@zedrick There is an unbelievable amount of pessimism in this post and comment.
What you don’t know is the % of people who apply who have those credentials.
I got into YC, no education, not California/nyc US location. Immigrant.
And you know companies do get in.
Is it not also true that because YC is based in California more people apply from California because doing YC is far less of a burden?
Is it also not true that California has a high % of the text talent in the us? And culturally the Bay Area is more encouraging of startups.
Stop seeing this as a probability thing. Just because they get 20k applicants, and accept 200 doesn’t make your chances 1%.
Everything you do affects your chances. Your application, your interview.
Now, if you’re product/ founder alignment is off, fix that.
If you explained what you’re building poorly, fix that.
YC has a sense for founders who are looking for someone to blame when things go wrong. And those aren’t the founders they want. Because founders who push and push for solutions don’t have time to work out the 100s of ways this isn’t their fault.
You don’t even know if you’ve been rejected yet.
Be more optimistic. In general I mean.
Review your application, do you come across pessimistic in that. Do you say your $10bn rev competitor is shit?