[sovnwnt]

> Upload a founder video

Yeah definitely not. No thank you.

It's a great filter though. I am exactly the type of person who you don't want to see a video of, and therefore perfectly unsuited for YCombinator/SV/etc. which are all about personality.

[dang]

I totally get it as video is anathema to me too, but I think you're drawing exactly the wrong conclusion. YC doesn't care about any social commonplaces (personality, dress, etc.). They just want a sense of who you are as a potential founder. A lot of what might be considered 'negatives' in more conventional contexts aren't negative at all in the YC context, and might actually help an application.

p.s. YC is definitely not "all about personality" - I don't know where you got that idea, but the spectrum of YC founders is about as wide as you could get that way. There are extraverted outgoing types and introverted awkward types and pretty much everyone else too.

[sovnwnt]

You make a compelling argument as usual.

Even with all the questions, it's not a lot of effort, you're right. I apply for the diversity visa every year and that's more work for maybe, oh about the same chance of success?

> I don't know where you got that idea

Admittedly I haven't seen a large percentage, but of the founders I've seen speak, all of them had a certain charm. Granted, there's a bias where people with these personalities put themselves out to be seen.

[dang]

> but of the founders I've seen speak, all of them had a certain charm. Granted, there's a bias where people with these personalities put themselves out to be seen.

Correct, and also, people change over time as they learn and become more comfortable in a role. The difference in some founders' confidence even between the start and end of a YC batch (only 3 months) can be striking. That isn't true of everyone, of course, and it's fine if it's not.