I know Rene from the Forecast team and while I also had an initial negative response to the term "hack" everything they say in the application process makes sen

I know Rene from the Forecast team and while I also had an initial negative response to the term "hack" everything they say in the application process makes sense. Really, they just wrote a hack to find YC alumni, then see how they were connected to them to get some intros. I think trying to meet as many YC alumni as possible makes sense and if you can get a recommendation from one of them even better. In today's world of so many applicants and noise, I think showing your due diligence in talking to other YC alumni and then having them vouch for you is a bit like a pre-emptive interview process and valuable to the YC application review team. It's kind of like back at my days at Google when I would interview people and they didn't really even have much understanding of how Google made money (i.e. the online advertising business) I would almost have to immediately veto the candidate. Just my 2 cents.