I would expect the exact opposite. In 2005 many were skeptical of the whole YC model, and consequently would have had a much more difficult time attracting investors and already-successful startups. The first demo day was twelve investors, mostly PG's friends; the S10 demo day was a three-day affair with over 350 investors and members of the press. The current batch also was able to attract some startups which already had launched and had good traction before YC even started; these startups probably would not have applied to the first couple YC batches because it was not yet clear just how advantageous YC was even for startups which could raise at higher valuations.

YC's star is rising still-- the most recent "class" was pretty epic IMO. It's not a talent show-- it's a hacker-optimized machine that's always getting better at picking, mentoring, promoting, and funding teams/startups.

I think most people are predicting Dropbox & AirBnB to be YC's biggest successes. Neither were first year.

Although Carrie Underwood is right there with her in sales. And actually way ahead in major awards.