Ask HN: Does YC Still Look at Applicant Comment Histories? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does YC Still Look at Applicant Comment Histories?

12 pointstptacek8 comments

Settle a bet for me, YC partners.

A long time ago, Paul Graham suggested that one of the things YC looked at in applications was the applicant's comment history.

I thought that was a weird thing to say then, but it sounds even crazier today, knowing how many more applications YC gets, how much bigger the batches are, and how little time you have to review each application.

I bet Felix Gallo on Twitter that YC no longer looks at HN comment histories. Hasn't in awhile. Nobody has time. There's no easy productive way to evaluate them anyways.

I lose the bet if a YC partner chimes in and says that comment histories are (still) part of how YC considers applications. But if a YC partner settles the bet either way, I'll pay up; the money goes to Partners in Health.

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Once upon a time our review software showed the aggregate HN comment score on the review page. But no longer -- it didn't seem that relevant. But if we happen to recognize someone's HNID from worthwhile contributions it can influence us. Though usually it's the project I recognize from a story about it, not the HNID.

For purposes of your bet, I would say the answer is that we don't.

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I have big data experience? Neat!

Might not be something they do on a first pass, might be something they do as part of preparing for interviews. But even then probably not.

I'm on your side of this bet. I'm sure if someone recognized a username it could make a difference one way or the other, but there's just too many applications for it to be something they dig into.

It appears that YC funds fewer than 100 startups twice per year, if you take five minutes per company that's about one full person-day every round, and you can probably offload that to an intern or something.

They get about 6000 applicants, though. For it to be useful to an applicant, it has to be something that can raise you from "app would be ignored" to "might be interviewed", which means they have to do it on every application. At five minutes per company, that's more like 500 hours, or about 60 person-days.

I suspect this was more of a factor when most of the YC partners read HN as part of their day. Then it was "free" work for them - they just would recognize usernames that pop up. I think Trevor's the only one still active on a daily basis here, so the chance that you'll draw a reader who actively reads HN and has some name recognition for top commenters is much lower.

Also, the bar for "name recognition" is much higher now. I'm #23 on /leaders (I'd peaked out at #2 way back in 2008, when I was doing my first startup, but dropped significantly while hiding out within Google) and still feel like I don't really have any useful name recognition here.

> [I] feel like I don't really have any useful name recognition here.

Really? You're not tptacek or patio11, but I'd at least expect people interested in the kind of things you're interested in to recognize you. I do...

I bet if anything they would glance at the karma count, and even then it would be a small factor in the decision making process.

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