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Comment by bouncingsoul | Hacker News Reader

What really bothers me about YC-clones copying the application form is how little it shows the group has thought about the program they're starting.

How is it possible that PG nailed down exactly what every seed investor would ever want to know about startup founders seeking funding? Don't these investors have any other questions? Do they actually call people hackers in real life? Is a couple sentences about each founder the maximum all investors are capable of reading?

So I'm left wondering if the lack of thought that went into the application carries over into the rest of the program.

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You think an application form indicates thought about the program? They're just going to copy a few forms and start throwing thousands of dollars at people... Right...

If this were a statically typed conversation, it would have been impossible to make a mountain from this molehill.

I don't understand your comment. Could you clarify?

1) My point was that these people have decided to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars. Saying they "haven't thought about it" because of an application form seems to be jumping to conclusions.

2) It's a programming language joke. MoleHillFactory (a Haskell example would be better, but I don't know it) wouldn't be able to return objects of type Mountain. Maybe it's not funny, but I kind of liked it:-)

I still think it's reasonable to think the application form reflects thought put into the program. If I showed up shitfaced to a job interview it would be reasonable for the interviewers to wonder if I took it seriously. I may take it completely seriously, but I would understand if my behavior seeded doubt.

Your argument doesn't really sway me: I'm judging the program based on something real; you're judging it based on what must obviously be the case.

I don't completely write-off a YC-clone just because they put zero thought into the application form. But it does alter my impression.

I disagree with your static typing argument too. "Mountain out of a molehill" means making a bigger deal out of something than it is. Which means both things could be class Mound, just with different values. So in this case static typing wouldn't have saved the day ;-)

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