Ask HN: Solo founder but have a team of 4 people, Will YC accept?
I've been working on an idea and developing an MVP. I was never able to find someone with the same level of dedication and enthusiasm as me. So, I have hired ~4 people (sales, engineering) to help in areas where I'm myself not good. I've offered time-bound equity to these employees (Work for 'X' years with me and get 'Y'% equity).
I'm looking forward to applying to the next batch of YC. But, have heard it strongly insists upon having multiple co-founders.
What are the chances of my idea getting accepted in YC batch? I'll have a good enough team and MVP ready but not co-founders.
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You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
YC has always recommended having cofounder(s) but that shouldn't hold you back. That is even if you didn't have a team of 4 people.
If I can remember correctly, Ryan Hoover from Product Hunt went through YC as a solo founder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaqUUAYi_Yo
YC only deems somebody with at least 10% of equity as a founder (but hopefully that's not how YOU are defining your co-founders...).
YC has accepted single founder teams (I personally know a non-technical solo founder that went through YC) but it is very difficult.
The 4 persons in the team are full time employees, partial time or freelancers? Are they getting paid in money too?
Do you have users/customers?
You can try contacting the YC team by email: info@ycombinator.com
Address a large or growing market, solve a big problem, show traction (or profits, preferably), have a team behind you and yc will fund you regardless of the number of founders.
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygr3qcERyRM