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> If I had to choose between my kids getting good grades and working on ambitious projects of their own, I'd pick the projects. And not because I'm an indulgent

> If I had to choose between my kids getting good grades and working on ambitious projects of their own, I'd pick the projects. And not because I'm an indulgent parent, but because I've been on the other end and I know which has more predictive value. When I was picking startups for Y Combinator, I didn't care about applicants' grades. But if they'd worked on projects of their own, I wanted to hear all about those. That's quite rich coming from pg considering that the YC application explicitly states that they may ask for transcripts if you are still in school.

bko 5y ago
Why does everything written on the internet immediately trigger such a dunk reflex in some? Is your comment productive to the ideas presented in this article?
TeMPOraL 5y ago
pg wrote, "When I was picking startups for Y Combinator". Did the YC application state that back then? Also, is it known how YC is actually evaluating those? Myself, if I were trying to pick people to fund, I'd consider grades a weak signal, and apply a concave, ^-shaped function to it, i.e. bad grades are obviously bad, but if the grades are all perfect, this may indicate lack of independent thinking.
tomhoward 5y ago
Where does it say this? I can't find any mention of anything like this on the application form or FAQs. https://apply.ycombinator.com/app/edit https://apply.ycombinator.com/app/edit https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/ https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/
- ampdepolymerase 5y ago
  Under your personal profile: > Schools, Degrees (including field of study), and Years of Graduation
  - tomhoward 5y ago
    Interesting. I haven't heard of anyone actually being asked for this. Perhaps it's because they're so big now that they get a lot of fraudulent applications, so they reserve the right to check that people have really done what they say they've done. I.e., it's just to ward off bullshitters. It may also be needed for applicants proposing ideas based on deep tech and/or bleeding-edge research, in which it would be hard for the YC interviewers to be sure the applicant really knows enough about the field to deliver what they claim they can. Given that the thing YC was being dunked on over last week was for not doing enough due diligence on a startup trying to build an "MMO metaverse" [1] that has been unable to deliver, I guess there are still cases where they need to verify capabilities to some degree. That said, it's still very much part of the YC ethos that founders who are self-motivated to work on interesting and ambitious projects in their own time is the best indicator of potential. They'd never make a funding decision based substantially on someone's academic record. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27319457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27319457

bko 5y ago

Why does everything written on the internet immediately trigger such a dunk reflex in some? Is your comment productive to the ideas presented in this article?

TeMPOraL 5y ago

pg wrote, "When I was picking startups for Y Combinator". Did the YC application state that back then? Also, is it known how YC is actually evaluating those? Myself, if I were trying to pick people to fund, I'd consider grades a weak signal, and apply a concave, ^-shaped function to it, i.e. bad grades are obviously bad, but if the grades are all perfect, this may indicate lack of independent thinking.

tomhoward 5y ago

Where does it say this? I can't find any mention of anything like this on the application form or FAQs. https://apply.ycombinator.com/app/edit https://apply.ycombinator.com/app/edit https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/ https://www.ycombinator.com/faq/

ampdepolymerase 5y ago
Under your personal profile: > Schools, Degrees (including field of study), and Years of Graduation
- tomhoward 5y ago
  Interesting. I haven't heard of anyone actually being asked for this. Perhaps it's because they're so big now that they get a lot of fraudulent applications, so they reserve the right to check that people have really done what they say they've done. I.e., it's just to ward off bullshitters. It may also be needed for applicants proposing ideas based on deep tech and/or bleeding-edge research, in which it would be hard for the YC interviewers to be sure the applicant really knows enough about the field to deliver what they claim they can. Given that the thing YC was being dunked on over last week was for not doing enough due diligence on a startup trying to build an "MMO metaverse" [1] that has been unable to deliver, I guess there are still cases where they need to verify capabilities to some degree. That said, it's still very much part of the YC ethos that founders who are self-motivated to work on interesting and ambitious projects in their own time is the best indicator of potential. They'd never make a funding decision based substantially on someone's academic record. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27319457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27319457