I think there is some risk of that. But commitment isn't static. A lot of incredible companies started with founders who were just toying with an idea and weren't committed at all, then they became more committed over time as things started to work.
No it isn't. I, and many I know, would never trade away 100+ hours at a namebrand investment bank/PE firm/consulting firm to work 100+ hours at a startup. It's not what I would recommend nor is it what many people I know would recommend, some of whom are billionaires. The constant advice is to always work at the best possible opportunity the first few years of your career, then step into entrepreneurship. You'll then have an idea of things actually work in the world. And I say this as someone who went the other way around (startup first before working in corporate).
We might, and I'm sure you're right that there are many great founders not applying to do YC because they don't want to move here.
But I think it would be a better analogy to compare YC to a university, rather than to a company. It's true that many companies operate remotely very effectively. But essentially zero universities have stayed remote since the early days of the pandemic.
I agree, to add on - I think places like Open University are absolutely fantastic for folks who want to learn but have other "real world" responsibilities. The last time I heard a out OU was when a new parent was happy having being able to get a degree from there (while I think studying at night).
In Canada a lot of well-known schools are shifting much of their delivery to online. They're limited by the government how much they can charge/increase while international student visas have been cut dramatically. It's an existentially moment for international-focused schools, but even the best traditional universities are hurting.
The bigger problem for Canadian universities is that they have never had their funding restored to pre-austerity levels by the various levels of government.
>> But essentially zero universities have stayed remote since the early days of the pandemic.
This is not true. I know several people at different institutions - decent schools - that have most or (in one case) all of their courses (at Queens) via remote delivery.
Because a university's ability to charge the prices they do depends on people being on location. Nobody is going to pay 50k or 100k for an online course.
Plus if rich fucks can't buy a building to put their name on that kids will walk through they won't donate money.
You make it sound like it's a decision based on school administrators putting learning first.
I like how other than being triggered by the word rich fucks your reply has nothing to do with universities being remote or in person, just you bragging about personal accomplishments? I mean congratulations, but universities are still going to charge more by requiring you to go on location.
Y Combinator (yes, the people who run this site) | Full stack web and AI | San Francisco | Onsite | Fulltime
YC itself hires software engineers from time to time. Many people don't know that YC has a small but very important software team. We run several websites - not just this one, but also workatastartup.com (the main way YC companies hire), a social network for YC founders, and the core infrastructure that YC itself runs on.
Recently, we've been spending most of our time building our own AI agents. Over the last year, YC has mostly funded AI agent companies, so it's been cool to go really deep building our own AI agents too. We're building agents to automate every aspect of what we do, and pushing the limits of what's possible with the current models to do it.
An unusual aspect of being on the YC software team is that you'll get full access to the YC program, founders and partners. The YC batch runs in the same building we work out of, so there are talks with famous founders happening most nights, right downstairs in our building. If you want to start a startup someday, working at YC would be an excellent jumping off point - several YC companies have come from team members who decided to start their own company.
YC works fully in-person in SF. We're happy to help you move here if you're in the US already. Unfortunately we can't sponsor new visas, but we're happy to transfer existing ones.
YC offers highly competitive compensation and benefits.
