"We deal with it by warning startups with substantial overlap about one another, and then leaving it to them to decide how secretive or open to be." In this ca

"We deal with it by warning startups with substantial overlap about one another, and then leaving it to them to decide how secretive or open to be." In this case since the YC company is already launched, and the new applicant hasn't I would not think warning both parties about the overlaps is to the best interest of the applicant. But I guess this is for major overlaps, and the applicant would probably already know the competition and should try to offer something different and new. "(...but one applicant this last batch had cooked up a trick I'd really like to tell a startup from summer 2007 about.)" I guess this is precisely my question 3. And my question was whether the YC company was told or is going to be told about this trick? And more generally if you have any rules and guidelines you would follow in these scenarios.