1) There is no downside to applying beyond a bit of time, as you can always apply again. 2) AFAIK PG & co don't judge people on how far they've come but how so

1) There is no downside to applying beyond a bit of time, as you can always apply again. 2) AFAIK PG & co don't judge people on how far they've come but how solid the team is and what they've been able to do with the time given. They also don't seem to compare teams to other teams. If they happen to get 100% really solid teams in the last day of interviews, I highly doubt they'd say "we can only accept half of them because we don't have much space". 3) Who would you rather have: someone who took 3 years to create a product that 10,000 people use, or someone who built a solid prototype in a few months? Time is not always a plus.