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You don’t need anything special to get into YC. No Stanford, no Google, no hyper-growth. What you need are the 3 points and 1 note below. 

(1) Your story needs to include all the standard parts (part A), and it needs to stand out from the crowd (part B).

The problem is that every pitch sounds the same. Almost all YC applicants have great backgrounds and a compelling story, but only a few stand out. It’s sad to see many great stories and founders getting lost because of this.

To stand out, highlight your unique differences and unfair advantages. Part B is what will set you apart from the crowd. These differenciators and superpowers need to stand out clearly.
To some extent, create Fomo and urgency about 1) why your team deserves to win this game over others and 2) why this market and problem are the most importnat in the world right now.

I like to recap Part B with ~3 bullet points in the last slide of the deck or at the end of the video in 10 seconds. YC calls this the “vertebrae slide.” You will close the story in a climax, and hopefully, they will stick in the investor’s mind.

(2) Demonstrate you are an industry insider with valuable insights.

About part A, I noticed that YC pays less attention to market size and the “why now.” I feel a large, growing market is enough. Instead, they prioritize the founders’ insights and knowledge about the problem.

 In part A, points 2 and 3, you will find the key questions YC will focus on:

• Are the founders’ insights/secrets about the consumer and market valuable? If so, what is their impact? Not all insights are equal
• Do founders have clarity about the highest-ranked problem? Is the team focused only on what matters the most? Therefore, are they building a “must have” solution or a “nice to have”?
• Is the solution 10x better than alternatives, or can it be?  What do you know that competitors or current alternatives don’t?

Remember: (1) Always bottom-up, like an entrepreneur and insider, (2) understand what matters most to the users. Finding the one key solution that solves ~90% of the “highest ranked” problem is better than having a long list of good (mediocre) problems.

(3) Communication. Be concise and exhaustive at the same time.

Concise communication is a symptom of clarity and focus, good indicators of success. Unclear communication is a symptom of unclear thinking and focus.

The 1-minute video and 10-minute in-person interview are intentionally short. It forces applicants to compress their thoughts. They cannot hide. 

A prepared founder that have already navigated through the idea maze, knows what really matters. Such a founder can easily communicate the final output concisely with a couple of bullet points only. S/he doesn’t need to prepare.

There is an interesting way to test this. To a detailed question, a prepared founder will give even more detailed and specific answers while remaining concise. An unprepared founder will give long and high-level answers.

Independently of the YC interview, keep in mind that:

“When you compress something sufficiently, you discover its essence. Conciseness has many advantages, but that is the greatest” – Paul Graham

(4) A final note: have a good one-liner.

A good one-liner is short, simple, and self-explanatory. The audience understands it instantly without further questions. The goal is to explain, not to impress. 

A bad one-liner will kill your presentation from the start. It is hard to recover the listener’s attention and interest once it is lost. A bad one-liner is long, confusing, and uses many buzzwords or important words. 

When filming the video or telling the one-liner, I personally like to pause 1 second after the one-liner. Give the listener time to hear, understand, and absorb what the startup does before sharing more details.

The 1-minute video is the most important part of the YC application. Ensure your script includes part A and especially part B as discussed in the previous section.

Some pratical tips:

• When we applied, we wrote the script for the video. The video is short (you might extend it to 70 seconds), therefore, you need to select carefully the key points and the “magic” words of the script. Iterate on the Word document rather than by making changes directly on the video
• I personally like to create interest when communicating by changing the speed & tone of the voice. The goal is to put emphasis on the key parts. A flat presentation is boring, and hard to follow even if with a high tone and fast speed
• I like to recap Part B with ~3 bullet points in the last slide of the deck or at the end of the video in 10 seconds. YC calls this the “vertebrae slide.” You will close the story in a climax, and hopefully, they will stick in the investor’s mind.

The format of the video I like to use is:

1. As always, start with the one-liner. The goal is to be concise and self-explanatory, not sexy, and not use buzzwords. Otherwise, you might lose the attention and interest of the listener right at the start
2. Describe the problem. Show you know what the highest rank problems or, better, the single most important problem.
3. Describe the solution and how your product is significantly better than alternatives.
4. Describe why your team knows deeply this secret/problem/domain and why it is better suited to solve this specific problem. Don’t be the smartest team, be the right team to solve this problem
5. The traction. The goal is to show that some users are loving your product and that you are on an initial path to “make something people want”. Don’t worry if the numbers are small, at this stage it is “better to have few users love you than many sort of like you” (PG). You can omit this part if you are not live. Focus on other strengths
6. Describe the market size. One or two numbers are sufficient. What is the size of your niche market today, and could it expand in the future if you expand? However, I personally feel YC’s partners are more focused on the current problem and specific SAM. So, you could keep this short or remove it.
7. I personally like to conclude by summarizing your oustlier strenghts & difference or the “vertebrae” – as YC likes to call it. Refer to the paragraph above “The key principles”. Keep it simple and short. Make it easy to remember.

I selected 7 questions that I think are the most important. Their goal is to predict if you have a higher chance of achieving product-market fit.

The main topics are:

• Being insiders with quality insights that can have a large impact. Also, why do you believe in those insights vs. other players that don’t?
• Problem that matters the most: having identified the “highest ranked problem” (that solves the majority of the customer problem) is preferable to many sorts of good problem
• Solution: Are customers using your problem? Is there any early sign of PMF? LTV, retention or adoption rate?
• Ensure to highlight your strengths and unique factors. Stand out from the crowd (part B)

The key questions are:

“2. Describe what your company does in 50 characters“
This is your one-liner. Attention.

“3. What is your company going to make?“
This question is about your solution. So, do customers love or want your product? Are you “10x” better than alternatives?

This question is also about your problem statement. So, what are the “highest ranked” problems, not many good problems? Solving the most important problem will lead to building a “must have” solution and not a “nice to have”. 

“4. Why did you pick this idea to work on?”
This question is about the team of insiders and the quality of its insights.

“5. Who are your competitors? What do you understand that they don’t?“
This question is about the team of insiders and the quality of its insights.
Do you know some secrets or insights that your competitors or alternatives do not know? Why so, and why are you right?

“8. How long have the founders known one another, and how did you meet?
9. How did you meet your cofounders? Have any of the founders not met in person?“
This question is about why the team will stick together over the long term in a working environment.

“12. Do any founders have domain expertise in this area?“
This question is about the team of insiders and the quality of its insights.
Demonstrate that you have “secrets” that can have a big impact. Eventually, tell why other players in the space don’t see or believe in what you see and believe.

“Are people using your product?“
This question is about the early signs of customer love or wanting your product. 
A good LTV, retention, or adoption rate is extremely valuable. Even if the size of your customer base is still small in the early days.

“Tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system“
This is the wild card questions YC ask since the early days. It tests founders’ inclination to challenge the status quo and build something different.