jmaclure11

Does it worry you that by rejecting thousands of startups each year from YC, you likely end up discouraging some good founders with good ideas from continuing to work on their companies? I realize you always tell rejected companies to keep at it, but is there more you could do to mitigate the real impact of rejection?

In his Stanford class and new book, Peter Thiel's thesis centers around the need to doggedly avoid competition when founding a new startup. However, at YC and in your own Stanford class, competition is much less discussed and/or feared, and the advice is to ignore competitors. How do you think about this seemingly conflicting advice?