What is YC's stance and requirements for solo founders?

Let's put it this way: you can think of YC as a highly experienced angel investor who has seen countless successful and failed startups. Based on this experience, they've developed certain preferences.

First, YC's "standard answer" is: they prefer teams with co-founders, ideally 2-3 people.

Why? Think about it, starting a company is incredibly challenging and high-pressure.

1. Someone to consult with, someone to share the burden: If you're carrying the burden alone, you won't have anyone to consult with when you encounter difficulties. It's easy to get stuck in a rut or burn out. With a partner, you can encourage each other and see problems from different perspectives.
2. Complementary skills: It's rare to find someone who is a tech guru, a sales genius, and a management expert all at once. A team can usually better cover different aspects like technology, product, and marketing.
3. Higher efficiency: Two people working are always faster than one. In the early stages of a startup, where every second counts, speed is critical.

So, when YC sees a team, they feel the project has a stronger "ability to withstand risks."

However! This doesn't mean YC completely rejects solo founders.

They do accept some solo founders every year, but frankly, the requirements for these individuals are much higher. If you apply solo, YC will look at you with a more critical eye. They need you to prove with facts that you alone can do the work of a whole team.

Specifically, they will pay special attention to these points:

1. Exceptional execution ability, having already built something: This is probably the most important point. You can't just have an idea. You must have already built a product prototype (MVP), or even acquired some seed users, even if there are few, as long as they genuinely love your product. This proves that you are not "a giant in thought, a dwarf in action."
2. You are an individual of "nuclear" caliber: You need to be exceptionally good in a certain field. For example, you might be a tech genius who can single-handedly tackle complex technology that would normally require a whole team; or you might have an extraordinary deep understanding of a particular industry, and this understanding itself is a significant barrier to entry for others.
3. Astonishing speed of progress: You need to show them that even though you are alone, your project progresses at an astonishing speed. For instance, you release new features every week, and user data grows weekly. This can alleviate their doubts about your solo efficiency.
4. Strong mental fortitude and a clear vision: YC partners will grill you repeatedly, trying to see if you can truly withstand the immense pressure of solo entrepreneurship. You need to demonstrate extreme resilience and unwavering passion for what you are doing.

To summarize:

Imagine YC's preferences as a scale. On one side is the "founding team," and on the other side is "project progress and founder's capabilities."

• If you are a team, the "founder" side of the scale already has some weight, and YC can discuss ideas and the future with you more.
• If you are alone, the "founder" side has very little weight, so you must place sufficiently heavy weights on the "project progress and individual capabilities" side (e.g., a good product that's already launched and has users) to balance the scale and win their favor.

So, if you are a solo founder, don't be discouraged. Focus your energy on refining your product and acquiring early users, and let your results speak for themselves. When your project itself is compelling enough, whether you're alone or a team becomes less important.