There's some point in one's early musical education where you learn that all music follow patterns. And you think "how limiting," because the only patterns you know are major scale folk melodies and 3-chord rock. But as your pattern library grows, you appreciate how even the most avant-garde music follows patterns too, and without grokking the patterns you couldn't hear everything.

Company pattern recognition must seem limiting to someone who's only seen a small number of companies. But people who've seen 10000 companies can appreciate a range of patterns that would astonish someone who's only seen 100.

There are investors who focus on just one kind of company or founder, which is reasonable for part-time investors who want to leverage their particular experience. But in order to expand the universe of startups, YC specifically looks for promising new kinds of teams (though OP wouldn't be the first 40ish female founder new to programming to go through YC.) I hope Ms. Byerley will give us a chance to help her.