I've been working on a project for about 8 months, with about 3 months on-going after a decision to re-write and reign in focus, with YC as a major end goal the entire time. Now that it's actually time to apply I'm extremely nervous—especially since I'm an 18-year-old kid who hasn't even finished high school yet (1 semester left) and I'm competing with people twice my age and with several hundred times more experience. We're quite close to a major beta release so that should help the process along.
Is there anything somebody in my (and my co-founders) circumstances should seek to convey in order to increase our chances of getting accepted? I've read quite a few articles on the best application type, but none of them had a "What to do when you're completely unproven and also extremely young" section.
I'm not twice as old as you, but I've been feeling old for a while now, so I'll give this a shot. I'm going to start by pretty much channeling Paul Graham.
If you're close to a major beta release, make sure that happens on time and as smoothly as possible. Then, as Paul Graham says, know your users. Talk to them, email them, Skype them late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. That's where expertise matters the most and where you're on equal ground with everyone else. I don't know anything about your users yet either. Well, I might know a tiny bit by accident because I worked on something similar. So go learn more than me.
To quote PG:
"This class can teach you about startups, but that is not what you need to know. What you need to know to succeed in a startup is not expertise in startups, what you need is expertise in your own users.
Mark Zuckerberg did not succeed at Facebook because he was an expert in startups, he succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups; I mean Facebook was first incorporated as a Florida LLC. Even you guys know better than that. He succeeded despite being a complete noob at startups because he understood his users very well."
Beyond that, I would say expect there to be what feels like near-death business/startup experiences.
If you run into trouble, great! That means you're doing something right. It isn't like school where if you prep enough, everything should be smooth sailing. You're not going to be able to ever prep enough and everything should feel chaotic. If it all goes really well, it is possible that you're super oblivious.
It is ok if things aren't going that well. Treat all the lows like team bonding. If you're lucky this won't be the last or worst of it all and nothing kills a startup like a cofounder who is only in it for the good times.
I've been working on a project for about 8 months, with about 3 months on-going after a decision to re-write and reign in focus, with YC as a major end goal the entire time. Now that it's actually time to apply I'm extremely nervous—especially since I'm an 18-year-old kid who hasn't even finished high school yet (1 semester left) and I'm competing with people twice my age and with several hundred times more experience. We're quite close to a major beta release so that should help the process along.
Is there anything somebody in my (and my co-founders) circumstances should seek to convey in order to increase our chances of getting accepted? I've read quite a few articles on the best application type, but none of them had a "What to do when you're completely unproven and also extremely young" section.