How many applications do you think they receive on average?

We got about 430 last time, of which we ultimately funded 20.

(1 of those 20 immediately merged with a startup from a previous round, so only 19 came to Cambridge.)

Those are impressively bad odds for being accepted.

They're made to look bad by how easy it is to apply. If you make a website offering people money if they fill out a form, a lot of people will fill it out. But the odds for a good team are not as bad as they might seem. At least a third of the applications are egregiously broken: 13 year old founders, people who want to "telecommute" from India, people who want us to fund their plumbing supply store, etc...

Thanks for that clarification - the odds are getting a bit better :) . I'm curious: how many teams were interviewed in person to arrive at the final 20?

45-50

People might ask you first if its ok to "telecommute" from India, before applying. I was not aware "asking" that may put them into "egregiously broken" category :)

I'm still not aware of that. Ask away. This is a far more convenient place to ask stupid questions than, say, Startup School. (That's what I did. At the first startup school, I asked almost every founder I could get my hands on: "So, what would you do if you didn't have a co-founder?").

If they get your application, and it says "I am from India and can't leave", then by their own rules that's broken, but there's no penalty for asking stupid questions.

How you react, as you come to realize that the question you are asking is a stupid one, probably says something relevant about a startup founder.

How to react is something what you got learn at the first place.Apparently you have no idea what my reply was all about my friend.

Asking to telecommute is not the problem. Applying to YC and stating that you will not move to the YC location and just telecommute from India would be the problem. You can ask if you can telecommute, but the answer will be "no" if it's the whole team that will be telecommuting.

Absolutely rite.

A startup is going to compete for the attention of users against many thousands of other companies. Competing against a few hundred, most of which are probably hopeless, doesn't seem that scary to me.

Do you plan to keep the number at 20 this time too or its too early to tell?

If the number of applications is higher, we'll probably accept more. It's not certain there will be more applications, though. There are usually fewer for the winter.

Yes, I imagine that's why the application is up early.