>most businesses do far more than you can see from the outside
It’s enough that they made it into YC to conclude that there is a lot more going inside.
They filled out an application and had to have many milestones hit before they were accepted...
Regarding focusing on a niche it was a lesson I learned when I was filtering startups for investments I wrote about about my lesson before and how dumb I felt for passing on startups because they were too niche
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507122
> They filled out an application and had to have many milestones hit before they were accepted...
Plenty of people get into YC with nothing more than an idea.
Getting into YC is sort of like getting into Harvard. Yeah, lots of people there are impressive, but not all of them. YC doesn't have a perfect filter.
FWIW I got into YC without anything remotely resembling a business, and I don't think I'm that impressive. My company failed almost immediately.
I would claim it also doesn't want a perfect filter. Maybe the team is great and they expect the (future) pivot leading to success. Also failures are cheap for YC, they live on their successes.
Sure, but YC has definitely diluted its brand over the years. I don't think most people hold it in the same regard as they did a decade ago. I certainly don't.
I get why they do it. It's an easy way to make more money. But the average YC founder today is nothing like the average YC founder a decade ago. They will argue otherwise, but I disagree based on personal experience. And everybody knows YC was really started by pg (I am fully aware of the entire history), and he hasn't been actively involved for years.
It’s enough that they made it into YC to conclude that there is a lot more going inside.
They filled out an application and had to have many milestones hit before they were accepted...
Regarding focusing on a niche it was a lesson I learned when I was filtering startups for investments I wrote about about my lesson before and how dumb I felt for passing on startups because they were too niche https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507122