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Actually 5/27 is probably lower than the proportion who've usually launched by this point. I must be losing my launch-nagging edge.

Are there many companies that have launched before YC? Do you encourage or discourage this?

Yes, there are quite a lot. E.g. Virtualmin, which IIRC had been around for about a year before YC. Or Airbnb, which had been for almost that long.

We don't encourage or discourage it. We care much more about how good companies are than how long they've been working.