

Ask PG: what happens to past applications? - adrianwaj

Just wondering what happens to past applications (post selection), if you keep them, and when and why would they be accessed?
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pg
We do keep them. The main times we look at them are when someone reapplies,
and when a startup we rejected succeeds (to try to figure out how we missed
them). In the future we might try doing some text classification to predict
which applications will be good.

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mayank
> In the future we might try doing some text classification to predict which
> applications will be good.

In theory, that sounds a bit dangerous. If there was a good model for
predicting "success" from application text, then (a) the application can be
gamed, and (b) you'd probably be picking up "hot" areas that reflect the
business environment at the time more than the founders. YC seems to be more
about humans, which makes a strong case for using only human judgement.

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ecuzzillo
If they started using a text classifier instead of their brains to decide who
to interview, they would be a) stupid and b) quickly out of money.

a) and b) seem both overpoweringly unlikely, so I think more likely is that
they'll just look at the results to see if there's anything interesting about
them. (Wouldn't you like to see the results, just to see them? I would, and I
have no intention of applying to YC anytime soon.)

Initially I didn't understand why one would think they would be so stupid, and
then I remembered what almost every other entity that receives applications is
like.

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mayank
> Wouldn't you like to see the results, just to see them?

Perhaps as indicators of the business environment. For example, perhaps your
model would indicate that successful startups from the last few years would
include the word "social" in them. I doubt the implication goes the other way.

