[dang]

Plenty of YC startups have been funded without traction. Thousands, surely. Many haven't even launched yet.

I don't know what the difference was in this particular case, but you're overgeneralizing from it, and underestimating how much emphasis YC places on founders (a lot).

YC funded Dropbox before it launched, because they believed in Drew—so that's a counterexample, no?

[hn_grenade]

I concur doctor dang. And well i blew that in my first YC application. Told how i got 50-100k euro seed, but didn't achieve anything after 1 year, and the review crew has seen me as one of those who just wants money but won't do anything to be worth it ever since, so hasn't considered my 11 applications since then. Heavy sigh