What is your scepticism? That people can do this now or that it ever stopped being that way?

That it's the case now. I'm pretty active in the Seattle entrepreneurial community and that's not at all the situation here.

When did YC start? I'm pretty sure they've been funding ideas for a few years now. I think one of them turned out to be Reddit.

The ideas that YC funds are much more than half baked, and it's not just a "few powerpoint slides".

I didn't mean that as an insult to YC companies, or YC, but when YC started they were literally funding teams with ideas. In Reddit's case, YC convinced the team to do a different idea than what they had presented.

I'm thinking YC now funds more mature companies, but that probably is a sign that there is less of a "bubble" now than there was before.

Interesting point ... I don't know much about YC back in the early days.

Don't get me wrong, I think the right idea should be fundable based on a few PowerPoint slides. I just don't see it happening very often at all.

Summer 2005.

I think the opposite is true since 2000.

"The first time since 2000". Hmm, I do believe that is not an accurate statement.