"We're sorry to say that we can't accept your proposal for the Summer
Founders Program. We were surprised by the high quality of the
applications, and wanted to accept more. But since this is the
first year, we decided we'd better force ourselves to keep the
program small enough to manage.
A lot of the proposals we rejected for reasons having nothing to
do with the quality of the applicants. For example, we were very
reluctant to accept any proposals with only one founder, or only
one who could come to Cambridge, because we think starting a startup
is too much work for one person. We also rejected a lot of proposals
simply because we didn't understand the problem domain well enough
to judge them, or because the project seemed too big to start on
only three months of funding.
It's quite likely, in fact, practically certain, that groups we
rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd
appreciate it if you'd send us an email making fun of us; we want
to learn from our mistakes.
If this summer works out, we're probably going to fund more startups.
(Check our site for announcements.) If we do, we encourage you to
re-apply in the future.
Thanks
Y Combinator"
today might be a rough day for some. but if it's any encouragement, i was rejected in summer 05 and two years later (summer 07) applied with a different idea and more experience and was accepted. yc turned out to be mostly right about the problems with my first idea, and i learned a lot in the intervening two years.
so don't think it's the end -- hang in there!
One of my concepts I submitted am I told by those whom I show it to, that it is an industry changing concept!
Though it maybe ahead of it's time & mobile Internet technology/sector need to be more robust - what I show only is only the basic concept. What do you think?
I use my site everyday driving to and fro work. I used to have satellite radio, but no longer have the need!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq_lkSRDFck