http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html
I have read and understand the reasons stated for not being able to offer feedback, and I understand that YC owes nothing to applicants. However, the explanation offered does not fully support the claim that it can't provide feedback to applicants.
The reason boils down to "there often is no reason". Which implies that sometimes there is a reason.
Similarly: "From that cutoff down to about the halfway point, the applications are pretty good." Which implies that fully half of applications are not that good, presumably for reasons which could be easily identified.
Feedback options remaining which wouldn't be precluded by the reasons stated include: 1. Your group was/was not in the "pretty good" top 50% of applications 2. Your group was rejected mainly because of ABC (or there was no clear reason/weakness, if that is the case)
I of course acknowledge it is the prerogative of YC to withhold feedback for any reasons they choose, and they have no obligation to share that publicly. But if they choose to make those reasons public, it is reasonable to expect them to contain sound logic.
We appreciate that the YC team is very busy. It seems that they have already done the heavy lifting of evaluating applicants, but perhaps distilling that into feedback would be a substantial effort. I can't make the judgement of whether it is in their best interest to give feedback when possible, but I suspect I am not alone in believing that any feedback would be beneficial and much appreciated. Unless there are reasons not stated, I hope YC will reconsider offering some form of feedback when possible.
