Ask HN: Advice for my YC application?

2 points by siddharthgdas 9 years ago | 4 comments

Hi! I am 20 y/o programmer from india applying to YC for S17 and looking for some advice on my application. Would you mind taking 10 mins out to read it give some feedback?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FCG5c-X9jH9jCFSTdxiqEjMmwPybyCcPiTBNNYJwres/edit?usp=sharing

yosamino 9 years ago |

> People can pay to view other people's shortcomings.

Don't you think this will discourage potential users? What's my incentive to use this service, if you are basically going to sell my fears about myself for profit?

siddharthgdas 9 years ago | |

Thanks for the feedback. That's the exact reason why i posted the it as askhn. I am apprehensive too, want to know what the community thinks.

anilgulecha 9 years ago |

I think if you can allow creating of anonymous personas, and also tackle the spam problem, you'll have gold. No one wants to put their name onto a platform where their shortcomings are tracked. But I would happily create an anonymous persona to get feedback that helps me make my life and behavior better. I think holds true for most people.

Hence the nut you've to track is allowing pseudonymous persona's but not allowing spam/riff-raff, and building a genuine community of helpers. Helping anonymous strangers is an inherently altruistic endeavour so you have to figure out the carrot and stick factors for both sides.

Emc2fma 9 years ago |

"Linkedin+tinder prioritizing character"

This isn't super clear and left me confused.