Excellent article, but this little section misses the mark slightly.
YC would be a pretty lonely place if we only had one company per batch. And yet it's true.
The point is that not only would it be lonely, it would also be impossible to pick that one perfect company per batch. (Well, not impossible, but vanishingly unlikely.)
And I think pg understands this well, as shown by the rest of the article - a person or investment team can't possibly pick that 1000-bagger without it being a complete lottery. So you invest in a large number, knowing that most of them won't do too much, a few will tank, and one in a hundred will be a grand slam that pays for all the others.
YC would be a pretty lonely place if we only had one company per batch. And yet it's true.
The point is that not only would it be lonely, it would also be impossible to pick that one perfect company per batch. (Well, not impossible, but vanishingly unlikely.)
And I think pg understands this well, as shown by the rest of the article - a person or investment team can't possibly pick that 1000-bagger without it being a complete lottery. So you invest in a large number, knowing that most of them won't do too much, a few will tank, and one in a hundred will be a grand slam that pays for all the others.