I am just curious, kind of like a case study. What would YC partners advise a startup like JEV in their current situation?
Giants are releasing open source versions, the market signals are confusing that it's not a big leap but everyone is trying to benefit from JEV's hype.
Obviously one advice would be to keep building and go deeper into the RLCD hypothesis and innovative.
Hi everyone,
I'm a first-time founder from LatAm building a startup focused primarily on selling to governments (B2G).
One of my biggest concerns about applying to YC is traction. Government sales cycles are notoriously long, procurement processes can be complex, and even getting a government agency to agree to a pilot or trial can be difficult.
Looking at recent YC batches, I've noticed that many startups already have meaningful traction, and even some B2G companies seem to have secured government customers or pilots before joining.
This makes me wonder how does YC evaluate pre-revenue B2G startups, especially those based outside the US?
Can a strong product, technical execution and domain expertise compensate for the lack of paying customers? What would YC consider meaningful traction when landing the first government contract can take a year or more?
I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience applying to YC or building a B2G startup.
I'm particularly interested in understanding what early-stage founders should prioritize to demonstrate progress before securing their first government customer.
I work in deep tech and aerospace research—specifically in fluid dynamics. It’s a potentially groundbreaking field; I have a proof of concept and plenty of positive feedback from serious experts in the industry. However, a number of circumstances have created an impenetrable barrier for me, and all my attempts to find a co-founder or investor have failed—for perfectly valid reasons.
For one, I’m an artist by training and profession, which immediately undermines my credibility; I’m often simply ignored. My prototypes look like primitive DIY projects rather than convincing products for investors; plus, it’s a high-risk field that demands a much stronger business case. I tried going it alone for a long time, but recent circumstances have made that incredibly difficult, and I’ve essentially hit a dead end. On one hand, people tell me it’s cool—that I should keep going and that I can pull it off—and they’re waiting for results. On the other hand, I can see myself being dragged into a deep abyss, catastrophically wasting time with zero return.
Sometimes I feel like I’m on the verge of madness and have to force a mental reset just to put it aside and focus on ordinary work. I honestly don’t know what to do: does it make sense to keep diving all the way to the bottom, and does that kind of persistence ever actually lead to success?