I also applied as a solo founder, however I have a technical background and know that I can build and ship my product (already pushed out an MVP after t<2weeks).
Assuming there is a technical component to your project which you alone can't provide, then in my opinion you'll have a much harder time benefitting from the 8 week fellowship program than I would...
This is simply because while I'm building, recruiting users and (assuming my project keeps growing) fending off 'marketing experts' & business types who want to join the team, you can't really do much of anything until you find a technical cofounder.
Bearing in mind that most successful cofounding teams knew each other previously, you'll either need a long time to find your cofounder, you'll choose poorly and it won't work out or you'll be one of those lucky few who get it right (but the risk in accepting you is still much higher than for a technical founder/cofounding team doing the same project)
That said, if your project requires little technical input and you can do sales/marketing/growth before even finding a cofounder (eg by faking it 'til you make it on some non-tech product), then there's no real reason I can think of that you would be at a disadvantage, except perhaps that it might be viewed as a negative confidence in your abilities if you haven't been able to convince a technical cofounder to join your team...
Either way, I wish you the best of luck :)
It does, but it doesn't make as much sense as applying with the right co-founder(s).
See also e.g. https://twitter.com/paulg/status/615949374317723648 for a recent statement from pg on this. (Aside: holy steaming pile of crap, Twitter search really sucks.)
YC is generally looking for really solid teams -- people that know eachother well, get along well, have a history together, hopefully have been through difficult times together. Because a startup can be extraordinarily difficult and the odds of a home-run success will fall quite a lot if cofounders can't weather the challenges.
If you happen to be the rare true one-man-team, then by all means, apply anyway. (Or, apply even if you're not sure if you are; what do you have to lose?)
But ... maybe YC isn't the right thing for you anyway. There are a lot of different ways to start and run a business, and the startup model has some distinct disadvantages, not least of which is that it's difficult to spend much time away from the startup up until it has grown to its full size. Do you really want to spend the next, say, 10 years of your life dealing almost exclusively with growing a business? Because I get the sense that that's what investors are looking for.
Contrast this with a regular plain ol' lifestyle business. You gather a small amount of capital together, put together an early prototype product, find your customers, get the business to start making ends meet, pay off debt, and then go visit a beach somewhere in the world and have a beer and stare at the waves and think about how to grow the business a little bit more so that you can afford to stay at a nicer beach.
What it means in practice is that they'll receive probably tens of thousands of applications but only be able to accept 20 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9917491), so your competition will be fierce.
(BTW, see also this note from sama: "We will be slightly more open to solo founders because we think at this stage you still have a good chance of finding a cofounder. But the bar will still remain higher for solo founders given all of our historical data.: -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9917470)
As someone who tried starting something as a solo founder, it's tough work! I did begin with an idea on my own but eventually brought in another guy and thinking of bringing more help on board. There's just way too much to do.
That said, at the idea stage, it seems alright. I once asked for advice on which channels I should focus on to get my first customers and a mentor just said to do whatever it takes. At the end of the day, try everything and see what works. Cold call, reach out to networks, ads, etc. I think the same applies - if your idea is a great one, solo founder or co-founder, you're the one in charge of making it happen.
However, having a co-founder means you've managed to sell your idea to at least 1 person. And you have a team to get going right from the start instead of having to go look for someone.
On the other hand, applying costs nothing but a little bit of time and it pushes you to clarify your thinking about your venture. So, I think you might as well apply, but I wouldn't invest that much time or effort into it. Spend your time building your business instead. If you make your customers happy, investors will find you.
If your idea is simple enough that you can package it and sell it (because you are adding some type of value), then you could just hack away at some pre-existing solution and live with that.
Granted, it may not be very exciting to say you built a decent 7-figure business by using some bland CMS and excel spreadsheets, but who cares at the end of the day?
For every unicorn that comes out of Silicon Valley, there are thousands of smaller enterprises making due with some pre-existing solution that they modify and resell.
Perhaps as a solo founder, YC is not for you.
I think if analysis were to be done on founder happiness, non-investor lifestyle founders would say that they are generally more happy than a founder who has just raised $600 million and lives on lifes edge with a "sink or sail the world" mantra that his investors have placed om him.
Try forging your own path without their $12,000 and "fellowship" see where that takes you (there will always be next year).