[rdl]

No one really cares about the video quality for this; a webcam is fine, and a phone is probably fine. And overproduced video is horrible. I'd just stick to making sure the audio can be easily understood, and making sure it is about a minute; if there is a lot of wasted time in the beginning, edit that out.

[clicks]

It seems (at least from your HN profile) that you're a founder, not a YC partner, but yet you're giving advice as if you have seen some of the videos that have been submitted by YC applicants. So I'm just curious now... are you or are you not a YC partner?

[rdl]

I'm not a partner at YC (as far as I know all the YC partners who were alumni were from fairly early batches, and also had exits; I have a YC funded company which is ongoing).

The relevant detail here is that I've had ~20-30 people/yr ask for advice on applications, and aside from "be concise and straightforward; emphasize your strengths in every answer; be clear and don't assume people will have the patience to decode some rhetorical trick", "wtf, I can't see your video because you left it as 'private'" and "I can't actually hear your audio" are common.