In this context, Ravi who became cofounder of Heap certainly didn't take that route. He was and is fantastic and if anything I'm surprised Airplane wasn't even more successful because of his involvement.

I don't have all the early context, but my understanding (vaguely) is that Heap went through two different incubators, and after one Ravi came on to be cofounder at YC where Heap raised its seed round.