After four rejections from Y Combinator, a founder submitted a Rathlet application with a Rickroll link instead of a real video. YC called them in anyway. Michael, YC's CEO, confronted them about the prank, furious that they thought a joke would get them in.
Rejected 4 times and Rickrolling into YC. Can you tell the story? Sam's like, yeah, you should do YC. Actually, the batch starts tomorrow. Why don't you fill an application? I kind of do a bare bones application about, about Rathlet. And then there's the video. I'm like, yeah, man, I don't want to do the video. I pasted a YouTube link. They call us to the interview and I walk in and there's Michael. He was the CEO at the time. Then I shake Michael's hand and I felt like his grip was a little too hard. I was like, okay, that's fine. I go sit down on the chair and the moment I sit down, Michael looks at me. Why did you Rickroll us? Oh my God. And I'm like, you know, we applied several times and I thought it'd be fun. Thought this interview was just a formality. And he's like, that's not how you get into YC. He was very, very angry. Well, turns out when we're sitting outside, they were getting Rickrolled inside. So imagine their mindset looking at the application and getting the Rickroll song. And that's when I realized I fucked up.
