I would not recommend using it as a model.

I know you meant well, but I'd appreciate it if people didn't post applications for the current cycle on News.YC, or the site will be overwhelmed with "critique my application" links.

are you serious?

As a heart attack would be my guess.

I think attempts to "hack" the YC application will be largely counter-productive, given the people doing the selection and knowing a little about the process.

My advice would be to be genuine. If you're worried too much about conforming to what you think YC will want, you're missing the point entirely.

I agree. Your passion for the idea you're working on should make it more or less easy to explain it to others - maybe not concisely, but you can surely talk about it. Explain your vision exactly as you hope it to be - changing it to meet others' expectations hints that you don't have confidence in your idea. Put your application in. If it gets rejected, and you believe it's a good idea, why not pursue it anyway? Look at it this way - another 2-10% of your idea you get to keep to yourself :)

Some folks might find this link useful: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=251075

It's a response to a question I posted a few months ago asking to see former (successful) YC applications. There was a single response but it could shed some light on what works.

And to set the record straight, of course getting into YC has less to do with the application than it does the quality and content of the company's founders/their ideas. But there's no reason to let a poor application get in the way of that end.

Umm... surely that application is a joke? No?

I thought that at first, but by the end was convinced it was just someone trying to be creative and failing.

I thought so too, but you're getting downmodded for it, so I guess not...

The only problem I see with pg giving advice is that future applicants might tweak their application just to fit what pg is looking for, possibly resulting in an application that misrepresents the team or idea.

Actually, that's exactly what I was hoping for (the tweak, not the misrepresentation).

The "tweaking" wouldn't be the effect, but the cause. The effect would be to help the team focus on their best target.

I believe that anything that gives people a better chance at succeeding is a good idea.

I think that'd be a disservice to future applicants and YC.

Here's why: Any single application cannot represent everything YC is looking for. They invest in wildly varying startups. I was surprised when we were asked to come for an interview, and equally surprised when we were accepted...because YC had never funded anything in our area before (we're not web 2.0, we're not a hosted app, we're not social or user generated, and our design sense historically kinda sucks). But, history now indicates that YC is looking for more than merely more web 2.0 apps. They've now funded hardware, enterprise apps, sports related apps, and a lot more. There is no "YC style startup". Reddit was a great success, and one can find parallels in some of the other YC startups...but there are far more that don't fit that mold at all.

If you tweak to fit what you think is the YC mold, you may very well tweak out the really unique and interesting bit of your application.

What would be really interesting to see is, PG fill in the application with the Viaweb idea, that should give prospective applicants some idea when applying to YC!

If an applicant sees filling out a form to be a major challenge that requires a model to work from, then how is said applicant going to cope with running a company?

More importantly, if you need a model to create a good application then chances are your personality/idea is not valid to begin with.

Thats kinda-sorta the whole idea of an application :)

very true :-)

I don't agree. This sort of thing would just lead to the 'YC Application cargo cult', as people tried to groom their application towards the perceived expectations set forth by such an 'example' application.

Just answer the questions to the best of your abilities and let the chips fall where they may.

Thoughts:

Give straight answers.

Have co-founders with whom you have at least 6 months working history.

How will you make money? Try this formula: "_____ will buy ___ for $___ because ___."

Avoid seeming like an unstable loner.

PDF replaced, I take it? Or are those two words the app?

Seems like it, that's all I get as well

I'd be happy to offer constructive feedback on YC apps; just send me an email.

I would imagine that by now college admissions officers are tired of reading the same formulaic crap.

If I were reviewing applications for anything I would provide a basic skeleton of guidelines and hope for a diverse pool of responses. Trying to fit in to someone else's mold (even that of the reviewer) often comes off as quite contrived.