> The resulting idea is excellent but it's technically hard. I've put all the resources of my company and myself into getting it made.

I'm with you and want you to crush it! Playing devil's advocate for a minute, there might be some issues with the current state of things.

Parts that will make it hard to get in (and could put the company health at risk):

- the company is default dead right now with no revenue stream[0]

- employees were hired so the burn rate already started with no product

- currently locked into doing a big launch

- the majority of the focus is on software development

- it's harder to do significant product changes since you already have a team of employees coding the technical solution

- there are no customers on board yet

Sorry if any of those parts are off base from the actual details. From what you posted it sounded like there was positive user feedback but no customers/revenue.

Before focusing on a development team you also need to know that your product is something users love. Don't get emotionally invested in creating the "right" thing off the bat. Learn how to talk to different users frequently and set up development cycles to know that you're building something people need. It's better to not be attached emotionally and learn how to iterate quickly then to start a big development push early on.

The more you invest into building an initial idea, the more locked in you are on that solution. If you have any way to prototype a $500k solution manually or with a cheap automation that doesn't scale, do that first. Your goal is to know that you're solving the right problems.

An early launch should be able to solve something to prove viability but be easy to build. The faster the future product build times are, the more chances you have to iterate and measure your solutions with UX research. Getting user feedback early and often helps de-risk your product build cycles. With only one big launch, it puts most of the risk into things going well with the initial product build. It will also miss out on early growth opportunities that you can have with customers. They won't be able to give input as the parts are built and they'll have less connection to the early product if they weren't part of shaping it.

Actions also speak louder than words. Many people are nice when talking to you because people like to help each other. Get people to pay for your product. Any promise without money is worthless.

For a pre-seed stage bootstrap your best investors are your customers. They'll give you money without taking equity and help you prove out the product market fit. That gives you leverage later when talking to investors because you'll have a nice picture of how the company has been solving real problems, acquiring new customers, growing revenue, etc. Any prospective investors should be worried about missing the chance to grow with you.

I think these line up with problems 1, 2, and 3 from the startup lessons essay.[1]

Having prior experience with a bootstrapped company is great and they'll probably be neutral or positive on re-applying. They'll also like that you've talked extensively with users before building the product. I don't know much about launching SAAS businesses so that initial build hurdle could just be part of the process. My bad if that was overly critical. Building something in front of users can be extra nice though.

YC put out the online startup school for free.[2] If you're only looking for advice, that may be more bang for the buck. It's a different story if you want to take funding and use YC as an on-ramp for that.

Either way, it sounds exciting. Sorry if this post sounded all negative. I was trying to give advice from where I think YC would be coming from. Things can go well without those call outs. I'm just a random internet person. I hope it ends up being successful!

[0] http://www.paulgraham.com/aord.html

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/startuplessons.html

[2] https://www.startupschool.org