[tsenkov]

The status of my application on https://apply.ycombinator.com/ changed and I haven't received an email. You should check that out.

I wasn't selected for an interview, but I honestly am not too bothered with this. Just woke up from an amazing 8h sleep and even though I have worked every single day for the last 130+, I feel great! I used to be very emotional about rejection (just YC has turned me down 2 times before), but then I was considering every attempt as potentially THE one opportunity I have. Once I realized this is what I am going to do for the rest of my life (building startups) - the anxiety is almost gone.

No matter if my current product fails or not - I'm already a good builder, I'll get better at picking ideas, I'll get even better at telling my story and I'll apply for S19, W20, S20, W21, S21... and however many times I need to until I become a part of this amazing network of people (or until I manage to get a similar level of quality of connections on my own) and so should you, if you are serious about being an entrepreneur.

Good luck to everyone. Now back to work!

[jacquesm]

Why continue to apply without simply building a company instead? Looks like you have the #1 requirement down: tenacity, now you could channel it towards something immediately productive instead of continuing to play the lottery until you win. Note that with your actual company you could still apply to YC.

[tsenkov]

What made you think that I am not building a company/product? :)

As I said, I am moving forward and will continue applying for every batch of YC, no matter what I am working on (whether it's the same product or something new).

Sounds like you consider YC to be valuable only for idea-stage projects, but that's not true. There are companies that have raised money and still go through YC.

P.S. Viewing your application at YC as "lottery" would likely not get you even an interview. It's not a lottery. My application wasn't strong-enough and that is why it didn't get picked.