Alexis Ohanian

Here is are some past YC applications that I have saved over the years. These may help. Lot's of great applications to learn from. The recent course, "How To Start a Startup" run by Sam Altman has tons of actionable lessons from past founders many of which are YC companies and partners.

1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/111078156/Yc-Application

2. Dropboxes Application - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27532820/app.html

3. http://blog.zactownsend.com/our-yc-s13-application

4. https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-muses-successful-application-to-y-combinator-w12

5. A failed but insightful one - https://open.bufferapp.com/buffers-y-combinator-application/

6. http://alexisohanian.com/our-y-combinator-summer-05-application-what-w

7. http://www.nancyhua.com/2014/10/08/successful-y-combinator-s13-application/

8. https://medium.com/@mattangriffel/getting-into-y-combinator-42a418a110d5

Hope this helps. Best of luck!

I know it's hard to imagine, but there are many sides to these stories. Things really aren't so black and white. You really have no idea just how hard these guys worked or the struggles they had to go through. I'd recommend you read Alexis's post from back in 2010: http://alexisohanian.com/keep-calm-carry-on-what-you-didnt-know-about.

Reddit was born out of the first Y Combinator batch in 2005. This batch turned out to be an exceptional group of people who helped make Y Combinator into Y Combinator. But it was far from a forgone conclusion that they would be successful or that Reddit would one day become a top five website on the internet.

My experience with Alexis and Steve is that they're extremely generous, helpful, and have set the tone for the "pay it forward" spirit of Y Combinator's alumni network. I'd encourage you to wish them the best of luck instead of hoping someone takes them down.

"Animals? We're a freaking zoo.

Andy: When Paul described the type of person whom he
believes is an animal at his "How to Start a Startup"
talk, Andy was the first person of whom I (Steve) thought.

Steve: Steve regularly works extra hours at his current
programming job, even when over-time isn't an option (i.e.
working for free) to fix nagging bugs. At school, Steve
often works late nights with Computer Science friends
helping them get assignments working.

Alexis: See current schedule. When it comes to design,
Alexis literally won't rest until every pixel is aligned--
sleep deprivation is the status quo and when it comes to
working in general, coffee makes sure he's the last one to
go to sleep at night and the first one up in the morning."

http://alexisohanian.com/our-y-combinator-summer-05-application-what-w

No, it wasn't the ads. Digg aways had ads. The problem was that the community felt more and more pushed out the door. And it wasn't just thet there was an RSS importer, it was that digg was replaced a website built around a community with a website that was _nothing but_ an RSS reader. There was an understanding in the community that the new digg was going to be about allowing content creators to advertize, not the previous submission/voting system (which was already skewed to the userbase's tolerance limits).

In short it was not the advertising content alone, but that the advertising content replacing real content in a drive to monetize. That is exactly the kind of thing twitter is doing.

Here is an open letter from Ohanian to Rose where he blames the downfall of digg on the VC meddling. http://alexisohanian.com/an-open-letter-to-kevin-rose

http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2010/08/18/why-free-plans-dont-work/

http://web.stonehill.edu/compsci/History_Math/math-read.htm

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rich-programmer-food.html

http://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-development.html

http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/latex.html

http://encosia.com/2010/08/18/dont-let-jquerys-document-ready-slow-you-down/

http://symkat.com/35/ssh-tips-and-tricks-you-need/

http://pieratt.tumblr.com/post/977179815/in-praise-of-quitting-your-job

http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-hackers-why-you-dont-use-garamond-on-the-web/

http://alexisohanian.com/keep-calm-carry-on-what-you-didnt-know-about

There's no doubt you've sharpened your saw with the projects you've worked on. It could've been way worse - I've been through the blues / in the doldrums, and couldn't get myself to do anything for weeks on end.

I happened to navigate to Paul's article on fundraising, and further, to Alexis' one on keeping calm and carrying on (http://alexisohanian.com/keep-calm-carry-on-what-you-didnt-know-about) and I was blown away. There's no way I could've survived something like that. You're in great company.

I'm looking forward to what you come up with. Here's to a great couple of years ahead.