I think people will be surprised how well this works.<p>There are a lot of great startups that will be born in these times. Many of them will be "remote native" -- operated remotely, remote YC, and potentially tackling problems that have arisen due to the remote world we're living in.<p>After this crisis is over, some things will go back to normal, but a lot of the changes will endure to varying degrees.<p>I think people are used to the power of in-person connection and physical reality, and most of us are craving it. But an incredible amount can happen in digital reality, and we are only just beginning to scratch that surface.<p>At <i>minimum</i> it is an interesting and necessary experiment.
If they now would be able to invest in foreign companies like GmbHs or UK Limiteds it would be perfect. I understand why they don’t want to do that but I think for a lot of companies to which YC could be interesting (us included) it’s simply not possible or very difficult to do a flip to a US company.
Nice, you can now capture that talent pool that would otherwise not want to relocate to California even for a stint. Hope this becomes a trend once normal life resumes, with YC and other investors.
Applications for S20 ended on March 16th, haven't they? I wanted to apply but definitely could not travel, this change makes it interesting/possible again but I'm not sure it's not already too late to apply.
I understand circumstances are forcing this to happen, but if online batches are now a possibility, the FAQs should be updated:<p>"Can we do it without moving to where you are?"<p>Sorry, no. We tried this once, and by Demo Day that startup was way behind the rest. What we do, we have to do in person. We would not be doing a startup a favor by not making them come to YC events in person.<p>However, you don't have to be in silicon valley 24x7. If you have a business that requires that you be somewhere else, we will work something out so you can participate in YC events while also being attentive to your business. Usually the founders will rotate between locations, or fly back and forth.<p>Of course, after the 3 month program, you can go wherever you want.
I've worked remotely for the past 3.5 years. As one of two employees at a small statup, at a startup that started remote friendly and then revoked it, and now at a startup that is moving towards being remote equal (25% and rising).<p>Not that long compared to others here, but long enough to have seen things that work and seen things that don't work, and with sufficiently varied approaches. I think there's reasons why this will work, but I also wonder if they would have screened the startups slightly differently if they knew they were going to do the whole batch remotely. Working in an all remote environment require different communication skills than working in an office.<p>I also wonder how easy it'll be for founders to put in 16+ hour days while working from home. It's easy to 'stay late at the office', but I think it is harder to contain myself in my office while doing that. Maybe that's just a me thing, but I think it can be a real issue... I wonder if founders will simply hole up in the same living space somehow during quarantine; I could see that working, that's basically I've seen friends who've been in YC do anyway. It just might be harder to do in this environment.
Looking forward to this if we are accepted, I think on the company's end, a lot of us worry about transmission of covid 19 and this just provides a safer environment.<p>This crisis is a test of a company's flexibility, since the lockdown started we had to do a hard pivot from onsite to remote services and we're just getting traction.<p>Remote work is here to stay and so is remote services. It's a new frontier/market to explore.
How is VC sentiment during the pandemic? My first assumption is that they're more hesitant than usual to invest, but I've heard from peers that some VCs are now working even harder to make sure their most promising companies have the resources to survive past the crisis. Something about lessons learned from the startups that came out of the Great Recession.
Good! I have a potential job that I am quite interested in taking, so I may not end up applying after all, but should that fall through I'll be applying.
We have specifically built airsend (<a href="https://www.airsend.io/" rel="nofollow">https://www.airsend.io/</a>) to solve remote collaboration use cases like this (especially if the use case involves collaboration among multiple teams across organization boundaries). We will be thrilled if YC could check us out. AirSend will be a great addition to YC's online platform, video conferencing and founders forum.
Save your time and do not read this rant:<p>If they know the application is sure to be rejected, why don't they reject it fast? I really don't understand why can't people reject things fast enough! University takes 5 months to reject the application, interviews take 2-3 weeks to reject. If they just happen to know, reject immediately. This whole process is too slow.