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Ask YC: What is our company going to make?

13 points by marcosbeto ↗ HN
While working on YC application question "What is your company going to make?", I've got in a mess that makes me rewrite my answer every morning:

In our answer, is better to focus on the proposition value that our startup is generating for our users/customers or is also important describe how our algorithm works?

For example, if Google was a startup applying for YC, would they explain how the search algorithm works? Or a better answer would only describe how Google is the best search engine for users?

9 comments

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rpedela
It is a business so the proposition value for users is more important. Algorithm is pretty much irrelevant for users and it could easily change over time.
pg
A new search engine that gets better results by considering which other pages link to a page, using what anchor text, rather than simply the text on the target page.
ramoq
How about this PG: We're making Project Management software that works right in your inbox. Works across all email clients/devices/platforms. No installation required.
seiji
That doesn't really explain why you're "better" or "worth it." Lots of people use email as a Basecamp interface.
marcosbeto
Thanks for the answer, PG! So, would something like the text below be understandable and enough for the answer?

"An API that predicts the buying power of a person based on the address where he/she lives, helping companies to better target products according to the financial situation of their users."

pdx
This has been a SEO strategy for a long time, as we were told that this was something that Google used.

How well it actually works in real life, however, is something I've been suspicious of, as I felt that it relied on a level of sophistication from linking sites that was generally not present.

We're all hoping they do something like this ...

    All of us here at MegaCoolBlog like to 
    <a href="mycoolspeakersite/apple">buy apple speakers</a>
    with our extra money.
However, they invariably, instead will write something like this, which is just as helpful to their readers, but probably not to a search engine.

    All of us here at MegaCoolBlog like to buy 
    apple speakers at <a href="mycoolspeakersite/apple">this site</a> 
    with our extra money.
This really defeats the whole "anchor text" approach to web crawling, since most of the anchor text will say "this site", "click here", etc.

In fact, anybody that actually uses the anchor text in a manner that is actually useful to search engines is probably doing so on purpose, which may make good anchor text almost a vote against a site, rather than a vote for it, since their attention to this detail that helps search engines but not really actual readers, is suspect.