If the number of applications is higher, we'll probably accept more. It's not certain there will be more applications, though. There are usually fewer for the winter.

A startup is going to compete for the attention of users against many thousands of other companies. Competing against a few hundred, most of which are probably hopeless, doesn't seem that scary to me.

They're made to look bad by how easy it is to apply. If you make a website offering people money if they fill out a form, a lot of people will fill it out. But the odds for a good team are not as bad as they might seem. At least a third of the applications are egregiously broken: 13 year old founders, people who want to "telecommute" from India, people who want us to fund their plumbing supply store, etc...