Comment by dang

That's why theturtletalks should apply to YC first! I'm sure YC would love to fund an open-source Amazon competitor if they believed in the execution enough to give it, say, a 1% chance of success (or even much less than that, given Amazon's size).

That "bank of VC fund" you speak probably looks at a startup like this very differently after they've been through YC, not just because of YC's reputation but also because YC can do a lot to help a startup like this after funding it.