Absolutely, and you've got to remember that the gatekeepers use heuristics meant to target the greatest chance at being the rightest, not ensuring that they don

Absolutely, and you've got to remember that the gatekeepers use heuristics meant to target the greatest chance at being the rightest, not ensuring that they don't miss a few obvious ones. Such it is with YC - their heuristics are designed to ensure that they catch the potential unicorns (among other things) and aren't concerned with missing a few that would seem obvious in retrospect. And btw they seem to do well - all the "misses" are middling wins - for example Buffer (a poster boy for a YC miss) is an amazing company, but it's not a miss YC will ever rue. The misses for YC should actually validate so many founders - if you're looking to be a Buffer (which, if you want to live a good life, you should consider) you should bear in mind that I think even looking back on Buffer, YC would take them knowing about them what they know, but they wouldn't change their criteria for accepting founders to make sure they don't miss Buffer and they shouldn't. There are lots of great businesses and even big-win startups that YC isn't set up to catch, and that could be you.