References in the application

[britmark]

If you refer to an article in your y comb app (e.g., in the ‘how do you know there’s a need for your idea’ section) is it best to cite the article?

I’m in two minds because:

Y comb loves a citation to external articles on their blogs
It’s a good idea to back up your claims.

But at the same time they’re going thru 1000s of applications and I doubt they will click into any external reading nor should we expect them to.

My thinking is I could explain the article in enough (v concise) detail that they don’t need to click into it to see what I mean but it’s there if they want to confirm my claims

Thoughts??

 

[elijah2017]

@britmark From what I understand, this question ("How do you know there's a need for your idea?") is about what you did to prove people want what you're building. It could be a waitlist of potential users, people using your product, revenues, etc. It is anything you and your team did to show there's a real need. Citing an article you didn't write or that is not referencing your own work is not helpful but that's my view.

 

[turtledove13]

@britmark What's your field? I think it's fine to link to outside sources, but they better be pretty darn amazing. Like a market research report from S&P or something that makes a slam-dunk case for the need for and potential of your product. Not a tweet or opinion piece, no matter how influential the writer is. If you're leaning on the latter, then you need to be able to talk about the work you've done to verify the market.

 

[babytomato]

@britmark Sometimes, we overthink, keep it simple, and show them if you have users on the wait list, paying customers... we are applying too, and that's how we'll answer

 

[britmark]

Thank you everyone! Very helpful answers. We ended up not including it after your advice. Makes sense to keep it to evidence of people using the product.