“We would not have applied should YC have been in person for S20. We were running a UK-regulated fintech at the time so it would have been very disruptive for us to move into a time zone which is 8 hours away from all our customers. YC being remote meant that we could stay close to customers while getting all the benefits of Office Hours, the talks, sharing metrics, etc. For founders based outside of the Bay Area / US like us, who plan to remain based outside of the Bay Area, remote can actually be a big plus. Plus, thanks to YC in large part, the US is now one of our largest markets.” — Jamie Parker (<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.herondata.io//">Heron Data</a>)</p>\n<p>“We were able to keep building our hardware product and working in the lab while doing YC, which probably would have been almost impossible if we had to go to SF for the summer.” — Michael Dubrovsky (<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://Www.SiPhox.bio/">SiPhox)
/n“One point of initial worry was about the participation of investors during the remote YC Demo Day. But we realized that it turned out as a huge advantage, because now we had 2K+ investors logging in remotely from different parts of the world to listen to our pitches. Hence, we were able to talk to way more potential investors than what we had anticipated. Second point of worry was networking with batchmates and building long-term bonds. I think it turned out fine and I am still close to a few companies from my batch. The group office hours and post demo day fundraising got us closer. And I don’t think we missed out on it.” — Saurabh Nangia (<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://thepeoplemesh.com//">Mesh)
/n(A common misconception about YC is that founders do a lot of socializing during the batch. This has never been the case because founders are way too busy. The friendships tend to happen afterwards, either in small self-organized groups or at alumni events.)</p>\n<p>“At the end of the day, we saw the remote thing as an opportunity to focus more on the business.” — Manav Kohli (<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://polyoperations.com//">PolyOps)
/nYC is a three-month opportunity to concentrate on your startup, alongside others who are doing the same, with access to the best resources to unblock you. If you have any more questions, I’d check out this <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">page or you can email the admissions team at apply@ycombinator.com.</p>\n<p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://apply.ycombinator.com//">Apply to YC Summer 2021</a>.</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1104754","feature_image":null,"featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2021-03-14T23:04:30.000-07:00","updated_at":"2021-10-20T10:52:05.000-07:00","published_at":"2021-03-14T23:04:30.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a7","name":"Lindsay Amos","slug":"lindsay-amos","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/Lindsay.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Lindsay Amos is the Senior Director of Communications at Y Combinator. In 2010, she was one of the first 30 employees at Square and the company’s first comms hire.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/lindsay-amos/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710a7","name":"Lindsay Amos","slug":"lindsay-amos","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/Lindsay.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Lindsay Amos is the Senior Director of Communications at Y Combinator. In 2010, she was one of the first 30 employees at Square and the company’s first comms hire.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/lindsay-amos/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/apply-to-yc-summer-2021/","excerpt":"The deadline to apply to the Y Combinator Summer 2021 batch\n[https://apply.ycombinator.com/] is Friday, March 19 at 8pm PT. Due to COVID-19,\nSummer 2021 will be the third batch in a row to be fully remote.\n\nWe occasionally get questions about what a remote batch is like. Our 2020 Year\nin Review [https://blog.ycombinator.com/2020-year-in-review/] is helpful here,\nand I thought I’d include some quotes from when I asked founders from Summer\n2020 (our first all remote batch) about their experience.\n","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71b9c","uuid":"9e46fe56-a434-4081-9696-c3bc1e90e602","title":"An Update on YC S20 International Interviews","slug":"an-update-on-yc-s20-international-interviews","html":"<!--kg-card-begin: html--><p><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-s20-batch-updates//">The Summer 2020 batch is still on</a>, however due to safety concerns relating to COVID-19, YC staff will no longer be traveling to do interviews. We will still be interviewing startups from all over the world (with safety modifications), but local interviews in Bangalore, Paris and São Paulo are canceled.</p>\n<p>To keep founders and YC staff safe, we won’t be making founders travel for interviews and are testing out solutions for remote interviews. They will be like normal YC interviews in every way, except done remotely. We’ll keep everyone updated as things progress.</p>\n<p>The application deadline was on Monday, March 16 but as always, you can still <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">apply late</a>.</p>\n<!--kg-card-end: html-->","comment_id":"1104230","feature_image":null,"featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2020-03-17T03:31:59.000-07:00","updated_at":"2021-10-20T10:52:50.000-07:00","published_at":"2020-03-17T03:31:59.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710d1","name":"Y Combinator","slug":"y-combinator","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/1200px-Y_Combinator_logo.svg.png","cover_image":null,"bio":"Y Combinator created a new model for funding early stage startups. Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200).