I'm in the exact same situation, bootstrapped a business from nothing to low six figures in the first year. My company is growing steadily and profitable, but i

I'm in the exact same situation, bootstrapped a business from nothing to low six figures in the first year. My company is growing steadily and profitable, but it's not really YC material and will never be a multimillion dollar breakout hit. I've got a couple high-growth startup worthy projects I might pursue but even then, I don't think I would apply to something like YC. Honestly, I think I'm at a later stage in terms of growth than YC requires. I'm already more than ramen profitable, and if I step it up and invest aggressively in growth for a webapp, I could probably raise an angel round fairly easily. YC is good if you only have an idea/prototype. If you have a product with paying customers, a proven business model, and established customer acquisition channels, the value of YC is significantly less compared to the growing value of the share you would be giving up. I would rather take the amount of equity YC asks for and divide it among my founding team/first employees.