For me, YC & the rest of the seed funds have seemed to light a fire under would-be entrepreneurs, which is great. It's opened up lots of doors and spurred on in

For me, YC & the rest of the seed funds have seemed to light a fire under would-be entrepreneurs, which is great. It's opened up lots of doors and spurred on innovation, which is the whole point. PG & co deserve a round of applause. But I find it bizarre and a bit upsetting that YC has become the be-all, end-all (at least on HN). There were great startups before YC and there will be great ones after YC. I'd like to echo the sentiment of others who have said the following: If getting into YC (or TechStars or whatever else there is) was part of your strategy, then you're probably not going to succeed. The value they add is immense, but they are by no means king makers. Many YC companies will fail, and some will succeed and those that succeed might just as well have done so without YC.