We Got Admission Into Y Combinator Startup School (Not The Real Deal One)

Last week, I got a rejection email from Y Combinator about my application to Startup School (their free online startup mentoring program which is different from the widely popular Y Combinator Accelerator). A few hours after, I got another email stating that the previous email was an error due to a malfunction in the selection/announcement program, that I should have gotten a congratulatory email instead. 

And so began our journey into the amazing world of Y Combinator distance coaching. We are assigned a mentor who takes care of a group of 15 to 25 startups, with weekly live meetings and progress review. And there are weekly recorded teachings from veterans in the YC community. They even provide opportunities for one to come participate in the live teaching sessions instead of waiting for the recorded ones, just that you need to be in California, USA for that.

I have admonished my team members to make the most of this uncommon opportunity. We would be exposed to teachings from some of the best folks in the startup community -- people who have walked the walk and built billion dollar startups. 

In addition to the amazing learning and personalized help they are providing, they are also offering 100 startups $10,000 at the end of the 10 weeks mentorship program. For free. As a grant. No strings attached. And we already get access to loads of free and deeply subsidized tools from Amazon, Google and many other startup services/tools providers. They estimate that these benefits run into over $100,000 in value.

We are not the only Nigerian startup admitted. I have seen a couple in just my group. And they all are doing very cool stuff. Was really impressed by one based in Abuja: https://gerocare.org/ 

At the end of the program, we become part of a global founders community and get opportunities to collaborate with other startups around the world. Also, we get a higher chance of being taken into the prestigious Y Combinator Accelerator should we decide to apply. The mentor assigned us will coach us on what to watch out for and how best to present our product/idea to get a higher chance of successful application.

Personally, I want to learn all I can about improving our services and business. I have spent too much time improving the technical side of our business, it's high time we worked on the business side of our business properly too.