Bingo! YC abhors any startup that wouldn't be started anyway without their investment — like Mark Twain's refusal to join any club that would have him as a member. In this round a huge chunk of the startups were already founded and taking revenue / profitable before joining YC.
"We invest in people, not ideas" is a hell of a depressing way to get rejected.
>"We invest in people, not ideas" is a hell of a depressing way to get rejected.
Not really - PG isn't a god, so what he can reject you on is an application, a talk and a video and hope that this is a good enough indication about whether or not you are worth investing in.
I doubt he get it accurate more than say 60% of the time, but because YC is so popular, enough people sign-up who are a no-brainer (Sam Altman, etc) that it doesn't matter much.
But for those of you who have been rejected, there is a good chance that YC would accept you, had they known you.
PG / YC rejected me / my startup idea but I made it anyway and its starting to get some traction. YC / TechStars etc.. are just programs that help you not make you.
If you don't take the initiative and get started on your own then why would they assume you have the tenacity to keep going in the face of constant opposition. There are lots of problems that you run into while running a startup and many days really suck. How can you make it through this if you are not even willing to move past a YC rejection?
"We invest in people, not ideas" is a hell of a depressing way to get rejected.