Ask HN: How complete must a demo be for YC application at submission time?
Also, do you come back later if the demo server is down ,for instance when the application is being deployed .
1) they'll read through applications 2) if the application looks promising look at the video 3) if the video isn't bad look at the demo
I'm guessing that most of the time they look at the demo they've already mostly decided whether to interview you or not.
(If you don't have any past proof of being able to build things, etc. it might be more important though)
I've seen several people say that when they were at the interview stage the YC partners mostly ignored the demo and focused on questioning.
However, given the popularity of YC, I am assuming that most of the applicants are in advanced stages of development when they apply.
About 20% of YC companies completely change what they're working on during YC, so for them the value of having something already built is relatively small.