I'd put the lower bound of a thorough description of the average YC business at 350,000 words (a full-length novel is 100,000), since I have managed to say abou

I'd put the lower bound of a thorough description of the average YC business at 350,000 words (a full-length novel is 100,000), since I have managed to say about that many about what is, quite possibly, the simplest software business imaginable. You can get a web application in front of customers much faster than you can get a pizza in front of customers. This is really important. It does not imply that the average YC company is orders of magnitude less complex than the average pizzeria. If you have doubts about this one, buy any YC founder drinks and mention "hiring" or "investors" or "accounting", then see how simple their lives are. This is especially true as you go up the age or success curve from "founded by two guys eating ramen 12 weeks ago."