Have you read the book From Good to Great? I've never applied, much less been accepted, but I imagine that YC helps you get the flywheel going that Jim Collins talks about.

It sounds like everybody that participates says they make more progress in the program than they would have otherwise in that amount of time.

But if you have a successful business then you probably don't NEED them. But they can still help.

You don't, but if you are dumb enough to give them a share of your business they are happy to take it.

I think the math is quite favorable to taking YC investment as a +EV decision until quite a late stage in a successful startup's development.

pg wrote about this pretty convincingly here: http://paulgraham.com/equity.html

Unless you are comparing YC against an actual term sheet in your hand with at least 2X better terms, that YC is overwhelmingly likely a good deal. There might be good reasons not to enter YC for some companies, but the 6% equity is rarely the determining one, even for companies with revenue and sustainable Ramen profits.

There are many multiples of "great".

paul b.??