[blennon]

Young, charismatic ivy league grads are one specific instance of "the quality of founders ". Another, equally fitting one is, "A successful serial entrepreneur with an exit or two under their belt". Another, albeit seemingly outdated one is, "a former Googler". There are many ways a founder can be of high quality that are not ivy league grads.

[algirau]

Being a YC founder, I am not an Ivy league grad but a PhD drop-out who happens to have the combination of domain expertise, technical understanding, and charm.

Your poor conclusion of "ivy league grad" is ridiculous. If anything YC looks for doers not those that have.

[rdlecler1]

If you would have said you were a high school dropout and poor communicator this would have made a point but PhD + charm is phenotypically similar to an attractive ivy grad so you’re kind of proving the point.

[algirau]

"phenotypically similar"

Please be aware this is your bias, your POV. You can't use it to prove your own point.

PhD is nothing similar to your connotation of Ivy League grad. The former requires years of sacrifice, ruined relationship, and missed experiences to master an esoteric part of science. The latter has the connotation of privilege.