An excellent set of tips from a YC startup that we've been using for our product. The only thing I didn't see was Aaron's opinion on whether or not comments on Hacker News had helped anyone in his group stand out. I always check the karma score of co-founders to try and figure that one out.
No one looks at actual karma numbers. It's more that if I see a name I recognize from HN, I pay special attention. E.g. if patio11 applied, I'd definitely notice, just like a lot of HN readers probably would.
Thanks, that means a lot to me. I won't be applying this time because I don't think that I could promise YC a decent shot at getting as much value from me as I got from y'all, but who knows what the future holds.
I don't think a community has ever had a man-crush on a member, like we all do on Patrick. They should teach him as an example in future "Personal Branding" courses.
Harj touched on it briefly last night at the NYC meetup, but I think that HN karma points are looked at as a bonus, rather than part of the criteria. Like all other aspects of the application process, it's just another chance for YC to get to know more about you.
When we applied, we had (and still have by most measures) low karma scores. But we also had a working product with actual users, so that worked in our favor.
