For that reason one of my most valuable memories is how lame Facebook sounded to me when I first heard about it.
This is partially why I think the YC application process is flawed. If you think about the idea for 20 seconds or so, what good is that? You may be wasting 20 seconds trying to rectify an idea you can't logically determine to be good.
A better process is a continuous one: you'll get an excellent stream of actual data and not just made up answers to "What is your best non-computer hack?" The YC partners could start out the morning looking at their Twitter-like feed of what have potential startup teams done today? At some point a partner would say, "We have to pull these guys into our next batch."
Incidentally, this would be better for startup teams looking to break the threshold of project to startup. By updating this proposed feed, the startup feels obligated to not only continue to put out data, but good data. Eventually the team would realize they can't cut it or they will keep mutating teams or changing ideas until one has great prospects.
EDIT: I'll buy someone a smile and a coke if the above hypothesis is implemented and tested. The following is exactly why: Instagram is the one we'd most likely have missed. It all depends when we'd talked to them. They were a kind of overnight success in traffic. If we'd talked to them even a day after they launched we would certainly have said yes. But before that it might have seemed too speculative.[1]
This is partially why I think the YC application process is flawed. If you think about the idea for 20 seconds or so, what good is that? You may be wasting 20 seconds trying to rectify an idea you can't logically determine to be good.
A better process is a continuous one: you'll get an excellent stream of actual data and not just made up answers to "What is your best non-computer hack?" The YC partners could start out the morning looking at their Twitter-like feed of what have potential startup teams done today? At some point a partner would say, "We have to pull these guys into our next batch."
Incidentally, this would be better for startup teams looking to break the threshold of project to startup. By updating this proposed feed, the startup feels obligated to not only continue to put out data, but good data. Eventually the team would realize they can't cut it or they will keep mutating teams or changing ideas until one has great prospects.
EDIT: I'll buy someone a smile and a coke if the above hypothesis is implemented and tested. The following is exactly why: Instagram is the one we'd most likely have missed. It all depends when we'd talked to them. They were a kind of overnight success in traffic. If we'd talked to them even a day after they launched we would certainly have said yes. But before that it might have seemed too speculative.[1]
[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4497561