[vdibart]

Not taking it personally, no worries. Just want to make sure the FI doesn't get disrespected. Realize I might not be in the right place for that though :)

I certainly don't understand YC as well as I do FI, but I would think a lot of it comes down to how far along you are with your company. FI might be more valuable if you're less advanced - have a great idea, maybe a prototype but not a ton else. YC is probably more suited for companies that are further along. YC grads can feel free to correct me on that.

Whichever you choose I'd make sure you really, fully, totally, unequivocally understand as much about the details of the program as you can. As others have mentioned here and elsewhere, there are bound to be surprises no matter which program you enter. The goal is to minimize the impact of those surprises.

[pg]

YC is probably more suited for companies that are further along.

No; we've funded groups that had been launched for a year and others that didn't even have an idea yet. Our threshold is simply whether the founders are ready to work full time on the company.

[vdibart]

Thanks for the clarification pg.

I would think that it'd be pretty uncommon to be accepted at the pre-idea stage though, no? I mean, seed funding for literally nothing more than a good team is pretty tough to come by. For FI that's actually pretty common (at least in my experience).

[pg]

It's quite common with us. A lot of the companies we fund do something different than they applied with.