You have to optimize for what they want and considering how transparent the application process is, it's actually quite easy. PG's essays are step-by-step guides on how to "tick" all the right boxes. They even give you the list of ideas they wish to fund. How nice of them... No wonder YC has announced that quality of applications is increasing. It's not increasing because startups are getting better. It's increasing because more startups are optimizing.
Remember Nikki Durkin from 99dresses? She didn't just apply. She spent huge amount of time researching partners, their history, what they liked, what they wanted to hear... and she has delivered just that like a rockstar. How many promising founders are rejected because they just didn't bother to optimize like Durkin?
To me, if you get rejected, it just means you didn't put enough time into the application. If your goal is to get into YC, then keep trying, you will figure it out.
But in the end, if you are real entrepreneur, figure out what you are doing with your business. Don't optimize for YC, just do what you've got to do and if YC wants to join you for a ride, then fine. If not, too bad for them.
Optimizing for what you think YC partners want is a sure way to not get into YC. You're not a mind reader; what you think they want is almost certainly different from what they actually want. More importantly, they read thousands of applications, and you're only working on one. They can smell people who are trying to game them from a thousand miles away.
Just doing what you do is the only thing that matters and will get you in, assuming you're doing the right thing. (Asking alums for feedback on the application is a very good way to make sure you're doing the right thing and your presentation doesn't suck)
Your theory seems to apply to SEO as well (just make the best content, and google will rank it highest for relevant terms), and yet the whole SEO industry exists, and most of journalism has changed the way it uses language so that it is more parsable by googlebot -- Google Standard English.
You have to optimize for what they want and considering how transparent the application process is, it's actually quite easy. PG's essays are step-by-step guides on how to "tick" all the right boxes. They even give you the list of ideas they wish to fund. How nice of them... No wonder YC has announced that quality of applications is increasing. It's not increasing because startups are getting better. It's increasing because more startups are optimizing.
Remember Nikki Durkin from 99dresses? She didn't just apply. She spent huge amount of time researching partners, their history, what they liked, what they wanted to hear... and she has delivered just that like a rockstar. How many promising founders are rejected because they just didn't bother to optimize like Durkin?
To me, if you get rejected, it just means you didn't put enough time into the application. If your goal is to get into YC, then keep trying, you will figure it out.
But in the end, if you are real entrepreneur, figure out what you are doing with your business. Don't optimize for YC, just do what you've got to do and if YC wants to join you for a ride, then fine. If not, too bad for them.