Mah had a working prototype when she applied to join YC for the summer.
We tend to fund really nice people who want to help out their fellow YC alumni.
Conway has put capital into 20 YC companies, including 7 from the latest class.
The sessions can be intense, with all five YC partners bearing down on presenters.
On Monday morning the victors huddle in YC's building for a pep talk from Graham.
YC's three-month boot camp for startups, run twice a year in Mountain View, Calif.
So Dropbox is pretty much the best case scenario for a single founder applying to YC.
FORBES: Paul Graham, Dropbox And The Single Founder Exception
Graham discussed Sam Altman, founder of Loopt, who applied for YC when he was a sophomore in college.
FORBES: What Y Combinator's Paul Graham Looks For In Founders
Nevertheless, a number of YC companies have had clean exits, including Heroku, OMGPOP, Loopt, Cloudkick, Wufoo, and Reddit.
The partners recently added Harjeet Taggar, who sold his startup after being part of YC's winter 2007 class.
Others already in this busy space are AngelList and YC company Funders Club.
But more big players are ramping up their own versions of YC.
Those who make it to Mountain View stand a 50% chance of being selected for YC's program and a crack at Silicon Valley glory.
Whether YC and others will reduce their size remains to be seen, but if there was an accelerator bubble, it looks like correction time.
FORBES: Y-Combinator To Entrepreneurs: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
It was funded by early stage incubator Tenacity Worx, the new name of YC Reject, which I wrote about when it was first formed.
But in the year and a half of doubt and struggle before that, they had learned the hard way what YC preached: make something people want.
FORBES: How A YCombinator Startup Is Born: The Story Of Strikingly
They came to see us during their time at YC.
FORBES: Fred Wilson On Obama O's And The Startup That Got Away
YC's vetting process plays a big role in attracting investors.
The problem is possibly at its clearest in looking at the pool of applicants for incubator and accelerator programs like YC, where, on average, just 4% of founders are women.
FORBES: 'The Female Factor' And Other Proven Tricks To Get Into Y-Combinator
"Mike is wrong--he wasn't there, " says Dave McClure, an established Valley investor and one of the angels at the meeting. (Others who were present deny the allegations as well.) McClure does acknowledge YC's effect, however.
FORBES: How A YCombinator Startup Is Born: The Story Of Strikingly
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