Get into YC Startup School

Applications open in May — what to put in your resume, your project, and the one answer that decides it

I just got back from YC Startup School with $25,000.

I'm leading with the money because it's what everyone asks about first. It is also the least useful thing I can tell you. It didn't come from writing a better application — it came from turning up with something already built, which is the one point this whole post keeps returning to.

Here is what I'd tell anyone thinking about applying next time.

First, know which thing you're applying to

This trips people up, so get it straight before you start.

Startup School online is Y Combinator's free course and community. It has lectures, a library of written advice, and a co-founder matching tool. There is no competitive application to use it — you sign up and you're in. If that's all you want, go do it today.

The in-person event is the one people mean when they say they "got in." It runs for a couple of days, it's free to attend, and it is competitive — you apply, and most people who apply don't get a spot.

YC has changed the name and the format of the in-person event more than once, so don't trust a blog post from two years ago for the details. Check startupschool.org and ycombinator.com for what's running this year.

The rest of this post is about the in-person one.

When it opens

Applications usually open around May, and the window is short — measured in weeks, not months.

That has a practical consequence: the work that gets you in happens before May. The application asks what you've built. You cannot build it during the application window. If you're reading this in an off-month, that's the good news — you have time to have something worth writing about.

Put a reminder in your calendar for late April to go check whether it's open. People miss it every year because they were waiting to hear about it somewhere.

What you actually need

Two things, plus some short written answers.

1. A resume

One page. It is a filter, not your pitch — nobody is deciding to accept you because of your resume, but a confusing one gives them an easy reason to stop reading.

Lead with what you've built, not what you've attended. If you're a student with a thin work history, that's fine and expected: projects, internships, anything you shipped that other people used. Put the links right there in the document where they're one click away.

2. A startup or a project

This is the part that matters, and the part people misunderstand.

It does not have to be a company. It does not need revenue, users, a co-founder, or a business model. It needs to exist. A live URL, a repo, a demo video — something a stranger can look at in thirty seconds and see is real.

A working thing built by one person in a month beats a beautifully described idea every single time. The idea costs nothing to write down, so it proves nothing. The built thing proves you finish.

If you don't have one yet: build the small annoying tool you personally wish existed. That's not a consolation prize — it's the best kind of project, for reasons that come up in the next section.

The answer that decides it

Somewhere in the application you'll be asked why you're building what you're building. This is the question. Treat everything else as paperwork and spend your time here.

Almost everyone writes some version of this:

I'm passionate about using technology to solve real problems and help people.

That sentence is invisible. It could be attached to any project, by any applicant, in any year. A reader who has seen four hundred applications skims straight past it.

Now compare:

I spent six months applying for jobs and I never once knew whether my resume had been read. So I built a tracker that reads the confirmation emails and tells me which companies actually opened it. I use it every day. Eleven people from my course use it now too.

That's the same claim — I want to help people — but it's checkable. There's a specific person (you), a specific frustration, a specific thing that exists, and a number. It reads like it happened, because it did.

Three rules for that answer:

• Name the moment. Not "I noticed a problem" — the actual day, the actual thing that annoyed you. Specifics are the cheapest credibility you can buy, and you already have them for free if the story is true.
• Say what you already did about it. Motivation with no action attached reads as a wish. Motivation plus a shipped thing reads as a person.
• Don't inflate. "Eleven people use it" is more persuasive than "gaining strong traction," because the small honest number tells the reader you'd have said a big one if you had it.

The general shape: I hit this problem → here's what I built → here's who uses it → here's why I'm not done.

Write it like a person

Read your answers out loud before submitting. If you would never say it out loud to a friend, cut it.

Cut every instance of: leverage, synergy, disrupt, revolutionise, cutting-edge, passionate about, seamless. They're filler that survived because they sound like effort. Reviewers have a very good ear for text that was generated rather than written — short plain sentences about a real thing are both more honest and more distinctive.

Two more mechanical things that cost nothing:

• Apply early in the window. Not because of a first-come advantage, but because a broken demo link found on the last evening is unfixable.
• Test every link in a private browser window. A repo that 404s because it's still private is the most common self-inflicted rejection there is.

The perks

The obvious ones first: it's free to attend, and you're in a room hearing directly from founders and operators you would otherwise have no route to.

But the talks get recorded. The things that don't get recorded are the actual perks:

• The people sitting next to you. Everyone there filtered themselves in by building something and applying. That is an unusually high hit rate for finding a co-founder, a first user, or the friend who tells you your idea is bad before you spend a year on it. Talk to more people than you plan to.
• Recalibration. You find out that the people building impressive things are not smarter than you in some inaccessible way. They started earlier and shipped more often. That is a genuinely useful thing to learn in person, and hard to learn from a video.
• Momentum. The week after is the most motivated you will be all year. Have something ready to build so you don't waste it.
• A little credibility. Worth being honest here: it's a line on your resume and it starts conversations, but it is not a YC badge and nobody should pretend it is. The thing you build afterwards is what counts.

And sometimes there is money. I came home with $25,000.

Treat that as upside rather than as the plan. It isn't promised to everyone who attends, the amounts and the criteria move from year to year, and an application written to chase a cheque reads exactly like an application written to chase a cheque. Build the thing you'd build anyway; if funding follows, it follows.

Now the part everyone forgets

Startup School is not YC.

Getting into Startup School does not put you in a batch, and — this is the part that matters — not getting into Startup School doesn't disqualify you from one. They're separate applications with separate bars.

So: apply to the actual YC batch.

Most people never do, and their reasons are usually wrong:

• "I don't have a co-founder." Solo founders get funded every batch.
• "It's just an idea." Batches include companies that pivoted after being accepted. They're funding you more than the idea.
• "I'm too early." The application is short. The cost of applying is one evening. The cost of not applying is never finding out.
• "I got rejected already." Reapplying is normal, and companies get in on their second, third, and fourth attempt. A rejection is not a verdict on you; it's a snapshot of one application at one moment.

Deadlines are at ycombinator.com/apply. Put a reminder in your calendar for that one too.

The short version

1. Check in late April; applications usually open in May.
2. Have a one-page resume that leads with what you built.
3. Have a project that exists — a link, not a description.
4. Answer why you're building it with a specific story, not a mission statement.
5. Test your links.
6. Apply to the YC batch too. Different application, different bar, and the only real cost is one evening.

The build-something-first part is the whole game, and it's the part you can start on today regardless of what month it is. Everything else on this list is paperwork around it.