Are there any publicly viewable videos from companies that made it into yc? I want to see what constitutes a good video.
Not that I know of, but you could ask Scott and maybe they'd post theirs. (Actually it's still up, so all he'd have to do is make the page public.)
Here's ours - as is pretty obvious, it was super informal and just us yacking at the camera. As noted in the (just updated) text there -- this is from 7 months ago, so doesn't correspond to our current plans in many ways, but gives you an idea for the sort of video that it was.
Hm. I don't know if that will help at all. I figure the best way to make those videos is to do what you yourself would do, and to be as natural as possible.
If you don't do that then all that will happen is that YC will receive a bunch of cookie-cutter videos, and that's exactly what you do not want.
You want your video to present you in a way that matches you, not to present you in a way that matched someone else.
Here's one from Divvyshot (I assume it was sent with their application): http://vimeo.com/2044353
Great, now I have to worry about making thoughtful comments on here.
Um... Try again :D
:)
All I'll say is don't try too hard to make "thoughtful comments", and just be yourself. Sometimes the best insights and comments are what you make instinctively.
you know, sometimes i wonder if my votes are being aggregated, too....it seems unlikely, but everysooften i feel the urge to look over my shoulder... (ok i admit it! i voted up hristov for being candid and having good intentions.)
Your votes are being aggregated, that's what the karma counter is all about.
But 'high karma' as such shouldn't be a factor, it can mean many things. Average karma per comment would be a much better way of judging peoples contributions.
Re:On Applying to Y Combinator
by thegoleffect on Thursday October 01, 2009 @01:54AM
(#854402)
upvoted! yay
These are helpful insights. To the video point, as a film/video professional I'm keenly aware of the differences in the sort of information you can gather from a moving image versus text.
I'd be interested to ask you how much the addition of video closed the gap between your initial perceptions of a team based on the application versus when you met them in person.
1. I recognized wheels's username as someone who made thoughtful comments on HN.
2. Their description of what they were doing was much more specific.
3. We added the video in s2009, and we could tell from their video that they were good.