YC rejected us over one brutal question. "If this idea is so good... why are you still employed?" We said: "If we get in, we’ll quit." They basically said: "So you don’t believe in it enough to quit, but you want us to believe?" That one hurt. We realized we were asking investors to take a risk we weren't willing to take ourselves. So we quit. Built nonstop for 3 months. Shipped a real product. Signed our first customer. Actually went all in. Came back to YC. "What changed?" "We quit. Here’s what we built. Here’s who’s paying us." We got in. Founders love talking conviction. Most won't make the first bet. ...