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# &U Selection Criteria
- URL: https://andys.blog/criteria/
- Published: 2025-11-17T09:59:39.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-20T13:18:20.000Z
- Author: Andy Trattner

Essentially, the main question is do I like you a lot and trust you profoundly.

**&U is a good fit for:**

- first-time founder, under age 25
- wants to get into YC
- wants to make lots of money
- no prestigious credentials
- not from nor living in USA (yet :)
- has no money, is broke, in debt, or financially constrained
- deep compulsion to help people (your family, friends, country, etc)
- humble
- has time or can make time
- has skills: can code, built something nontrivial, done research, likes writing
- self-guided & independent, will eventually succeed, keeps trying
- voracious consumer of information, books, podcasts, youtube, blogs, etc
- people around you don't understand you, or you do things in secret from them

**Don't need me / bad fit if:** 

- you can raise $200k+ on your own
- already won $50k+ in awards
- you're at Harvard or have some name brand credentials already
- you have strong relationships with well-connected people supporting you
- already built profitable companies in the past
- never built anything yourself
- you think you're hot shit
- not interested in learning from the internet or other humans
- not interested in writing or sharing or teaching others
- your family supports you

**Talk to me anyways if:** 

- don't know how what you're doing ever makes money
- passionate about what you do, ambitiously creating your art
- you're a hacker, builder, tinkerer of things, engineer (systems thinker)
- not sure!

Apply [here](https://ampersandu.com/apply?ref=andys.blog).