Another likely difference: expectations for additional fundraising. Paul Graham has advocated for startups to be "default alive" and YC has stated that they are neutral on whether startups choose to do additional fundraising rounds. In contrast, since a16z is a VC firm that is coming down market (and based on their track record), it seems very likely that they will encourage companies to delay profitability in favor of growth and to raise additional rounds (that a16z will participate in).
That's a bunch of BS. Of course YC wants companies to raise additional funding, grow quickly and exit. That's how they make money. They just do it in a less obvious way - but if you watch their videos, read their blog posts etc. - they're all about hypergrowth. I mean, they even have a VC pitch deck template.
Serving VC pitch decks doesn't mean they want want hypergrowth + exits. Having just gone through the W22 batch - it really doesn't feel like they encourage growing quickly and exiting.
Hypergrowth is often what founders want. It's validation of product market fit (and of all the efforts).
