I'm not sure when it happened but some time mid/late this year I realized TC, YC, funding etc .... none of it really matters. I've written the big blogs, been rejected from YC, had a couple nice investor guys tell me how imperative it is I have a cofounder.

None of that stuff dictates what is successful, and most of them are wrong most of the time for the negligible % of startups they touch. It'd be nice to have that coverage or that network or that money, but all that really matters is you, your product and your users/customers.