Scoble talks with Paul Graham (opens in new tab)

(scobleizer.com)

39 pointsakshat15y ago9 comments

9 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

rriepe15y ago· 2 in thread

Anyone else think it's interesting that he described the Y Combinator application process as "holding a contest"?

I guess it fits the technical definition, but it sure makes it sound like PG is drawing names from a hat.

The New York Marathon is a contest. Contests are not necessarily lotteries. If there are winners and losers it's definitely a contest. And with Y Combinator there's usually about 30 "winners" and more than 1,000 "losers."

rriepe15y ago

Like I said, you're technically right. But nobody describes Harvard admissions as some contest that they hold. YCombinator is a lot closer to that than the New York Marathon.

2 more replies

olivolive15y ago· 2 in thread

The worst YC interviews being the ones where people cannot explain what their start-up is going to do is interesting. The same thing happens when talking about past projects in technical interviews. The worst candidates cannot clearly explain what the project was, or give specific details about their work. I'm never sure if they are actually confused about it or just aren't good at explaining, but either way it is not a good sign for how it would be to work with them.

bambax15y ago

A useful follow-up question should have been "how are startups invited to do an interview when they're not able to describe what they're doing in two sentences?"

It does not seem possible that an application where the only description is "we're improving the way people interact" gets an invitation; so, when the interview is a little shallow (because of stress, etc.) why not start back from the application?

Or maybe the interview is not about the idea, but about the ability of the founders to communicate effectively...?

olivolive15y ago

That would have been a great follow-up question.

The application must have had a description of an idea that was good enough to get the interview. Probably the interview starts by asking the team to explain their plans in more detail. If after 5 minutes pg & friends don't have a clearer picture than what they got from the application, then is the team going to be able to explain the idea to customers (who are not going to give them 5 whole minutes)? Or be ready to pitch VCs in a few months (which is even more stressful)?

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