4 ms·
PG, just outsource the entire selection process to Mechanical Turk. It could be an experiment similar to that proposed in the finance classic "A Random Walk Dow
by sutro 17y ago
PG, just outsource the entire selection process to Mechanical Turk. It could be an experiment similar to that proposed in the finance classic "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" in which a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a stock page out-invests stock-picking experts. If Mechanical Turk picks a more successful crop of startups than the YCombinator average, you will have succeeded in making yourself completely redundant -- a worthy goal of any enlightened manager.
- byrneseyeview 17y agoThat only works until enough people start doing it. If you think that blind faith in quantitative factors beats a qualitative analysis of the effects of such faith, I can probably rustle up a few CDOs to sell you.
- kirubakaran 17y agoIf the applicants have a demo-ready B2C product, MTs [1] might even be consistently better at picking winners than YC, as the ultimate success depends on what MTs think, since MTs[2] approx= common people approx= customers. [1] Given enough MTs [2] Provided you restrict allowed MT demographic to match your target market
- bigbang 17y agoExcept that I believe (from YC terms) founders(and thier ability to persevere) are more important than thier ideas.
- kirubakaran 17y agoYes, which is why I said "If [they] have a demo-ready B2C product". YC is more early stage than what you can meaningfully show MT. Also: If users love your product (not just the idea) and pay, you have already demonstrated that you are a good team, and it is pretty easy to persevere when you have an increasing number of paying customers.