Learn how to do it yourself - or at least get a good start so that when you present your idea to others they take you seriously (or at least more seriously than

Learn how to do it yourself - or at least get a good start so that when you present your idea to others they take you seriously (or at least more seriously than if you only have an idea). Ideas in themselves are worthless, it all comes down to execution. I believe this is what Drew did with Dropbox and YC (if I'm not mistaken, in his application he said that he was going to follow through with Dropbox whether he got into YC or not). Granted, he is technical person, but (IMO) the simple fact that he was ready to finish his product, no matter what, showed a lot to the YC panel.