You mean you got accepted into YC, then a few investors heard about you, and decided to fund you before you start the batch or take the YC deal? I did not think

You mean you got accepted into YC, then a few investors heard about you, and decided to fund you before you start the batch or take the YC deal? I did not think of it like that. Any insights as to why you would accept money just before entering YC, given there is a high probability you would get more money at higher floor through YC. Also, while I like what Andi is doing (some marketing terms aside), it's not a market risk (if you call yourself a search engine[1]). The market definitely exists, and is a Trillion $ one, with Google already dominating it. It depends on your execution ability as to how you capture it according to your strategy (which currently looks smart), but if you can't, the reason would be you could not outcompete Google, and not "the market is too small or does not exist". A typical market risk problem would be Airbnb for example. Edit: All the best for the demo day [1]: You can also be called a smart assistant. This way it has market risk, but carries negative connotation as the existing ones aren't as good. You know your strategy best, and I think it's a 10x better experience if I get the answer without having to open the link.