First off, you should’ve already noticed our shiny new website (although we must admit it’ll be an ongoing project) that we launched a few weeks ago. You’ll also notice some new screenshots of the Fangible iPad app (Alpha) and Fanclub Manager that we’ve been testing privately over the past couple of months. The feedback has far-exceeded our expectations, so we’ve officially started working on the Beta version of the iPad app and online Fanclub Manager – we’ll update you on the release schedule for the public Beta soon.

Fangible Co-founder Geoff Sanders talking about Fangible with journalists from 8NewsNow in Las Vegas, NV.

In mid-June, Steve Kanigher and (fellow #VegasTech friend) Mike Cao (@MikeCao) from Las Vegas CBS News affiliate, 8 News Now (@8NewsNow), wrote a feature about Fangible. I demoed the private Alpha version of the Fangible iPad app for the two journalists whom both seemed excited about our vision and product. Many thanks to both guys and to 8 News Now for their continued coverage of the growing Vegas tech scene.

Lastly, we’re hiring this summer and currently looking for (1) an awesome Software Engineer (iOS) and (2) an equally awesome UI/UX Designer to join our growing startup here in Las Vegas. So if you think you’re sufficiently awesome, love the startup life, want to help grow Fangible and the VegasTech community, please send an email to jobs@fangible.com along with your salary requirements and anything else you’d like us to know about you.

Stay tuned throughout this Summer because we’ve got a bunch of new updates and announcements looming on the horizon!

- Geoff
@GeoffSanders

Rick is currently the Director of Website Systems and Director of Community Technology at Zappos. He’s also a board member of the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN), is an active mentor within the #VegasTech community incubator, and contributes regularly to the blog VegasStartups.com.

Rick has a master’s degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received his bachelor’s degree in the same subject from the University of Central Florida. Prior to Zappos, Rick served as Chief Technology Officer at Thinker, Inc. and was co-founder and VP of Engineering and Operations at Incanta.

Follow Rick on Twitter @RickDuggan

At that time, YC was accepting applications for their summer 2012 session so Jon and I figured we would take a stab at applying to the exclusive program. Getting accepted into Y Combinator happens in two stages: the online application and the in-person interview. Approximately 97% of online applications get rejected, but the remaining 3% are invited to Mountain View, CA for a 10 minute interview with a couple of YC partners who will make their final decision based on that quick interview.

I submitted the form in early March and it wouldn’t be until April 16th that YC would send out invitation and rejection letters. So on April 16th, I was excited to see an email on my phone that began, “Your application looks promising and we’d like to meet you in person…” Beyond the excitement of getting invited to a great opportunity like this was also a bit of vindication for our good idea and hard work to date.

We had less than two weeks to prepare for the interview, but Jon and I felt confident going in as we’d already been working on Fangible for a couple of months and we knew their weren’t any questions they could throw our way that would catch us off guard. While continuing to work on our Private Alpha, we also studied all of the Y Combinator advice online (there’s a lot), and polished our iPad demo.

We arrived in Mountain View the day before our interview to get settled in and go over our demo and notes. I also decided to stop by Y Combinator to check out the place and talk with other founders that were there interviewing (shout out to Dan and Keith from 2canFit). Jon and I also had the opportunity to talk to some YC alumni including Chris Morton from Cube and Nick Sedlet and Elli Sharef from HireArt who gave us some great advice and promising feedback.

Our interview took place with YC partners Paul Buchheit (creator of GMail and co-founder of FriendFeed) and Garry Tan (co-founder of Posterous). The interview was definitely intense, rushed, and followed most of the rumors and accounts you’ll find online. We spent the majority of the interview back on our heels defending Fangible and replying to the barrage of questions being thrown our way. While Jon and I had a few key items we wanted to discuss during the interview, we quickly found out that what was to be talked about would not be our decision, so unfortunately we only covered half of the things we had hoped to. And just as everyone says, the 10 minute interview ended quickly and abruptly in what felt like only a few minutes time!

While Jon and I felt confident going into the interview, we left feeling like Paul and Garry never had a clear grasp on what we were doing, and it turns out that we were right because we got notified later that evening that we didn’t get in.

While we didn’t get in, we did prove that we were better than 97% of the applicants from around the world, but more importantly, we learned more about our business and ideas through the application process, met some new friends, and received some new motivation. The only thing better than getting into Y Combinator is not getting into Y Combinator, and then rubbing it in their faces later…

-Geoff

Also, If you’re not following us on Twitter already, make sure to do so @Fangible and if you’re on AngelList, you can find us there too at angel.co/fangible.

Social media fan pages don’t work, so we’ve decided to fix them.

Fangible is a fan platform that gives anyone the ability to create and manage an online fan club and optionally monetize it through integrated features like monthly subscription fees or ad revenue sharing. It’s 100% free and Fangible Fanclubs™ can be viewed and subscribed-to through our free iPad app available in the Apple App Store (coming soon). We’ll be making Fangible available to other devices and platforms in the future.

Fangible was started by Geoff Sanders (@GeoffSanders) and Jonathan Nickle in early 2012. We have a small, passionate, and motivated team, and we’re excited to plant our roots in Las Vegas, NV along with the rest of the amazing #VegasTech scene. If you’d like to help our roots grow, why not work with us?