Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–48 of 48 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#41

Post by dang »

narrationbox wrote: post #11
lefstathiou wrote: post #6

My humble perspective, HN serves several purposes: 1) Top of the funnel lead gen for emerging companies (for YC to invest in). 2) Persistent advertising for the YC brand. You can’t use HN without associating it with Y Combinator and by being useful it brings in millions of views to the brand at relatively little cost 3) A proprietary way to learn more about the founders they invest in. I’ve read a users HN profile (w…

What is YC's privacy policy on 3?

I don't know of any privacy policy on it but HN doesn't really overlap with YC applications. pg used to say that he'd sometimes recognize a username as being a smart commenter on HN, and maybe that would be more likely to get them an interview (I suspect as much because he wanted to meet the commenter as because he thought they might be worth funding). But I don't think it was ever a big deal, and I doubt happens at all anymore. "An important source of unadulterated intel" is definitely not true.

Sometimes I notice someone doing interesting work on HN and get in touch with them and try to convince them to apply to YC. I'd like to do more of that.

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#42

Post by dang »

weaksauce wrote: post #25
lefstathiou wrote: post #6

My humble perspective, HN serves several purposes: 1) Top of the funnel lead gen for emerging companies (for YC to invest in). 2) Persistent advertising for the YC brand. You can’t use HN without associating it with Y Combinator and by being useful it brings in millions of views to the brand at relatively little cost 3) A proprietary way to learn more about the founders they invest in. I’ve read a users HN profile (w…

There’s also the posts that are marketing for ycombinator backed companies. Launches and stuff that are probably weighted a little higher so they stay on the front page longer. And of course selective screening for hiring from the group of people that are usually above average in the first place.

Launch HN posts get placed on the front page automatically. So do job ads. The difference is that Launch HNs are otherwise like regular stories that get upvotes and comments.

https://news.ycombinator.com/launches

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#43

Post by dang »

ykevinator wrote: post #37
dang wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flagging is done by users.

I wonder

What exactly do you wonder?

Moderators sometimes turn flags off. Moderators also sometimes put [flagged] on comments, though that's rare. But if you see [flagged] on a story, that's because users flagged it.

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#44

Post by dang »

Apreche wrote: post #16

It may not be consciously built towards this purpose, but HN serves primarily to spread the silicon valley, get-rich quick, startup business, and entrepreneur culture among software engineers and other technology experts. YC and other VCs can't continue to exist if people don't continue to believe in the mythology of silicon valley. Who the hell will work ridiculous hours and gamble with their livelihood to make some…

This is ironic, not only because you posted it to HN, but because it's an absolutely typical HN comment. See the sibling reply to this one for another.

Somehow people post these things without realizing that cynicism about VC, Silicon Valley, and startups became the conventional position on HN many years ago, and that far from a contrarian view it's a platitude.

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#45

Post by lefstathiou »

dang wrote: post #41
narrationbox wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is YC's privacy policy on 3?

I don't know of any privacy policy on it but HN doesn't really overlap with YC applications. pg used to say that he'd sometimes recognize a username as being a smart commenter on HN, and maybe that would be more likely to get them an interview (I suspect as much because he wanted to meet the commenter as because he thought they might be worth funding). But I don't think it was ever a big deal, and I doubt happens at…

Years ago I recall listing your hacker news user name was part of the YC application process (I have not applied in some time). Hard to believe that it wasn’t used as a screening mechanism at some point in the application process. Humbly defer to you of course.

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#46

Post by dang »

lefstathiou wrote: post #45
dang wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know of any privacy policy on it but HN doesn't really overlap with YC applications. pg used to say that he'd sometimes recognize a username as being a smart commenter on HN, and maybe that would be more likely to get them an interview (I suspect as much because he wanted to meet the commenter as because he thought they might be worth funding). But I don't think it was ever a big deal, and I doubt happens at…

Years ago I recall listing your hacker news user name was part of the YC application process (I have not applied in some time). Hard to believe that it wasn’t used as a screening mechanism at some point in the application process. Humbly defer to you of course.

YC and HN use the same account system, so you still apply with your HN username. But it's not used as a screening mechanism and, as far as I know, no one involved in YC applications is in the habit of looking at HN posts. Certainly not systematically.

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#47

Post by pvg »

dang wrote: post #31

I've written about this a few times. If you read these answers and still have a question that remains unaddressed, I'd love to know what it is. (My plan is eventually to compile all these repeated answers to HN questions into some kind of super-FAQ and then retire from comment writing and just link to it, forever into a bright future.) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23285793 https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=al…

You'll still have to comment when you come up with snee.

Re: Ask HN: What is Hacker News's business model?

#48

Post by raltok »

Hi everyone,

We’re launching a live course on software startup formation with Shawn Kung, Venture Partner at AV8 Ventures, a VC firm based in Silicon Valley. He’s also an angel investor at Y Combinator Demo Day as well as a Stanford Lecturer. The course includes:

- 6 weekly live lectures with Shawn and all the other students (2h each)

- Guest speakers (founders & investors from Shawn’s network)

- 1-1 office hours

- Unlimited Q&A on the course private Slack channel

- Startup mini project where students will form teams and pitch a business idea to Shawn

- Lifetime access to Shawn’s Slack channel & private LinkedIn group for alumni

We are 75% full. Class is capped at 50 students. The live course will kick off on July 23. Schedule for the lectures is 5-7pm PT.

Link: https://flatwyse.com/venture-startup-formation

Post reply on HN