Yeah, good idea. I'd also think about finding common goals and pursuits between people. So go through Show HN, find similar projects and connect people that way. You might have to build profiles on people and see their skills and location from Who Wants to be Hired posts. What are they reading? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49893157 Favorite books? Imagine that, building profiles to help people rather than serve them ads! Even analyzing writing styles could be useful.
Another interesting area to look at is similar tastes in music. A lot of info on Soundcloud about people's likes and tastes. Maybe try to bring musicians together for music production? Can learn a lot about someone just through their profile pic. That'd be pretty interesting too: who is presenting themselves in very similar ways to another person? Are they currently releasing music? What genres? What instruments do they play?