I've only worked at one startup (not yc); this was my experience too. We did lots of things that felt illogical (mainly related to what was prioritized) that I

I've only worked at one startup (not yc); this was my experience too. We did lots of things that felt illogical (mainly related to what was prioritized) that I understood to be based on showing investors what they would want to see. I'm not in a position to judge whether this was s good strategy (it wasn't for us). Personally, I'm not a fan of doing stuff just because it's what I think other people want to see, and if I was going to do that, I'd see no reason in having a startup. But no doubt there are big success stories of higher valuations by focusing on subscription only SaaS over other revenue, for example, and that may be the best way to go.