If all else were equal, and getting on Hacker News is a benefit and not a liability, then obviously YC should win. x+1>x. (This should be obvious.) That's not an interesting question to ask.
The question worth asking is, how can I disambiguate between scenarios like startups being attracted to YC because of presumably greater access to HN's front page and HN creating startup founders who then go with YC as the path of least resistance? How do I distinguish between various possible correlations and causations?
(I can think of one obvious approach: survey YC-funded projects and see how many founders were on HN before they were founders, and how many got on HN after becoming founders/YC-funded.)
I meant more in the scenario of: "our startup got into 4 different incubators, one of which is YC. They all have strengths and weaknesses, which roughly balance each other out. Is Hacker News the trump card?"
The question worth asking is, how can I disambiguate between scenarios like startups being attracted to YC because of presumably greater access to HN's front page and HN creating startup founders who then go with YC as the path of least resistance? How do I distinguish between various possible correlations and causations?
(I can think of one obvious approach: survey YC-funded projects and see how many founders were on HN before they were founders, and how many got on HN after becoming founders/YC-funded.)