>(A cynical person would say that this philosophy is merely to incentivize companies to apply to only YC. I don't think that's the case and take Sam at his word

>(A cynical person would say that this philosophy is merely to incentivize companies to apply to only YC. I don't think that's the case and take Sam at his word.) I wish more people would apply this type of skepticism to tech investment in general. I think there's a lot of shady stuff going on that doesn't really get discussed -- imo, there are significant problems with the conventional startup investment model. That said, in this case, I think it makes sense to say "Why wasn't that help sufficient? Were they really bad accelerators or are you just wasting money?" I also think it's important to recognize that a lot of small local accelerators are just bad accelerators. Since the most competent people are often the most keenly aware of their inadequacies, it makes sense that some really good companies would go through a local "starter" accelerator program, feeling unworthy for YC out of the gate.