

Did YC News increase the awareness of Y Combinator Funding? - transburgh

 I was wondering how the viral effect of YC News had on the application process? More applications? Better/Worse applications? I was not aware of Y Combinator before the news feature. It is a good marketing case study. Compliments to the the YC team on the tactic (even if it was not the original purpose). 
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pg
I think most hackers already knew about YC before we made the news site, so I
doubt it made us better known. Our plan of using news.yc as a way to detect
talent did work, though. Even as early as this spring it helped us decide who
to invite for interviews.

YC isn't a fund, btw.

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theremora
the YC site uses the term funding.

Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding early stage
startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from
idea to company.

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pg
The title of the link you're seeing is different from what it was. Originally
it described YC as a fund, which it isn't.

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walesmd
Definitely yes. I had heard of YCombinator (look, they invested in another
company), but I've never been interested in applying for the program. News
gives me a reason to visit this domain, or at least have it in my feed reader,
and provides a lot of useful links - even for us non-startuppers.

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rwebb
My impression is that techcrunch et al. have increased the awareness of YC
lately...unclear if YC pr is responsible for the increased coverage or if it
is viral/result of YC companies doing well...

How is YC not a fund? No LPs?

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davidw
I think to really get any meaningful data, you'd have to do regressions to get
rid of other things, like the startups becoming widely known (reddit, for
instance), time passing, and so on. I don't think you can, in other words.

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transburgh
This is not a scientific study. Just my own curiosity.

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sbraford
Yes.

When I meet a developer who hasn't heard of YC or news.YC, I look at them like
a Betamax.

