My cofounder and I applied and were accepted with exactly zero connections to the Valley and effectively no YC connections (one friend of a friend was a YC foun

My cofounder and I applied and were accepted with exactly zero connections to the Valley and effectively no YC connections (one friend of a friend was a YC founder, but we didn't end up getting in touch until after we'd gotten in). I doubt that's the norm, but we're proof that it's possible. If we'd been smarter/less naive, we'd have cold-emailed one of the dozens of YC founders who publicly state they'll chat with people who are applying.