I've been following YC fairly closely since their start and have never come across anything that gave the impression that they would accept "any team good enoug

I've been following YC fairly closely since their start and have never come across anything that gave the impression that they would accept "any team good enough". Think about it - they have very limited resources - particularly of time, and there is just no way they could take on every team "good enough" unless they grew their staff and created a large investment organization, which is not what they're trying to do. Even big VC's and angels don't accept "any team good enough" - they just don't have the time and it wouldn't make sense for them to spread themselves so thin. You said: "That would mean, incidentally, that anyone who was rejected this round might have been accepted in the last, or might be accepted in the next one." Yes, that is exactly right according to what Paul said.