Hang Huang@hanghuang_
After 6 applications and 6 rejection emails, we finally got into Y Combinator.
Yes, read that one more time: 6 applications. 6 rejections.
We turned a rejection into an admission offer.
For a long time, every rejection led to the same question:
"Do we pivot, or keep going?"
We didn't think much of the first few rejections. Our reaction was mostly just: okay, back to building, apply again next time.
Honestly, the hardest one was the 5th rejection because we felt so close. It was the first time we got an interview. We believed we had a real shot.
But in the end, we got rejected… again.
Looking back, the decision was fair.
We were only doing around $300/month, and YC didn’t see a clear path to building a billion-dollar company through enterprise.
So we stopped guessing and started listening.
We did 20+ user interviews and realized something important: the people who really loved InsForge were not big enterprises. They were AI-native small teams and startups.
That fundamentally changed how we saw the company. We clarified who the product was actually for, doubled down on what was working, and kept building in public on X and LinkedIn.
We grew from 2,300 to 4,000+ databases in 2 months.
Then we applied again. Our second interview with YC. We really thought this would be the one. But once again, we were rejected.
That was the moment the question we had been asking ourselves after every rejection finally changed.
No longer:
“Do we pivot?”
Instead:
“How do we execute so well that the need for this product becomes impossible to ignore?”
After 30 days of hell, we launched @InsForge_dev Launch Week 1.
And it took off. Like, really took off!
→ 1.5M+ views on X
→ #1 on Product Hunt
→ #1 on GitHub Trending
→ 3K+ GitHub stars in one week
But here's the craziest part: after rejecting us, YC changed their mind. Here was our second chance.
We got an email from general partner Andrew Miklas (@amiklas), congratulating us on our launch and asking us to meet one more time.
We figured it would be another tough interview.
But the meeting was in two hours. No time to prepare.
We were so nervous up until the very end.
When we finally hopped on the call, he just said, “You guys have made huge progress. I want to work with you. Do you want to do YC?”
WTF?????????
Tony (@tonychang430) and I looked at each other.
We were so shocked, we didn't even know what to say.
Of course, the answer was yes.
This is when we learned:
Execute so well that your company becomes impossible to reject.
Every rejection forced us to clarify our vision.
The last one forced us to prove it.
Next stop: YC P26!! @ycombinator 🥳
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