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Thanks for the tl;dr. Looking at ideas alone is maybe no enough. Most of the 'unicorn' startups started as a yet-another X and many others failed with the same

Thanks for the tl;dr. Looking at ideas alone is maybe no enough. Most of the 'unicorn' startups started as a yet-another X and many others failed with the same idea. If even experts like y combinator are playing a numbers game akin to a professional sports better or poker player (playing many hands, happy to lose some but win overall) then I don't think we'll ever find a clairvoyant who can predict if a single team or idea will be successful with any degree of accuracy.

Gys 11y ago
I assume YC mainly selects by first looking at the potential market and the team. The idea itself is less important. If 'only' the founders will stick together, work hard, learn fast and are adaptable. A good team (history, education, friendship, track record, focused, balanced, ...) in a potential huge market is worth the gamble. Ideally the setup (I guess) 'only' needs a lot of money to make the difference. Because money will then be available in large quantities.
- bro-stick 11y ago
  The team and what cool things they've built before. No idea applications are allowed now.