"My impression is that of a community that helps each other out in order to make this new model of work succeed."<p>In YC when you have a problem you generally find another startup who can help and then pair off with them to work alone, like on a dating site.<p>Alternatively, there other seed programs where all the startups sit around a big table and talk about each person's problems one at time. This is more like a polis, because different discussions create value for different people.<p>The latter exposes you to more new ideas, but it also wastes enormous amounts of time. (And a lot of these new ideas don't end up sticking because you haven't already tried yourself and failed first.) I think the YC model probably maximizes your chances of success after three months, but only if you already have a pretty good chance of succeeding. If you still have a bunch of missing skills you need to fill in, then looking into non-YC options might make more sense.