When is giving up an option? My personal journey and YC applications
Last year during a visit to Austin Texas myself and my co-founder, our company is called alpha’a, were invited to participate in a group called: “Friends of Peter”. We imagined it was a business meeting since we were scouting the area for possible partners and investors, when we arrived at 10am on a Saturday, we were truly surprised about what we encountered.
We walked in to find a meeting of around 30 people in an empty class room and the words: “Give up/Never Give up” were on a white board, we each had 3 minuted to interpret the statement and communicate a personal reflection. This exercise was deeply moving, and we were all very emotional, the concept of walking away seems sad for a human being, but sometimes so necessary.
I thought of this today as I finished off what is now my 5th application to Y combinator, I had sworn to myself that I would move on, after the 4th, and I did for a full year! During that year, we grew like crazy, went through another program and raised a little bit of money, but when I received the email below:
“Hi Manuela,
Thank you for applying to Y Combinator two batches ago.
Of all the companies we accept, 40% of them have applied more than once. We find that the best teams don’t give up easily. These are the teams we love to see apply again.
We’d like to let you know that the deadline to apply for the next batch is 3/25. Y Combinator only runs twice a year, so if you’re interested in doing YC for your startup, now is the time to apply.
Looking forward to seeing your application,
YC”
All of my YC dreams were reignited; what if we get in? Imagine hanging out with Sam Altman? Think of the reach we’d have in finding new clients? Before I knew it I had already started the application. So back to the concept of giving up, sometimes we do have to let go, we have to let go of things that bring us down, of people who like a drug impair your judgement, of excessive drinking and partying, and so many other toxic situations. But we should never give up on our dreams, because dreaming makes us human, it keeps us sane, focused obsessed.
I had a dinner with a friend a few nights ago, he had just sold his company to a conglomerate and is now spending a fortune to follow his dream of becoming a music producer, we had a pleasant dinner and I told him all about my struggles the amount of rejection you receive as a founder but the inability to walk away because something inside me tells me I have to see this through, I thought by the end of the dinner I had depressed him, but as soon as I got home he texted me a thank you note, which said: “it’s a pleasure to talk to someone as obsessed as I am”. That concept stuck with me, obsession, are entrepreneurs obsessed?
I like to think of my life and investment choices through a simple logic, I search for asymmetric risk, I look for opportunities with controlled downside but infinite upside and my company has that characteristic. We built something out of nothing, which now has real clients, recurring revenues, ultra high margins and a few believers(early stage investors). So my obsession seems to paying out, no idea if 5th times the charm for YC but I just felt like I needed to give it one more try.
The exercise of applying was actually quite rewarding, as I went through the questions and submitted my progress report it brought back so many memories, 2018 was a year of great professional, but also personal growth.
A video of me post accident talking about my trajectory at WPP Stream
In April of 2018 me and my co-founder who are also great friends suffered a bike accident, the accident was quite serious and involved a great deal of recovery after two surgeries each, at the time we were training for an Ironman and were suddenly forced to stop every aspect of our lives, there is great power in periods, periods create new sentences or paragraphs. After a year which was marked by that period we started a new page, a page of rebuilding and this year we start over in our training with a whole new appreciation for our health and wellness. In exactly 11 weeks we take on another Ironman, and hopefully another coast.