[jamesmcintyre]

I wonder if it'd be an overall boon for Rebel Fund to open up their data sets?

Pros:

- The HN/YC community would almost certainly contribute new models with new types of signal.

- It's been proven many times that we mere mortals often unknowingly either bake-in our own biases into models or act on model output unaware that the models arrived at what could be undesirable, unintentional bias. Having more eyes on the data & methodology could not only prevent unintended biases but reveal signals that turn out to be much more insightful.

- If these signals point to real, underlying fundamentals (which they likely do) perhaps YC startups could benefit by learning from them or using them as guideposts.

Cons:

- Obviously Rebel Fund may risk giving away their competitive advantage.

- YC startups and applicants may over-optimize for these signals, distracting them from their unique challenges and overall end-user value generation.

On one hand it seems obvious for Rebel Fund to protect their IP- on the other hand what if more value could be generated for YC, YC startups and Rebel Fund by finding a way to introduce a cooperative positive feedback loop? Any loss of their slice could be outweighed by growing the pie. This is likely an oversimplification and naive to the many factors being weighed but it's an interesting space for thought!

(edited for formatting)