The startup I work for went through a niche IoT accelerator late in our lifecycle (post Series A.).<p>No, not necessarily.<p>Every startup in the batch had a unique end goal, but they&#x27;re not necessarily traction in the way YC appears to view it.  Sometimes the end goal is a pre-traction milestone, like shipping our first set of physical chips.  In this sense, it&#x27;s a blurred line between pre-accelerators and early-stage accelerators<p>Personally, I&#x27;d contend that YC today does not really like funding &quot;very early-stage companies&quot;.  Or at least, the definition of very early stage has been inflated from 2005 to now.  The bar has been raised too high [1]; there are too many good applicants with significant product and&#x2F;or traction already.<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&#x2F;whynot&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&#x2F;whynot&#x2F;</a>