Most of the high profile YC success stories seem to be consumer-facing, web and mobile startups. Others, like Heroku, are still tightly bound to that same business community, serving mostly agile web based startups.<p>What do people think about YC for other business types? I'm particularly interested in disruptive technology innovation in established, well financed industries.<p>Questions:<p>* Has YC been <i>interested in</i> opportunities like this?<p>* Would YC be <i>as helpful for</i> opportunities like this?<p>* Are there any <i>notable success stories</i>?<p>Thanks!
For what it's worth, this: <a href="http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html" rel="nofollow">http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html</a> speaks a little bit to your first question. It seems that they are definitely interested in areas other than just consumer-facing web and mobile applications.<p>As to the rest... I'll be interested to hear those answers as well.
It is somewhat ironic that a lot of PG's essays talk about finding the "next Google" or "next Microsoft" and investing in disruptive new technology. But when you go through the YC companies at <a href="http://yclist.com/" rel="nofollow">http://yclist.com/</a> they are almost exclusively consumer/social web apps and knock-offs of existing services. Few would qualify as new technology.