Are you being funny on purpose? ;) If so, kudos on the deadpan delivery. Quite a few YC startups have already failed to build solid, growing businesses. Most s

Are you being funny on purpose? ;) If so, kudos on the deadpan delivery. Quite a few YC startups have already failed to build solid, growing businesses. Most startups do, after all. The good news is that former YC founders generally find other work, sometimes immediately via a talent acquisition of their former YC company. In other words, they cash in on their credentials, some of which obviously come from having been through YC. So this "problem" of people seeking credentials by applying to YC has evidently been around for years by now. Fortunately, it's a feature, not a bug. At least until the day that YC starts accepting bribes, or selling spots in YC classes to the highest bidder. As for folks like the OP's friend, who appears to be applying to YC not because he even wants to try to build a company but because he wants to collect a shiny gold star on his resume: He's as welcome to apply as anyone else. The question is whether or not he will be accepted.