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Great post, love the short Do/Don't format. I would add "How will you get users." That's the single most important question Hajj had for us in the pre-interview Skype chat.
My partner and I got a YC interview last round (no luck this time, unfortunately) and one thing I'd like to caution is that if you have a "chicken and egg" situation ("Why would X users use your site until you have Y users and vice versa?) or an "established competitor" situation ("What's to stop Google from just adding a link to X product?"), you should have as close to bullet-proof responses to those questions as p…
Those are great questions. Similar questions I've asked during funding and M&A interviews; What do you not yet know, how are you developing information about that? This is knowing what is risky and what isn't. Some problems are just 'engineering' you do work and get them done. Others need 'new physics' which is code for an imagined but not yet designed feature or capability to work. Too many of the latter can be a re…
What about something as simple as the expected value proposition or 'why should we give a sh!t about your idea?' When I've pitched to angels, these seem to be a common theme.
Great subset, one has to hope people do not read this as "this is how you game the interview process" but rather as "reflect about your idea with these points in mind".
At least, thats what I get from this article and every single essay I've read that was authored by PG.
Please revise the title to conform to the guidelines ( http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ) by removing the "5" at the start — thank you.