As an employer, wouldn't you demand someone be interested in the specific problems you're trying to solve though? Do kids who want to be part of $generic_sexy_yc_startup last long?
(that's a sincere, non-rhetorical question)
(that's a sincere, non-rhetorical question)
I'm one of those people who doesn't particularly care what startup I work for. As long as it's not a spamming site or something else that generally makes the world a worse place, I'd be excited to work there.
If I wanted to solve problems I was interested in, I'd be a Ph.D. student, create a personal project, start my own startup, or get a completely unrelated job while programming in my spare time. Right now (for the next few years, at least) I just want to make some good, reasonably-steady money while providing value in a job that I enjoy. The specific problems I'd be solving have very little bearing on my thought process right now.
Um, it sounds like you really don't want to work for a startup. And, that's not a bad thing.
Perhaps you've been oversold on the startupian == special forces, genco employee == demoralized grunt attitude that's common on sites like this.
The opportunity to work with smart individuals in a sensible environment is pretty huge.
There is no generic startup, and many startups are far from sensible!
All that said, I'm in week two of my startup, but it's because I have an unbearable, pathological, un-fucking-reasonable need to work for myself.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with steady and sensible, but you're not likely to find it by generically applying to startups.
And when I say "steady", I don't mean that I need a high-paying job that I needn't be scared of losing for the next several years. I simply mean that I would like a salary with a monthly or bi-weekly paycheck for as long as I happen to be working there. I only meant steady in relation to freelancing or creating my own product.
I'm far more interested in working on The Next Big Thing—especially if it's a big challenge—than I am in a specific problem domain. Maybe it's just the way I'm wired; maybe it's a reflection of my skillset.
My guess is that the kind of person who would be attracted to the idea of working at any and all YC-backed startups is the same kind of person who is more interested in tackling big, challenging problems than any particular problem domain. Maybe I'm wrong and just projecting. What do you think?
I was mostly trying to understand how (and if) YC's alpha engineers would happily go work on "the next big thing", largely independent of what that thing was.