idea I was not involved in creating.

I do think its cool he would be willing to fund your personal idea after the work period. But then you lack the mentoring/community/networking aspect of YC which I think is more important than the actual funding (at least in the very early stages). Best of luck to him though on recruiting some quality hackers.

Good idea. The most important thing YC provides is an effective social network. You're connected to piers going through the same process, so you have people that understand what you're going through. In addition, YC provides advise/access to people who have been where you're attempting to go and facilitates interactions with investors that would be difficult to arrange on your own. You probably couldn't offer the same networking opportunities, but if someone is having a hard time finding a cofounder, being Cambridge at MIT would probably help.

Summary: If you don't get to be a YC founder this time, come work for his startup on his ideas. Same location, same time period, same money, very different role IMO.

I'm excited by what seems to be a boom in micro-seed startup financing...what could less charitably be referred to as the YC-app knockoffs.

This guys seems to have a good approach, though, in defining a slightly different niche for what he wants to do. While I would be willing to concede that nobody can implement the YC model as well as YC, I hope there is room for more micro-seed startups^2 with different focuses and different approaches.

Wow this summer will be very interesting. I'd like to see the outcome of the Techstars.org, YC and onstartups. I'm sure we should get a good crop of startups.

I dont know if there are more than 2 plans. Its either YC or go alone. Reason for sticking with YC is free access to paul graham :D and his suggestions. I think this is something priceless and if at all we are out of YC, I hope i have a face to face meet up with PG and convince/beg to be our mentor :) Just like George Bush quoted "You are either with us or against us", i would go ahead and quote, its either YC or alone :)

I wonder if he'll get the type of people he wants or expects: there's a significant difference between people who want to start their own company versus going to work for someone else (i.e. this does sound more like a summer internship than a funding opportunity).

Very interesting proposal. If someone isn't already working on a startup, this would be a great way to get some experience (working for a startup is the next best thing to starting one). Who knows, it might serve as preparation for the winter round of YC.

Contract programmer at $27 per hour for a 3 month project. That's what it is.