[joshuakelly]

I cannot strongly enough discourage you from trying to do YC solo (been there, done that, obviously do not regret it - but would do it differently 2x).

> I signed-up for and graduated from Startup School. We applied for YC and were not accepted. I continued with Startup School for a second term. Applied again. Nothing. We likely applied about three times, if not four. I honestly don't remember. This included pivots. I wasn't trying to do the same thing and expect different results

If you've applied with the same company, and that company's trajectory hasn't changed between the applications then that's pretty valuable heuristic that it's likely not right for YC. YC's model requires power law style returns. Massive, mega, huge 1/500 hits. Your company could grow substantially. It could 10x - that's not enough. YC needs 10,000x returns and momentum/trajectory/team is really the only material information available to them.

Once you've been around for a while, all of sudden it's no longer unknown what your trajectory will be - you have one that you have to bend. And that's a super valuable heuristic for any investor. If the company really has hit an inflection point during the period you were applying, well that's YC's loss (of which there are many, and of course there will be many more).