Alas we are in fact going to be playing catch up. We got about 50% more applications than last time, so interviewing 50% more startups will put us exactly where we were before.
Maybe this time we'll do a perfect job at the reading stage. Not likely, but we can always hope.
I saw your tweet that applications this cycle seem unusually good. Hence with 50% more applications and 50% more interviews, it seems that YC didn't scale when it comes to mitigating the risk of missing good startups. Unless of course the applications are graded perfectly - I'm sure you've been working to improve that. I'll let you know how you did on April 16th :)
3000 applications this time?! do you remember by name every founder from last batch? ' cause that's the line that I would draw in the sand re:scaling. Of course it is just me, as 500 startups prove that this criteria is arbitrary.
Maybe this time we'll do a perfect job at the reading stage. Not likely, but we can always hope.