rejections

• 3 min read • by Biraj

i’ve faced more rejections than the ones listed here, but these are the ones i care about or find notable enough to include

  1. March or April 2025 - Entrepreneur First, Bangalore

    • was part of selection hackathon, but didn’t make it to the cohort

  2. Sept 11, 2025 - Exa

    • applied for Full Stack Engineer, shortlisted
    • cleared 15min intro
    • rejected after 1st technical round (frontend) for some reason. it was easy af tho.

  3. Jan 20, 2026 - South Park Commons, Bangalore

    • rejected for community membership [no interview]

  4. Mar 14, 2026 - YC Spring 2026

    • rejected for Hanging Piece [no interview, as expected]

  5. Mar 17, 2026 - The Bridge by Entrepreneur First

    • received rejection email in under 10 hours

  6. Apr 3, 2026 — Founders Inc, Canopy

    • applied on Mar 21, got intro call email on Mar 31, had the call on Apr 3.
    • said he’ll lmk his decision in half a day but i didn’t get any response
    • even DMd on twitter on April 5th but got left on seen
    • ps: i didn’t have Shellular at the time of application. i talked about OpenVoice instead, so the rejection would have been understandable but ghosting after saying that he’ll lmk his decision in half a day… mehh whatever, no grudges, but won’t forget

  7. May 6, 2026 - Angel Investor xxx

    • emailed the GOAT xxx on May 6th to tell them about Shellular
    • surprisingly received a reply within 10 mins
    • sent an email to clarify what we’re building, but didn’t get a reply after that
    • sent a follow-up email on May 12th, but still no response
    • lession: need to work on my vision, story telling, and communication skills

  8. Jun 4, 2026 — a16z speedrun

    • applied on May 7th, got rejected on June 4th without any interview

  9. June 5, 2026 - YC Summer 2026

    • applied on May 3rd with Shellular, got rejected on June 5th without any interview, but got this in the email:

    We do have some good news, though - of the applications we read this batch, yours was in the top 10%. Because we found your application promising, we’d strongly encourage you to re-apply.

  10. June 5, 2026 - South Park Commons, SF

    • applied on June 4th for community membership, got rejected without any interview

  11. June 17, 2026 - YC Startup School Event

    • applied on April 25th. got rejection email on June 17th :)

  12. July 14, 2026 - The Bridge by Entrepreneur First

    • applied on May 28th, received rejection email on July 14th containing:

    After careful consideration, we didn’t feel that your application demonstrated the strong fit we look for in founders on our programs. As a result, we won’t be advancing your application to the next stage.

  13. Aug 28, 2026 - YC F26

    • applied on 27th July with Shellular again. got rejected without any interview. got the same top 10% thing as last time

  14. Sept 2, 2026 - a16z speedrun

    • applied on 28th July with Shellular again, got rejected without interview.