invited to interview at y combinator

The Art in Res team got some pretty exciting news last night.

For those who don’t know, Y Combinator is a startup incubator-slash-accelerator that funded and advised some pretty awesome companies, including some household names like Airbnb, Stripe, reddit, and Dropbox.

They also run Hacker News, a digital haunt for the Art in Res team and startup & tech folks everywhere.

And, they’re also widely considered to be one of the best, if not the very best, of the incubators and accelerators. See this, this, this, this, this… you get the picture.

But there’s something much more exciting - and personal - about being invited to interview with y combinator partners in a couple of weeks (!) in Mountain View.

When my cofounder John Friel started his first tech company, xhbtr, it was Paul Graham’s essays that provided the early blueprint. And when we started Art in Res, the same was true for me and Noni.

PG’s essays are blueprints, pep talks, life lessons, mental models, reference points, maps and warning signs, all conveyed in bite-sized plain english. And the philosophy that runs through those essays (and is perpetuated by Y Combinator today) is deeply ingrained in Art in Res (we hope).

There’s a lot of stuff we could be doing better. But, for pulling an application together at the 11th hour at the recommendation of a friend and recent alumnus, it’s really cool to know we’ve already beat some long odds.

Here’s hoping that the interview process treats us kindly - but at least it feels like we’re on the right track. Wish us luck! (And if you are interested in helping us prep for the interview process, email me!)

Also, massive, gigantic thanks to

for all the help!

posted 17 oct 2019