[halkazzar]

Well, that's truth and deeply depends on aims of startups. Sometime, as I see, people try out their Ideas and themselves. As Paul Graham mentioned in following post: "15% of teams change their idea after being accepted."

http://www.ycombinator.com/atyc.html

So, perhaps, if funding is not the case with your startup, I would think about strong media coverage after participating in YC. Which can lead to more customers.