Why do people say they got funded as if that's it. Where did the OP say or imply this? In fact he even says this is only the beginning of the journey. FWIW, I

Why do people say they got funded as if that's it. Where did the OP say or imply this? In fact he even says this is only the beginning of the journey. FWIW, I took his post as an inspirational thing. The demographic of YC applicants seems to skew towards younger people, sometimes with a bit too much pg-love. Getting rejected by your "idol" can be very discouraging, especially to an applicant who may not have gone through such a rejection before (eg: they've been mostly accepted to the schools and colleges of their choice) and/or has not had a lot of other career experience so their "one big dream" was just seemingly crushed. IMO, I think it would be really cool for pg to create a roster list someplace of YC rejects that got alternate sources of funding and/or went to other ventures deemed successful. It could help some of the rejected applicants understand that YC is one option, not the option.