I've always been casually curious about applying to YC, but I'm allergic to the terms because they are not in plain English.
I'm not interested in learning about SAFEs or cap tables or any of that. I'm interested in running profitable businesses with basic P&L statements and not owing anyone anything.
If you immediately value my business at $1.7 million, I should probably in the next 12 months be making $1.7 million in revenue as a baseline. So how is Y Combinator going to help me do that?
Engineers are expensive. How is Y Combinator going to help me sell my product and grow so I can pay my staff?
Why would I not just take a bet on a PR firm[1] since advertising is a total wash for small businesses?
Edit: I'm very happy for you that you think SAFE and maybe valuation cap, discount (without context), MFN, pro rata, "high resolution fundraising" are basic terms, but for most US citizens they are not, and for non-US citizens even less so.
Y Combinator goes to great lengths to attempt to describe these concepts, at least one of them they introduced and didn't exist anywhere else in fundraising prior, but they go to little to no lengths to explain how they will help you grow your business.
Based on your statement of "...not interested in learning about SAFEs...and not owing anyone anything" you are not interested in running a venture investor backed business. You want to bootstrap[1].
Re: "not plain English" - YC is BY FAR the most transparent and founder-friendly VC seed investor and goes to great lengths to educate founders.
This is as clear language as financings get in startup land.
If you're unwilling to learn basic terms and concepts of equity financings, than building a company using VC is probably not for you (which you seem to already know, given your "I'm interested in running a profitable business... and not owing anyone anything").
If, however, you have an idea that you think could be massive, and are therefore considering raising money from VC to get there faster, then you could start in no better place than YC.
I'm not interested in learning about SAFEs or cap tables or any of that. I'm interested in running profitable businesses with basic P&L statements and not owing anyone anything.
If you immediately value my business at $1.7 million, I should probably in the next 12 months be making $1.7 million in revenue as a baseline. So how is Y Combinator going to help me do that?
Engineers are expensive. How is Y Combinator going to help me sell my product and grow so I can pay my staff?
Why would I not just take a bet on a PR firm[1] since advertising is a total wash for small businesses?
[1]: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
Edit: I'm very happy for you that you think SAFE and maybe valuation cap, discount (without context), MFN, pro rata, "high resolution fundraising" are basic terms, but for most US citizens they are not, and for non-US citizens even less so.
Y Combinator goes to great lengths to attempt to describe these concepts, at least one of them they introduced and didn't exist anywhere else in fundraising prior, but they go to little to no lengths to explain how they will help you grow your business.