"Graham concedes that individual YC partners have invested in a few startups that hadn't been able to attract much outside funding."<p>Interesting that Paul, Trevor, Robert, and Jessica (maybe Harj and Alexis now?) will backstop companies that can't raise outside money after YC. It's like the exact opposite of the signaling problem.
Hacker news is part of my daily diet and i have to admit that PG is Rock star. Though the amount of money he funds to YC startups is minuscule, the end result is unbelievable. I have been in the startup industry for more than a decade and to me it seems like the YC funding is more like paid mentoring.