What YC's users want most of all is for their startups not to fail, so the essay talks about learning what makes startups fail and how to help founders avoid it

What YC's users want most of all is for their startups not to fail, so the essay talks about learning what makes startups fail and how to help founders avoid it. Founders ask for other stuff from YC too: a hangout lounge in SF, comfier seating, shared office space. But helping their startups succeed is 100x more important than all those frills, as any founder who has succeeded or failed will confirm. Markets where customers only care about one thing are rare, so people aren't very familiar with them. They're unlike commodity services like dentists, where you care about convenience & frills, and more like heart surgeons where you want the one that will give you the best chance of not dying. I suspect that not providing the frills helps YC attract better founders, because the best founders care only about their startup succeeding, while the scenesters care more about the frills. Also, it sets a good example of focusing on the most important thing, as startups should. Most importantly, by not spending much time on other stuff, YC can focus its energy on helping startups succeed.