An alternative hypothesis is that Graham has a bunch of tests/metrics that he uses to evaluate people on, and those tests/metrics work much better when people do not try to optimize for doing well on them
Isn’t it a bit odd that PG’s secret filters have the exact same output as those of staid, old, non-disruptive industrialists?
I.e., strongly optimizing for passing the tests of <Whitebread Funding Group> doesn’t seem to hurt you on YC’s metrics.
I’m not sure whether that’s true. One way to optimize for the tests of <Whitebread Funding Group> might be to go to a convention where you can get a change to pitch yourself in person to them. There are also other ways you can spend a lot of time to someone to endorse you to <Whitebread Funding Group>.
Spending that means that’s time not spent getting clear about vision, building product or talking to users and that will be negative for applying to VC.
Isn’t it a bit odd that PG’s secret filters have the exact same output as those of staid, old, non-disruptive industrialists?
I.e., strongly optimizing for passing the tests of <Whitebread Funding Group> doesn’t seem to hurt you on YC’s metrics.
I’m not sure whether that’s true. One way to optimize for the tests of <Whitebread Funding Group> might be to go to a convention where you can get a change to pitch yourself in person to them. There are also other ways you can spend a lot of time to someone to endorse you to <Whitebread Funding Group>.
Spending that means that’s time not spent getting clear about vision, building product or talking to users and that will be negative for applying to VC.