Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to My post-YC-rejection start-up
http://invincibilitee.com Me and my co-founder submitted an app for YC W11, with a web site that would help college graduates figure out what jobs they could get with their chosen degree. We got a rejection email, and already had this as a back-up idea in case we did get rejected. So in the month between rejection and today, we found a printer, found some graphic designers, and got enough done that we felt comfortable with it as a first iteration. I know there aren't so many non-web app startups on HN, but I thought y'all might like to see how 2 guys rebounded from YC rejection.
Invincibilitee is a physical product designed as a printed t-shirt or apparel item. Created by two founders as a backup idea after their YC application rejection, the product was developed in one month with help from a… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. My post-YC-rejection start-up launched in 2010; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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- 2RC
2017 · rejectionconditioner.com · its alternatives →
- 3
- 4
Curated collection of resources for founders applying to YC.
2017 · its alternatives →
- 5IM
Simulate your YC application rejection
2025 · yc-sim.vercel.app · its alternatives →
- 6
YC's free 6-week program for aspiring founders
2020 · startupschool.org · its alternatives →
- 7AS
Got rejected from YC a few times, so I built a site to collect lessons, reflections, and what people would do differently next time. Thought it could be helpful since most founders apply more than once anyway :) Hope it's helpful: https://ycrejection.com/
2025 · ycrejection.com · its alternatives →
- 8
A few days ago, I responded to a comment by bloggergirl offering to read anyone's web copy and help. I shot off an email hoping for a paragraph or two of feedback on my startup's copy. Instead I received a professional, detailed deck of tons of invaluable well thought out feedback. It must have taken her an entire afternoon. Here's a link to it: http://www.slideshare.net/shereefb/recommendations-for-bettermeans To top it off, this isn't someone with a lot of free time on her hands, she's only days away from launching her own startup (page99test) This community blows my mind!
2010 · slideshare.net · its alternatives →
- 9
Hi, I'm a developer and first time i shipped the real product after observing the startups and indie hackers community for years. I had made so many useless apps [you should check my website https://ansh.life], but this time I built a very useful product that has a number of super easy-to-use tools in one app for video, music, and photo files. Users can compress, convert, resize, and do so much more with easy-to-use tools. Background: I developed a frame-by-frame video cropper to upload cropped landscape videos to Instagram Reels. However, it required FFmpeg, and as a noob video…
2025 · pimosa.app · its alternatives →
- 10
Most popular online service for startup legal paperwork, including Delaware C corporation incorporation. Recommended by the most startup attorneys. Designed exclusively for startups, as opposed to regular small businesses. Run by two startup attorneys obsessed with helping founders avoid problems wi
2013 · clerky.com · its alternatives →
- 11
- 12
Very early (idea stage) program for founders
2015 · ycombinator.com · its alternatives →
- 13UR
2022 · skipbigtech.com · its alternatives →
- 14
2012 · hntees.com · its alternatives →
- 15WD
Hey everyone! We spent the major part of the year preparing an idea we had for the YC application. At last minute, we decided not to go through with YC. I mean, we've had our fair shares of failed startups and this was one of those make it or break it scenarios. We took everything we've ever learned and strived to make an app that we were proud of. We spent so much effort into making this app that we couldn't bear stopping short and applying to Y Combinator. (Mind you, there's nothing wrong with YC.) We didn't want to apply to Y Combinator at the last minute because if we had really gone…
2012 · prsna.me · its alternatives →
- 16IW
2012 · guidetoyc.com · its alternatives →
- 17
YC Students▲181Browse student jobs & internships at Y Combinator companies
2019 · entryleveljobs.me · its alternatives →
- 18FO
HN, I've been mostly lurking, semi-active on HN for over 4 years. For most of that time, I've been working on my startup, Learndot. I have always wanted to do a "Show HN" post, but I never thought it was ready. We've now finally launched web signup and using a freemium business model. I feel I can now post and offer something to the community (a new app to try out) and hopefully get good quality feedback. Here's the site: http://www.learndot.com Would appreciate any or all thoughts: From pricing/positioning, to design/performance. The app is written in Sproutcore and backed by an API written…
2013 · learndot.com · its alternatives →
- 19
Inspired by PG’s tweet about a chain of 4 YC startups where the founder worked at a YC startup, I vibe coded and generated these genealogy chains for all ~6k YC startups. And to make these trees easily accessible I packaged them into a hosted webapp. Few noteworthy YC startups which have had huge impact in YC ecosystem Airbnb - 83 YC startups spawned Stripe - 67 YC startups spawned Dropbox - 50 YC startups spawned Justin.tv/Twitch - 47 YC startups spawned More recently founded YC startups which have spawned a lot more YC startups Rappi - 21 YC startups spawned Brex - 20 YC startups…
Jan 2026 · foundertrace.com · its alternatives →
- 20
What does YC look for in prospective founders?
2016 · content.libsyn.com · its alternatives →
- 21MO
Hey Everybody! Hope you had a merry christmas Today I had a bit of fun with Claude. Started by scraping YC's startups list, then ran them through OpenAI's embedding service, then UMAP'd the embedding to reduce the dimension to just two coordinates and then just forced Claude to write React that would compile to visualize that. I had fun and I think it's interesting, so take a look! Also note that you won't be able to zoom on mobile (found about this Plotly limitation way too late). If there's interest I can fix this issue by changing plotting libs tomorrow :) Merry christmas
2024 · yc-map.vercel.app · its alternatives →
- 22IT
2012 · backspac.es · its alternatives →
- 23YR
2018 · ycreview.com · its alternatives →
- 24MY
Every batch, many founders get rejected due to basic application mistakes, missing key criteria that YC partners explicitly look for. We learned this the hard way, which is why we built YC Score. Simply upload your draft PDF or fill out our YC-mirrored form. Our AI analyzes your responses against 25 critical factors that can make or break your application, from technical credentials to market validation. For instance, when YC partner Dalton Caldwell notes that teams with technical founders have "5x better odds," you need to know before submitting. YC Score flags these deal-breakers and shows…
2025 · ycscore.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →