[mattmanser]

Youre confusing concepts. You can skip an incubator like YC while still intending to not bootstrap. There is also no such thing as a 'YC-style' startup, YC was set up to target startups, so can't have invented them.

YC used to only give a tiny amount of equity that any vaguely successful person could match ($16k?). It filled the gap between starting and series A.

Bootstrapping means avoiding getting a series A.

Basically, YC didn't invent startups, it invented a new, more accessible route to starting one.