It sounds to me like you guys are more focused on getting into an incubator and less focused on starting a company. Maybe it's just the gist of the post, but you guys do realize that this is, for lack of a better term, the 'real deal', right? Every choice you make has consequences, and spending so much effort focusing on incubators when instead you could be doing the "schleps" that pg talks about may be opportunity squandered when you have the time together with this idea as a priority.
Balance in all things. Incubators are surely helpful, but they surely should not be your primary focus right now, and you're setting yourself up for failure if you are banking on getting into one. This is a zero sum game, and putting creative energy into a YC application when it could be going into a product is a real choice, and I hope you guys are aware it's a choice. I'm not saying it's the wrong one, but this post led me to feel you are looking at the goal of starting a company similar to getting into college. It is not. It is not a game of one of one or two big victories and resting on your laurels, but instead a game of many small ones (hopefully peppered with a few big ones as well :)) If you are focusing just on the big ones then you are doing it wrong and will likely join the 99% of those who do not make it. Incubators, funding, and so on are a means to an end not an end in itself. Remember that and carve a path that makes sense for your company and your team, not one that you think is in line with what everyone else is doing.
Fair comments, and completely accurate. But you're responding to a post that was focused 100% on what our experience was when applying to an accelerator. So yes, it's going to sound like we're only talking about that stuff and not everything else that matters more (like execution). That's not the full picture of us and what we're working towards. We'll have future posts that are (hopefully) interesting and aren't at all about the accelerator process.
FWIW, though, it's hard to overestimate the value of getting into a program like TechStars. Forget about the money (although it's awesome that we have enough runway that we won't have to raise immediately following demo day if we don't want to). It's the network and relationships and simply amazing people that we get to meet. Of course that's not enough, but it's crazy valuable. I know for sure that we're already more successful because of it.
Balance in all things. Incubators are surely helpful, but they surely should not be your primary focus right now, and you're setting yourself up for failure if you are banking on getting into one. This is a zero sum game, and putting creative energy into a YC application when it could be going into a product is a real choice, and I hope you guys are aware it's a choice. I'm not saying it's the wrong one, but this post led me to feel you are looking at the goal of starting a company similar to getting into college. It is not. It is not a game of one of one or two big victories and resting on your laurels, but instead a game of many small ones (hopefully peppered with a few big ones as well :)) If you are focusing just on the big ones then you are doing it wrong and will likely join the 99% of those who do not make it. Incubators, funding, and so on are a means to an end not an end in itself. Remember that and carve a path that makes sense for your company and your team, not one that you think is in line with what everyone else is doing.