"the number one reason why companies don't apply to YC is because they don't think they can get in" - and 98% of them are correct to think that in each batch. It's certainly in YC's interest to encourage as many applications as possible, as YC's option to say 'yes' or 'no' is always worth >= 0, but I suspect that for many startups, it's not worth the distraction. So YC can have lots of applicants, a very small admit %, and still be better off with even more applicants.
"54.7% did not have a recommendation." (regarding accepted companies) - founders who are applying are not interested in the "percentage of accepted founders who had a recommendation", it's "what is my chance of acceptance with a recommendation?" vs "what is my chance of acceptance without a recommendation?" For example, if say, 50% of 150 'recommended' founders are accepted, while 1% of 7350 'unrecommended' founders were accepted, you would get similar numbers to those published.
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"the number one reason why companies don't apply to YC is because they don't think they can get in" - and 98% of them are correct to think that in each batch. It's certainly in YC's interest to encourage as many applications as possible, as YC's option to say 'yes' or 'no' is always worth >= 0, but I suspect that for many startups, it's not worth the distraction. So YC can have lots of applicants, a very small admit %, and still be better off with even more applicants.
"54.7% did not have a recommendation." (regarding accepted companies) - founders who are applying are not interested in the "percentage of accepted founders who had a recommendation", it's "what is my chance of acceptance with a recommendation?" vs "what is my chance of acceptance without a recommendation?" For example, if say, 50% of 150 'recommended' founders are accepted, while 1% of 7350 'unrecommended' founders were accepted, you would get similar numbers to those published.