Clearly, I needed more than just a

[rifat28dddd]

I thought if I could just get into Y Combinator, none of that would matter. I would emerge from the startup accelerator program as a full-fledged tech titan, no different than my Silicon Valley heroes.

An Ambitious Idea isn’t Enough
Early in our careers, founders often romanticize the idea of the startup. We have the Hollywood version of the tech founder story playing in our heads 24/7. And the only thing standing between us and a future where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays us in a movie is: money.

My thought was simple: “If I raise money, I’m successful.” I thought that if I ever landed a million dollars in funding—that’s it. I would have made it. It would take me years to learn that raising money isn’t the goal. It’s a means to an end and it’s pointless if you don’t actually have a business.

And I didn’t have a business. I had an idea for a singapore telegram data business—one that I was convinced would change the world!

My first idea was an online education platform called Supercool School. It was in 2007, during the Web 2.0 boom, so user-generated content was on the rise, and online education seemed like an obvious opportunity. Change education, change the world. That’s an idea worth investing in, right?

I even thought my idea was more important than other startups that were hitting the scene at the time. “Airbnb? Just a website to rent your couch to cheap travelers? That’s nothing! My idea is going to revolutionize education!” Ah, the hubris of a young entrepreneur.

Still, I thought if my idea was ambitious enough, maybe Y Combinator would let me in.

But what I received wasn’t an all-access pass to the Silicon Valley dream. Instead, it was a humbling, generic rejection letter from YC.