Well, they're supposed to know the startup beyond the i-saw-you-on-hacker-news level. Be able to argue why it's a good startup and be able to introduce them...

Well, they're supposed to know the startup beyond the i-saw-you-on-hacker-news level. Be able to argue why it's a good startup and be able to introduce them... But yeah.. I can see a bunch of Googlers bending the rules and reaching out to unknown startups they happen to see in HN. After all, there are incentives for both the startup and the Googler.