Comment by aleph_minus_one

> Did you not understand what YC was? They're essentially an investment bank that doesn't accept new clients.

They rather sell themselves as early-stage startup incubator.

See https://www.ycombinator.com/

"We help founders at their earliest stages regardless of their age."

"We improve the success rate of our startups."

"We give startups a huge fundraising advantage."

and https://www.ycombinator.com/about

"The overall goal of YC is to help startups really take off. They arrive at YC at all different stages. Some haven’t even started working yet, and others have been launched for a year or more. But whatever stage a startup is at when they arrive, our goal is to help them to be in dramatically better shape 3 months later."