# Garry Tan's tips for applying to YC

**Author:** Garry Tan
**Type:** Video
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/J7-garry-tan-s-tips-for-applying-to-yc
**YouTube ID:** 4wbCVN1yLyA

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Garry Tan shares his tips for applying to Y Combinator. Garry was a former YC partner when this video was made; he has
since returned to Y Combinator as its President and CEO.

## Transcript

(electronic music) - Hello. (Man laughing)
- How's the going? - I'm here and I'm,
let's see how late am I? - [Female Partner] Only two minutes late. (bouncy electronic music beats) - Hey guys, welcome back. By popular demand, we're going
to talk really quickly today

about three tips in order to get a better Y Combinator application. You're applying to Y
Combinator, that's awesome. I was a partner there for five years, I worked with more than 700
companies while I was there. I am so glad that you're
starting a company and I'm so glad that you will consider going to what I think the best place to actually start your company. So let's get right into it. First point-show, don't tell. If there's a story to be
told about a specific user and a specific problem, start with that.

What is it about that problem? What is it about those people
that require your solution? And how have you actually
solved it for them? If you've actually created something real, make sure you mentioned that. If you actually have users
using it in real life, make sure you mentioned that. And especially number three, if someone is actually paying for it, definitely mentioned that. Y Combinator will receive applications from every part of the spectrum. From the earlier stage when people literally just quit their jobs

or haven't even quit their jobs yet, and maybe they're talking through an idea, all the way down to companies, that are already doing revenue already making even a million or $2 million a year in revenue. That's a wide range. The most important thing for you, is to establish where
you are on that stack. And if you're further along, great. One of the things that you want
to make sure people understand is how large this market
opportunity actually is. Is there a way you can
show that your business

or your problem set that
you're trying to solve can be worth a billion dollars or more. And in sort of real terms, what that means is in the next five to 10 years, is there some real way for you to get to 100 million
dollars a year in revenue? I know that's a really high bar. But that is what venture
investors are looking for when they make an investment. Y Combinator is looking
for successful startups that can grow very quickly. It's important for you to be able to show that the problem you're trying to solve

and the solution that you've created, can result in something
that can truly be massive. And that's why the story matters, if you have real customers say so. If you have stories about why
those customers choose you, over all your competitors, say so. If you have some sort of special source, if you have something that nobody else has truly figured out, definitely say so. Point number two-don't use buzzwords! Plain English is best

because Y Combinator uses plain English to figure out whether or
not you know your stuff. Everywhere else in the world, people use special inward buzzwords to determine whether or not
you're part of the in crowd or the out crowd and they
will invest based on that. Great investors don't use
buzzwords to figure out who to invest in, they use their brains. Great investors try to
understand what you're saying, and then they make their own mind up. That's how we tried to do
investment under initialized.

And that's how Y Combinator
decides who to let in. Don't use buzzwords to show that you are a
part of the in crowd. Use plain English to actually communicate what is actually happening
with your startup. Talk to me about the problem, talk to me me about the solution and tell me why you are different. Why is it that your solution
will beat all comers? And it's not going to
come from saying words

like hyperverticalization, or unbundling, or any sort of term like that. I don't need to know that you
went to the right parties, or can use the right terms. I want to know, do you
have something unique? Are you looking at the
world in the right way? One of the things I
realized while investing in so many companies, is that the best way to actually figure out
if someone has anything is actually look at it from plain English. If I sit down with someone
and just have a conversation

about what they're doing, do I get excited about what they're doing? And do I believe that this needs to be manifest in the world? That is what you're trying to get across in your YC application. But this is advice that's broadly useful for any pitch situation. A great pitch is not something
incredibly complicated that impresses the listener. A great pitch is actually very simple, understandable statements,
put side by side

from one another, that when you zoom out, you realize, that is a really big idea. Finally, I'm pretty
convinced that everything I ever needed to know in startups, I basically learned in
high school newspaper. How you should be writing is
actually an inverted pyramid. When you write, there's a
beginning, middle, and an end. Normally, throughout our school days, we're taught to have a
topic sentence, exposition, and then conclusion. When you write for YC,

but when you write for all things having to do with your startup, you should actually use
the inverted pyramid. Instead of saying the
conclusion at the end, figure out what that conclusion is and put it right at the beginning. Right after that, start adding proof. That way, when someone actually hears it, or when they read it on your homepage, they can decide very quickly whether or not what you say makes sense. Right after it enters their
brain, there's a bunch of proof that makes it more and more real.

When you invert the
conclusion and the exposition, you get exactly what you want. It's using your readers time effectively. So that's it. Three really easy things you can do to make your YC application better. Thanks so much for watching. And I do actually have
a giveaway this time. My giveaway is actually
my time and my advice, especially because if you watch this, you probably have a YC
application coming up, please go to this link down here, bit.ly/garrytan-ychelp.

That's bit.ly/garrytan-ychelp. What you'll find there, is a Google Form, put in a Google Doc of your YC application and I will comment on it. I've worked with YC companies for years, and I'm happy to be a resource to you. Thank you for subscribing. Click the bell to get a notification. And thank you for watching
all the way to the end. I'll see you later, thanks. (bouncy electronic music beats)
