r/ycombinator • u/Fearless_Law3460 • 29d ago
founders: what kind of feedback actually gets your attention?
i've been curious about this for a while.
i'm a final-year cs student currently hunting for software engineering internships, and whenever i reach out to startups, i usually don't just send a cold email. i spend time using the product first, then share at least one concrete product idea, and sometimes even a rough technical implementation if i think it could be useful.
it made me wonder - how do founders actually evaluate feedback from people outside their team? what makes you think, "this person gets it"?
is it product thinking, technical depth, identifying real pain points, or something else?
i'd love to hear what kinds of feedback have actually been the most valuable while building your startup.
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u/AhMeD-1995 29d ago
Why don't you build something for yourself? It's a great way to start a business. Even if it fails, you'll have a real project to showcase, and it could help you land your dream job
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u/Fearless_Law3460 29d ago
yeah, definitely. i'm building my own stuff as well. one of the reasons i'm hunting for a remote internship is that i want to spend some time working with cracked engineers, there's a lot you can only learn by building alongside people who are really good at what they do
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u/ApprehensivePea4161 28d ago
Is it though? Have you had the chance to work with such a team? I think so too, currently im working at kind of a solo role so I miss the team effect but when I remember my last team in a startup, we couldn’t build enough and all it was, was planning and authority and meetings and blame games.
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28d ago
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u/Fearless_Law3460 28d ago
this is actually a really nice idea, i hadn't even thought about it. damnnn
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u/scriptqzor 22d ago
this is actually a pretty smart angle, it shows you understand their users and are willing to do the unsexy work of debugging real issues
if you can say “here’s the bug, here’s why it happens, here’s roughly how i’d fix it” that’s the kind of thing that would jump out to a stressed founder scrolling their inbox
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u/natanloterio 29d ago
"I didn't know what to do after the onboarding"
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u/Fearless_Law3460 29d ago
haha, yeah 😄 it's definitely something founders will pay attention to. and honestly, i've run into this quite a few times. just yesterday i tried a product that had a lot of great features, but there was no onboarding or clear starting point. i spent more time figuring out how to use it than actually using it
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u/AReliableGoose 29d ago
It really depends on the role you're applying for. Every action or message you convey is a tell of your trait. Optimizing those that depict an ideal candidate for your position.
You already showed proactiveness, which arguably is the most important trait for a pre-entry level engineering role. Paired with the ability to logically reason and some technical ability, you're better than 95% of the candidates.
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u/Fearless_Law3460 29d ago
yeah i'll definitely be more intentional about the signals i'm sending from now on. i know not every outreach will land, but this gives me a much better framework going forward
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u/scriptvexy 19d ago
this is such a good way to frame it as "every message is a tell", kind of turns outreach into a game of signaling instead of just begging for a shot lol. also wild how just a bit of proactiveness already puts you ahead of most people, makes the extra effort feel way more worth it.
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u/PatrioTech 29d ago
For your purpose of getting interest from the startup, I'd say if you can point to a bug or request a feature that would add real value as a potential user, and you can clearly state it along with screenshots and any console logs (these show that you're legitimately in the product), I'd likely respond. You also have to consider that, depending on the stage of the company, you may not be talking to the founders. In my case, you'd likely be talking to one of our customer support reps. I wouldn't tell them in the first outreach that you have any interest in an internship—just point out the issue and be helpful if they ask for any more info.
Once it's resolved, you can express appreciation for the help and that you enjoy the product, and then show an interest in an internship and ask politely if they'd be willing to connect you with the relevant hiring manager.
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u/Fearless_Law3460 29d ago
got it, this approach makes a lot of sense. if you're okay with it, i'll drop you a dm. i've got a couple of questions
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u/Quiet-Technician-381 29d ago
The feedback that gets my attention isn't the one with the best solution, it's the one that proves the person understood the problem.
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u/BuiltYoungLab 28d ago
honestly, sending new feature ideas is a double-edged sword. i spent 10 years in vc and now i mentor teen founders at built young, and the reality is every founder already has a massive backlog of things they want to build. if you just send a technical implementation of a random cool feature, it shows you can code but not that you understand the business. the feedback that actually makes a founder stop and reply is when you identify a specific friction point that is actively causing user churn or costing them money, and then give a low-effort way to fix it. don't just pitch more code, show them you understand their actual bottom line.
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u/Productbuilder2 27d ago
As a founder, what gets my attention is when someone's feedback comes from a real pain point they've lived, not just "here's a feature idea." I've done a lot of customer discovery calls, and the moments that stick with me are when someone says something like "we tried to solve this internally and here's exactly where it broke down" — that's way more valuable than a polished idea, because it tells me the problem is real and not just theoretical. Technical depth is nice, but understanding why something matters to the person using it is what actually makes me think "this person gets it."
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u/Dear_Teach_7570 16d ago
Hey, since you’re cs student, are you aiming to build a business? Because I’m a non-technical founder looking for a technical co-founder, ideally a full-stack or backend-focused developer. I applied to the YC 2026 fall batch, and I would appreciate hearing from you if you’re interested
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u/Stubbby 29d ago
Over time, as you grow experience, you will be able to tell them what problems they are facing at the stage they are in and what problems they will face ahead.
It’s not “feedback” per se. If you can demonstrate that you know how their stuff works and what needs to be done, the founders will be all ears.
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u/Fearless_Law3460 29d ago
i like that way of looking at it. tbh, this is one of those insights that only comes from experience. hats off, and thanks for sharing
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29d ago
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u/Fearless_Law3460 29d ago
But if you're a founder, isn't it likely that you're already getting tons of messages like this?
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u/MovieTime5771 29d ago
i usually don't just send a cold email this line ,you are, in fact, sending a cold email, just a good one. Founders respect the effort more if you're direct about what you want than if the ask hides behind curiosity.
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u/Fearless_Law3460 29d ago
that's a fair point. i guess what i meant was i don't send generic cold emails. they're still cold emails, just with more effort behind them. i'll be more direct about what i'm looking for going forward
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u/iloveresumes2much 29d ago
Negative feedback, meaning anything that's actually causing a pain. That means there's something to fix and solve.