the other 4/5 are doing just enough to keep their jobs. duh. what's the point in trying if there's really nothing in it for you? everyone knows that if you want a raise, you need to get another job.
Technically what Guy Kawasaki has is a "web startup"... But it's more like "web page". Yes, the costs for making a web page are pretty small. It's just a bulletin board system with voting.
Let's not kid ourselves, if you're a programmer you can make a site like that in a few weeks in your spare time. Once you incorporate you are a ... web startup.
reddit got its first users because Paul Graham linked to it. Remember it was a yc company. They were getting something like 3000 users a day in the first days. To me it seems that's the best reason to be a yc company, because you trade some share of your company to get free press and free traffic. Which is kind of expensive if you don't get it for free.
In your case I would perhaps consider finding a partner or something to link to you.
I think the corporate world is designed to eliminate any desire of employees to work on their own ideas. Work takes up a lot more of your time and energy than you imagine. Even if you only work 40 hours a week.
In reality you get up, spend 30 minutes getting ready, another hour eating and commuting, more like 9-10 hours a work, another 30min or an hour getting home. After this whole ordeal you don't have any desire to even THINK about anything except relaxing.
On the weekends you're trying hard to find something to do that gives your life some kind of meaning besides the job you have.. something that doesn't include sitting in front of a computer.
The only way you can really work on something of your own is to quit your job and live off your savings. And still it's up for debate how much one person, without any investment can achieve working by themselves. You might be able to make a simple website.. But you won't be able to pay to promote it.
It's pretty obvious what Paul Grahams goal is. He wants to pay some kids a laughable amount of money to write code for an idea he likes. He then uses his popularity to promote those websites. He basically gets coders for cheap. He's not stupid or anything, it's just he gets the better end of the deal than the kids he gives $5k to.
If you have an idea that paul graham likes, you're better off not taking the money.