> They NEED to see a product, and they need to see that it can make an impact. If you approached them this winter with just an idea, your pitch would be instantly forgotten. Ideas are a dime a dozen, products are worth so much more.

By "they" do you mean YC? By my understanding, YC really gives emphasis to investing in the founders, not the idea, and they fully embrace the fact that the idea will evolve and may be completely different by the end of the program. For instance, Codecademy only came up with their idea a few weeks before Demo Day.

With that in mind, there's no reason not to apply to YC this winter. Best case, he gets in. Worst case, he doesn't and he learned more about his startup by really thinking about the application questions.