Hacker News Reader

Comment by unono | Hacker News Reader

That would be a good idea for an android app. I thorough list of hundreds or thousands of ideas we'd like to fund. Aspiring startups can go through the list, select which ones they like, max of 5, and submit an application to YC right then and there. I wonder if PG's thought of doing that.

edit: what's with the downvotes? that's puzzling

View on HN

Maybe this is oversimplifying things, but I think a startup/prospective founder for which the current YC application is too time-consuming/difficult is probably not an ideal one; the application process is a filtering mechanism, after all.

There might be a lot of capable founders, such as older people with a lot of experience in other industries, who are filtered out by that. You might be a 50 year old guy who doesn't get computers but are a killer sales guy, making it easier to select an idea and proceed might be a good bet for YC. Maybe even match up that killer sales guy with a young programmer type.

If YC is in the business of matching cofounders, I am unaware of it.

Without that, you're still suggesting that they fund a team that is so uninspired that they can't spend a little time on the application. YC does not have unlimited resources with which to filter applicants, so increasing the number of applicants and decreasing their average quality (an argument that this wouldn't happen would be interesting if you have one) seems like a lose-lose situation.

PG has stated multiple times that they key to success is being relentlessly resourceful and pivoting. There are a lot of people with that mindset, most of whom are not Stanford/MIT graduates. Encouraging more applicants from a wider selection pool might increase the quality of YC batches.

PG is always innovating, I'm sure the current process he's created is not the global maximum. He might be interested in matching founders, giving initial ideas, codifying more of his process into apps - anything that might increase ROI he will try as a rational businessman.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com