Surely with those numbers, YC doesn't give you anything and never would? You have all the experience. You've mentored so many founders that surely at least a couple can set up access to VCs. Why even bother applying in the first place?
While if someone asked, I would likely disclose my startup experience, generally speaking I leave it off standard requests for information like YC's app; more interested in being judge on the matter at hand than my past.
My guess is that my pitches might be too off the wall or they have a bias against anonymous users. Or more likely, my pitch is not a good fit for YC. Who knows, as anyone that applies knows, they do not say why they decline to interview a given founder or fund them, and no one really should expect a reason for why either, that simply is unreasonable.
As for why I would apply, I am positive that I would get more value out of it than what they are taking, that I would provide a return on their investment, I love doing startups, and enjoy being around talented founders. Most of all, given I would be taking on funding, it would force me to change the way I normally fund & run startups; that being I normal do not have the objective of selling the startup or being a multi billion dollar company.
As for VCs, while I do not have anything against them and believe they provide value based on a well defined situation, I prefer to focus on doing startups, not building businesses; meaning all of my startups make money while I am working on them, when I am done, I move on to the next startup, since I value my time more than the money I would make finding a buyer, dealing with all the due diligence requests, and supporting the handoff too.
