I can't speak for YC but I can speak about Techstars--I was in the first Austin Techstars class, and our Demo Day was a week ago. I have had one successful tec

I can't speak for YC but I can speak about Techstars--I was in the first Austin Techstars class, and our Demo Day was a week ago. I have had one successful tech company exit and had already raised a seed round for my current business when we decided to join Techstars. I can say this: Not only was it easily worth the 6% equity stake, but it fundamentally changed how I run a business. I thought I knew what I was doing pre-Techstars, having run a tech company before and having a technical background. Heck, I have even spoken about Lean Startup at conferences! But now I look back on where I was three months ago and I am fundamentally a different person. One who now really has a shot at running a successful software startup. Having checked in with several people who've gone through YC, they did not experience as much of a shift as I did. I think the credit goes to the unique experience of Techstars throwing you in 100+ 1:1 meetings with successful entrepreneurs in a 2-3 week period. You meet with people who have run and sold companies worth over a billion dollars. And at some point you wake up and realize, "If I have to go in there one more day and talk to a hugely successful entrepreneur again and I don't have my shit together again (because everyone gets ripped to shreds the first week) I am going to snap." And then something kicks in inside of you and you realize you have to get it together. On the wall the days tick down to Demo Day whether you want them to or not. And the mentors tear down your ideas every day. It's that constant tear-down and the internal strength and direction it gives you that is invaluable. I can pitch my business now in my sleep and get people motivated about it. You have not perfected your pitch until you have had it ripped apart by 100 ridiculously successful people. It was one of the most painful experiences I've ever been through...but here I am, on the other side, and not only did I survive but I've discovered confidence and clarity that I never knew I had. Techstars is something I'd recommend every founder experience. Again, I can't speak for YC or any other accelerator, but I can tell you if every founder went through what I've just been through in the past 90 days, we wouldn't have sad startup failure stories on the front page of HN very often.