I'm putting on a Y Combinator panel at SXSW 09 and I'd like your vote (and feedback)

I'd like to hear long-term stories of life before, during, and after YC, for the companies/founders. Not just snapshots of today. Ideally with low-level details that provide the true insights, obstacles and challenges faced and (how they were overcome or bypassed), and the life journey.

When reading books (especially those of founders/companies/history/philosophy), it is the long-term journey that I find most interesting.

I think it would be worthwhile to hear the value of not agonizing over technology decisions for too long.

I think it'd be interesting to compare early-YC (when it was a pool of 5 companies per session) versus current-YC (20+ companies).

Stats are also pretty popular-- how many are alive, how many got bought, how many got angel funded, how many got Series A, etc.

And, to turn around the question question PG asked every dinner guest in our YC experience , "What most surprised you about the experience?"

Any experiences from people who have started companies both with and without help from YC? That could provide the most clear picture of YC's benefits, although it might sound a bit too much like a sales pitch.

It would be interesting to hear summary stats about the aggregate so far - number of teams, number of founders, number of products released, number of angel rounds (average size?), acquisitions (average acquisition price?), and Series A's (average size?), distribution of ages, distributions of sexes, even number of college graduates and from where, from which states/countries - more data = more interesting! Even something like the distribution of percentage stakes YC has received would be really interesting. Great idea though - five stars from me too.