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Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

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Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#271

Post by nickpsecurity »

dang wrote: post #75
jdp23 wrote: post #70

Interesting idea, and kudos to you for kicking off the discussions to refine the approach - and for the "be nice" rule, which I think is very important here. A question: What are the situations where you think it will benefit people more to go the open route than applying directly? One way of thinking about it is advantages of "Apply HN": getting significant calibration and feedback on an idea that improves it whethe…

> What are the situations where you think it will benefit people more to go the open route than applying directly? No idea! But you can always do both. It would be interesting if HN picked fundamentally different startups than YC does. That's really the genesis of the idea, as I mentioned above. It's not out of the question that getting picked by HN could actually help a startup succeed, since the community might nat…

Another interesting thing to datamine might be number of comments positive/negative about certain companies followed by the results. Certain people will be accurate more often than not, maybe in general or certain niches. Then, new ideas receiving comments can be scanned to see if any of those people are making similar points. Might become one factor among others in the VC scoring process for what gets funded.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#272

Post by hyuuu »

psygnisfive wrote: post #259
lowglow wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm living out of a van right now in Palo Alto, after having sold everything I own to build projects that work. My worldly possessions can fit inside a single backpack. My co-founder and I are generating revenue and grinding on making sure the community loves what we're building. My burn rate is close to 300-400/mo, less if I eat less per day. #grit Beyond that what else is there?

Buy instant(ish) noodles from an asian grocery. They often have lots of great variety and are cheap and healthier than the ramen you'll usually get in big chain groceries. In fact, but as much as you can from asian groceries, they tend to be super cheap and need your business more than big chains do.

to add to that, get the Indomie brand, they add extra vitamins and nutrients, I believe it's because Indomie is consumed practically by everyone in Indonesia, the govt mandated them to be healthier (this is based off of memory years ago).

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#274

Post by lowglow »

hyuuu wrote: post #272
psygnisfive wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy instant(ish) noodles from an asian grocery. They often have lots of great variety and are cheap and healthier than the ramen you'll usually get in big chain groceries. In fact, but as much as you can from asian groceries, they tend to be super cheap and need your business more than big chains do.

to add to that, get the Indomie brand, they add extra vitamins and nutrients, I believe it's because Indomie is consumed practically by everyone in Indonesia, the govt mandated them to be healthier (this is based off of memory years ago).

Awesome, thanks you two for the tips! :)

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#275

Post by striking »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #268
dang wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, perhaps I misread the GP. But I agree that there's no way to control for all these factors. It would drive one mad to try and probably make consensus harder to arrive at.

It's worth trying to figure out something as it's a problem here enough people occasionally leave. It's basically mob or follow-the-leader mentality that results in reflexive downvotes on hot-topics when dissenting comments appear. I encountered this when I got into battles with tptacek not knowing he was No 1 or whatever here. I barely care about the popularity or politics as I focus on getting right info to right p…

It's really not about establishment, except for a particular few people. Informative opinions that are "out of the norm" will get upvotes, almost always, as long as they're written in a kind manner. They'll be downvoted first, and get a massive corrective upvote stream.

I feel like you're looking at commenting wrong here. You're not doing battle with people. Yes, sometimes you get downvoted "incorrectly", there are always stray votes in either direction. But I've found that politeness and care have always received upvotes, no matter what position stood behind them.

Maybe it's... a personal issue? I don't want to insult you, but being overly combative definitely garners downvotes.

PS: take note that you can't downvote a comment that is in reply to you. :)

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#276

Post by dang »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #268
dang wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, perhaps I misread the GP. But I agree that there's no way to control for all these factors. It would drive one mad to try and probably make consensus harder to arrive at.

It's worth trying to figure out something as it's a problem here enough people occasionally leave. It's basically mob or follow-the-leader mentality that results in reflexive downvotes on hot-topics when dissenting comments appear. I encountered this when I got into battles with tptacek not knowing he was No 1 or whatever here. I barely care about the popularity or politics as I focus on getting right info to right p…

It's hard to detect fan-driven vote surges. I'm not convinced it's possible to do that, or at best the signal would be a weak one.

FWIW I was surprised to read this comment insofar as I don't associate your account with this kind of conflict at all. I just like your technical posts and think you've contributed a lot here.

What I meant upthread is that if you engaged with the Apply HN startups who are active in technical areas you know about, that could be valuable.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#278

Post by dang »

skoocda wrote: post #183

I think there's a definite disparity between the key formative aspects of a soon-to-be successful startup, and the popular image that people will vote for. Nobody on HN as enough time or motivation to perform the gritty research on the market or the founders, which means the votes will tend towards flashy sounding concepts. As long as you guys only take this as a cheap and plentiful way of judging the 'wow' factor of…

The counter-hypothesis to this is that HN's audience is broad enough that even on specialized topics, there's often someone (or surprisingly several) who actually knows something. It would be disappointing if all we got were 'wow' responses—but we'll be able to tell that by looking at the discussion quality of the Apply HN threads.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#279

Post by SherlockeHolmes »

kevin wrote: post #80
jdp23 wrote: post #70

Interesting idea, and kudos to you for kicking off the discussions to refine the approach - and for the "be nice" rule, which I think is very important here. A question: What are the situations where you think it will benefit people more to go the open route than applying directly? One way of thinking about it is advantages of "Apply HN": getting significant calibration and feedback on an idea that improves it whethe…

Honestly, we don't really know. We have very few hypotheses around this idea. We're just insanely curious to see what will happen. As far as the disadvantage you mention, that happens when you launch. That happens when you start getting press. That happens when you announce a large funding round. That happens when you're doing well. In our experience, startups are far more likely to die by suicide than by homicide. I…

I agree. Even if someone was to take my idea and start working on it concurrently, I as the originator of the idea have an inherent advantage.

If the founders are resilient and resourceful, then the strength of their idea is more decisive than competition in determining success.

Re: Ask HN: Pick startups for YC to fund

#280

Post by tptacek »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #268
dang wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, perhaps I misread the GP. But I agree that there's no way to control for all these factors. It would drive one mad to try and probably make consensus harder to arrive at.

It's worth trying to figure out something as it's a problem here enough people occasionally leave. It's basically mob or follow-the-leader mentality that results in reflexive downvotes on hot-topics when dissenting comments appear. I encountered this when I got into battles with tptacek not knowing he was No 1 or whatever here. I barely care about the popularity or politics as I focus on getting right info to right p…

This doesn't surprise me. There are people who follow my comments (just like there are about 10 people I follow). I've commented on many-days-old stories before and seen those comments voted on immediately.

So, while I think this does happen, I wouldn't chalk it up to a mob mentality; it's just that arguing with me, or 'patio11, or 'edw519, or 4-5 other accounts is likely to get your comment seen more quickly than arguing with someone else.

As for me downvoting you: I try not to downvote people I'm debating with directly at all, but you have the misfortune of arguing with me exclusively on a topic that I have profesionally strong opinions about. :)

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