[kellco]

That's an interesting question. The other things I'd like to know is, "Why did those startups fail? Was there anything the founders/employees could have done to save it? What did they learn from their experiences."

If it's a marketplace, marketing, or product problem then ok. But if the team fell apart, if there were internal conflicts, or if someone didn't pull their weight...then those might not be good candidates to bring on board to other startups no matter how smart they are. What bothers me about some teams are, there are people that you can tell have no initiative, they do the minimum of what's required, and they don't double check to make sure that everything works and invariably something minor comes up to trip up the project that could have been prevented. I hope I never get those people on my team, if I do they need to go.

Another thing I'd also like to know is, "How many of those people from failed YC startups founded another startup or did they just go back to a job or to being an employee at another startup?"

[malandrew]

Those are basically the same types of questions I have as well. I reckon there is a lot to be learned from the YC network of startups. It's a great space for a grad student at Stanford's or Berkeley's iSchools to investigate.