Wait what? This arguably can be seen as adding more value for entrepreneurs, while edging out angel investors. It only becomes potentially onerous depending on

Wait what? This arguably can be seen as adding more value for entrepreneurs, while edging out angel investors. It only becomes potentially onerous depending on the terms of the seed or later round, but the 500k means two people could go for a very long time without that second round and definitely without taking 50-100k checks from a couple of angels. If anything these terms are more competitive because the market is very competitive for startup funding and had to become at least seemingly more founder friendly. I recently put together an investor list because I'm building something that may see early stage funds as a target customer and I put together more than 100 early stage firms in about an hour of searching and that barely scratches the surface. You definitely don't need YC to get funding and if you have the right connections it may behoove you not to if you don't like YC's terms. YC is so far from the only game in town. The market is quite healthy.