I think their point of an MVP in a week is not that you will be able to get customers signed up on that product but that you will be able to demonstrate somethi

I think their point of an MVP in a week is not that you will be able to get customers signed up on that product but that you will be able to demonstrate something to prospective customers and gain feedback. There is no way most worthwhile products could even be MVP'ed where a customer would use them within a week. I am sure there are some that have been, but my guess is they are the exception. One thing I have noticed, and this isn't a YC thing, but across the board with most accelerators and VC's talking to young founders is they give unrealistic ideas to what is possible to make founders push themselves and to think "outside the box". I don't fault this at all, the reason is simple, most people do not know what they are really capable of doing until they are really put to the test and pushed to perform. So if they tell you a week and you do something that gets feedback from prospective clients and in 30-60 days you have something clients can actually use that is pretty damn awesome. If they told you 60 days to start for an MVP most people/teams would flail around for the first few weeks failing to do anything that would move the ball forward in a meaningful way. Not out of a lack of desire to succeed but just human nature, you start thinking about too many things and then everything gets delayed and seems harder than it really is. If they "force" you to just start and do something that is better than over thinking the problem and getting stuck in analysis paralysis. Just my 2 cents. #edit a word for clarity