You can tell a lot about the users of a site like this from the the links they post and their comments in discussions. There are a number of Reddit users that I know only by their usernames, but I know must be smart from the things they've written. We're counting on the same phenomenon to help us decide who to fund.
In our new online application form, you literally apply through your Y Combinator account, so we'll recognize usernames that have been thoughtful contributors to the site. I'm not saying we'll simply fund whoever has the most karma; that would encourage abuses. But we will be more likely to fund people we know are smart from their submissions and comments.
We're more likely to fund people we know are smart from their submissions and comments on Hacker News. In fact, that was one of the main reasons we wrote it: so that we could get to know people before they applied.
You know, I read that before, and all I can say is that I hope that's just a tactic to get people to be civil and thoughtful on Hacker News, or maybe to drive a bit of traffic. It seems like a profoundly bad strategy for vetting startup teams.
I'm not going to presume if vetting-by-karma is true, but I know that the text you pasted above says nothing about karma except to point out how it is tangential.
But we will be more likely to fund people we know are smart from their submissions and comments.
I might be wrong, but it seems since the partners of YC are demonstrably rational human beings that they would do more than determine someone's smartness based on a score that could represent one of dozens of different things. It's like determining someone's contribution to humanity based on their savings account balance. I think they know better.
Karma is used as part of the YC-applicant vetting process. http://ycombinator.com/announcingnews.html
You can tell a lot about the users of a site like this from the the links they post and their comments in discussions. There are a number of Reddit users that I know only by their usernames, but I know must be smart from the things they've written. We're counting on the same phenomenon to help us decide who to fund.
In our new online application form, you literally apply through your Y Combinator account, so we'll recognize usernames that have been thoughtful contributors to the site. I'm not saying we'll simply fund whoever has the most karma; that would encourage abuses. But we will be more likely to fund people we know are smart from their submissions and comments.
http://ycombinator.com/w2009.html
We're more likely to fund people we know are smart from their submissions and comments on Hacker News. In fact, that was one of the main reasons we wrote it: so that we could get to know people before they applied.