> YCombinator has made it a successful business model to take founders and virtually catapult them far away from their idea reach, and succeed anyway through a combination of exceptional founder selection and world-class mentoring.
There's a bit of a logical flaw there: either it's "catapulting them away from their reach", or, through "founder selection", picking people who have a far reach in the first place.
I don't think there's a logical flaw. I think (perhaps wrongly, as pointed out in another comment) that YC pushes people to do something way beyond their reach, but then makes up for the skills gap by providing them with incredible mentoring and connections.
Saying that YC pushes people to do something 'beyond their reach' is fair, but saying that it extends their reach by selecting the right people is... not consistent.
Anyway, it's a good article, that's just a nitpick that jumped out at me.
"YC is able to extend founders' reach by... selecting founders" says nothing about YC actually doing something to extend founders reach, merely that they're good at selecting long-reach founders.
I do believe that they extend the reach of founders that they have selected, in any event.
There's a bit of a logical flaw there: either it's "catapulting them away from their reach", or, through "founder selection", picking people who have a far reach in the first place.