>choose those who have graduated from tier-1 institutions. University degrees mean nothing at the end of the day.

It means everything for YC's model.

YC does not care about the software.

They care about the founders.

YC's model and ecosystem is explicitly designed to be a who's who club of interconnected founders that are very, very encouraged to """rely""" on each other when building their companies.

YC uses a lot of double speak regarding this ecosystem, but if you explained the concept to a layman on the street they'd tell you exactly what this concept is in just a very few, very blunt words.

Elite-class founders and lots of cheap, imported, or "passionate" labor.

Let's get real here folks.