[lordnacho]

Since applications are opening tomorrow, it would be interesting to have a breakdown of interviews/acceptances based on various criteria: sole founder, has revenue, has user, etc...

It would allow prospective applicants to think about whether to apply, and hopefully keep the pile a manageable size for the people reading it.

[kevin]

Might be interesting, but the odds are the wrong way to think about this. Our wins come from the margins and we're looking for people to beat the odds. Most of the time we are surprised what ends up becoming big.

The numbers reveal that it's hard, but startups were ALWAYS hard. It's still the hardest thing I've ever done and most founders say the same. As far as YC is concerned, we don't want people to try to make this easier for us. One of the unique properties of YC is that we're trying to fund startups at scale and that means we don't want founders thinking about trying to make it manageable for us by bowing out. That's how I miss out on someone on the margins. It's one of the reasons why I love working on the YC software team to try and solve these challenges. So please, don't take away my work. :)

My favorite founders are filled with grit and perseverance. They don't calculate whether they can change the world before starting, they just start. So if you're ready to do something hard and feel like it's within you to change the world, please do apply...the numbers be damned.

[lordnacho]

Cool. You may have bought yourself 3 more applications then. I know a couple of other groups (aside from mine) who would benefit from this programme.

[wattle_park]

I have admired YC from afar, and wish to be part of it. After much reading on PG essays, Sam A interviews and YC demographic (young male founders), the odds are against us. Last week's NY Times article on Amazon culture, reminded me of YC. There are few similarities in concepts (work life balance, female discriminations). YCF was targeted for young founders (Sam's interview mentioned low burn rate). I understand that startup life is hard, but thinking that older people will find it harder to cope is very naive. There are lots of new innovations that can be developed with the experiences and knowledges from older founders. True that there have been some young extraordinary unicorns. But I am sure that experiences and knowledges can help to build a better long lasting businesses.

[gok2]

Yes the odds are wrong. But I think there are now too many good applications submitted with high growth or revenue that you guys will just skip through next Zuckerberg before his startup takes off. Your application method currently does not in anyway measure how much the users love the product, how big it can be. My thoughts are that YC at the moment is currently pretty blind to really great startups that haven't got traction yet.

Thats why fellowship experiment is going on, but I think you guys would have more time to read applications and "discover" great startups if you didn't encourage every steve-jobs-wannabe to apply.

just my 2 cents

[ugolino91]

respect

[denismars]

Agree with Kevin, this might encourage the wrong way of thinking when applying for YC.

Average people, that do average things, generally think in terms of the odds "what's my chance of this, or that.." when deciding about things.

Extraordinary people don't care about their chances, they do things because they are determined or obsessed about whatever it is they are doing, and stop at nothing to make it happen. These are the types of people that go on to build great companies and are the types of people YC generally looks for in the applications.

So if you're the type of person that doesn't care about the stats: you should definitely apply!