[dbrush]

I was a single founder in the summer '07 YC batch. I don't know why they selected me precisely, but having the ability to say, 'It's friggin Photoshop online' certainly didn't seem to hurt. I was also willing to bring on a co-founder (which I eventually did) after I'd built and launched (a process that took about two years working by myself and happened before I ever applied).

The goal is value. I guess... build something to build it, get it launched, and try to build value (because you believe you can, not because you think you can convince someone to believe you can). Building something to reach an artificial deadline is probably not the shortest path to creating real value.