My friend is part of a team of PhDs working on hard tech research problems without much interest in becoming a viable business (in the sense of counting dollars

My friend is part of a team of PhDs working on hard tech research problems without much interest in becoming a viable business (in the sense of counting dollars). It seems like YC would not be the right fit for them, is that correct? They seem to have gotten interest from other VCs but they have the impression that YC is more of a traditional firm focused on startups that are very close to revenue or are post revenue