I just wanted to say you've brought up some good points and given us some things to consider. That being said, I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time is the kind of guy who could make the next Dropbox. This may seem like a cheap stunt to a lot of the people on here, but we're just trying to prove that we're more than our credentials and we're worth a shot.
I think it takes more guts to do what patio11 says.
If you look at business as if it was dating, this just makes you seem needy; while getting an introduction through a mutual contact is always a better way to go...
"I would think that someone who had the guts to throw themselves out there and say let us prove that we're worth your time"
The problem is what you are trying to do lacks creativity and originality. And without that I would question whether you could in fact build the next "dropbox".
This made me chuckle. Dropbox was one of the least creative or original startups I know. But it was born out an immediate unfulfilled need and a subsequent deep fury, and then executed and refined insanely. Before and since Dropbox there have been many, many attempts to fill this space, but their execution has been phenomenal.
Dropbox's success is in their creativity in solving a problem. (the execution). Here the issue is getting into YC (which by the way I question the entire idea of thinking that is an end in itself - but that's a separate issue). If that is the goal though, someone can put more effort into simply saying "I'm good look at me and let me prove it". How they say that isn't relevant either (putting up a billboard for example..)
Effort doesn't mean doing obvious things either. Simply doing the things that anyone can think of don't count and show creative initiative. Part of the problem is of course that newbies don't know what is "obvious" and tried before in varying degrees.
A business, startup or not, is not a solution to a problem (that's called a product). It is a series of solutions to a series of problems. As some of these problems are caused by the aforementioned solutions, it's important to be able to spot problems, and select the problems to solve, to continue the series. When the series stops, the business stops, even if the solutions live on.
What you're saying here is that you want someone to believe you can maintain such a series of problems and solutions, _without_ the ability to spot or select problems.
I am going to go against the grain here and say I like what you did. Whether it works or not depends on the personalities and mood of the targets, of course, but it's different and counts for something in my book.
Of course, you should be mindful of the pressures from YCombinator. If they accept your challenge, they will have to either
(1) do it in such a way that there aren't a lot of copycats; or
(2) if it is wildly successful (they discover you, the group that builds, not the next dropbox, and not the next facebook, but the first dropface), they'll try to find a way to incorporate it into their business waters.
YCombinator is breaking new ground and trying different things. I think this was worth a shot. Maybe a "team challenge" will become part of the interview process eventually.
Patrick is right: networking your way in can be better. But it can also fail. Having a network connection can sometimes get you a courtesy audience, but it may do so in a way that is done as a favor to someone rather than someone who is actually excited about meeting you. It also can take a lot of time to build that network, at least if you do it organically. Indeed, most of us are on the lookout for the sniveling idiots whose only function in life seems to be to network. In the early part of the century a lot of folks thought that was a good idea. However, we quickly learned that most of the good people were working, not networking.
Besides, if this doesn't work you can always try networking.
