So, a friend and I applied for YCombinator. Very cool program. I check my inbox and find an email from them –

Your proposal looks promising and we’d like to meet you in person. We’ll send
follow-up emails with specific interview slots soon.

See you in Mountain View,

Y Combinator Staff

Amazing!! Unbelievable!! Funding for our own company!!

…. wait a minute….

Another email from YCombinator? What’s this about? I just finished calling my partner, and am celebrating with some Break and Bake Nestle chocolate chip cookies. What could this be about?

You were recently sent an email with an invitation to an interview.
This was due an error in managing lists of email addresses. Below
is the email you should have received:

We’re sorry to say that we can’t accept your proposal for the Summer
Founders Program. Please don’t take it personally, because most
of the proposals we rejected, we rejected for reasons having nothing
to do with the quality of the applicants.

…

Thanks

Y Combinator Staff

Oh, ye cruel, foul vindictive fates! What could be worse than rejection? Deception, THEN crushing rejection!

Ack. I’m not as disappointed as I sound; it’s an honest mistake, and I didn’t expect to make it. Just a cruel way of finding out.

EDIT:

Even more irony. The same hour I got this email, the top story on Digg broke that Google made exactly what we wanted to make. Guess YCombinator’s staff saw that coming