\r\n\r\nThe startups move to Silicon","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/y-combinator/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/an-update-on-yc-s20-international-interviews/","excerpt":"The Summer 2020 batch is still on, however due to safetyconcerns relating to COVID-19, YC staff will no longer be traveling to dointerviews. We will still be interviewing startups from all over the world (withsafety modifications), but local interviews in Bangalore, Paris and São Pauloare canceled.To keep founders and YC staff safe, we won’t be making founders travel forinterviews and are testing out solutions for remote interviews.","reading_time":0,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71c07","uuid":"c2233b91-77a7-46da-bace-85a0e7e1b73d","title":"Now Accepting Applications for YC Summer 2022","slug":"now-accepting-applications-for-yc-summer-2022","html":"<p>The Winter 2022 batch is underway, and we’re excited to announce that we’re now accepting applications for Summer 2022. The summer batch will be remote with some optional in-person components depending on the pandemic. We will invest a total of $500,000 in every company accepted into the batch as part of our <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/">new standard deal</a>.</p><p>We will be offering an early deadline again this batch for founders who need early access to YC advice and resources. The early deadline is <strong><strong>January 31 at 8pm PT</strong></strong>, and we will be holding interviews in mid-February and early March. The founders who tend to get the most out of the early deadline are those who are actively fundraising; they benefit from advice on terms, investors, and timing before signing anything.</p><p>If you’re not sure whether you should apply early, you’re probably better off waiting until the regular deadline: <strong><strong>March </strong>24<strong> at 8pm PT</strong></strong>.</p><p>Whether you apply by our early deadline or our regular deadline, the latest you’ll hear back from us with a decision is <strong><strong>May 19</strong></strong>. The reason this is a ways away is because we know how much can change in a matter of months, and we want to give founders the option to update their applications. But if there are timing considerations we should be aware of, please make a note on your application. We’re happy to give you an answer sooner if you need it.</p><p>Apply early for the YC Summer 2022 batch <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/">here.
","comment_id":"61e645f0144a7c0001fe157e","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/01/Accepting-applications.png","featured":false,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2022-01-17T20:45:36.000-08:00","updated_at":"2022-02-17T12:31:41.000-08:00","published_at":"2022-01-11T20:45:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"The Winter 2022 batch is underway, and we’re excited to announce that we’re now accepting applications for Summer 2022. We will invest a total of $500,000 in every company accepted into the batch as part of our new standard deal.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c8","name":"Stephanie Simon","slug":"stephanie","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/steph-af6b11e61b7a3c55b099c780fe0a359236ceaab496850b530d178aedb8cefb2c.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Stephanie Simon is the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. \n\nPrior to YC, she was a software engineer at Earnest and co-founded Murmur, a venture-backed local search startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/stephanie/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c8","name":"Stephanie Simon","slug":"stephanie","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/steph-af6b11e61b7a3c55b099c780fe0a359236ceaab496850b530d178aedb8cefb2c.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Stephanie Simon is the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. \n\nPrior to YC, she was a software engineer at Earnest and co-founded Murmur, a venture-backed local search startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/stephanie/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/now-accepting-applications-for-yc-summer-2022/","excerpt":"The Winter 2022 batch is underway, and we’re excited to announce that we’re now accepting applications for Summer 2022. We will invest a total of $500,000 in every company accepted into the batch as part of our new standard deal.","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null},{"id":"63ed7c5ebb97530001aa5cd2","uuid":"c2766136-77ff-4a0c-9a1f-9d50f593e6b9","title":"Why would you start a startup in an economic downturn?","slug":"why-would-you-start-a-startup-in-an-economic-downturn","html":"<p>There will likely be a recession in 2023, and the major downsides to starting a startup are obvious: There is less money in the system so selling and fundraising are harder; investors have less money to invest and companies have less money to spend on products.</p><p>But these are also reasons it’s an especially good time to start a startup, especially with YC.</p><p>Cost-sensitive customers can be helpful in the early days of your company. If they pay you in this tough environment, it's a stronger signal. There’s a higher likelihood you’re building something they really want.</p><p>And though our <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/">new standard deal</a> of $500,000 gives you some slack, you will likely have to develop very smart habits around spending because fundraising is harder. Learning how to <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.paulgraham.com/aord.html/">stay alive</a> is arguably the most important skill you can have as a founder.</p><p>I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two of the top YC companies, Airbnb and Stripe, were started in the depths of the last recession (2009).* They learned how important it is to build something people want and not assume investors will be there to save them early on.</p><p>None of this is new. It’s common knowledge, especially in the tech community, that many successful startups were created during recessions (just search “startups + recession” and you’ll find a bunch of articles), which may be one reason we’ve seen high numbers of applications from founders leaving their big tech company jobs, especially in the last couple of months.</p><p>If running a startup is like commanding an army, then YC is elite basic training. You’ll learn how to navigate the challenges (or realize you’re not up for it) when your company is small and with the support of advisors and YC batchmates. You’ll build a solid foundation of learning how to build something people want and staying alive. </p><p>The YC training prepares you by default for succeeding through recessions. And it’s easier to internalize that training today when the macroenvironment supports it. The alternative is learning it on the battlefield when the stakes are way higher — when you’ve already raised money and have employees who depend on you. </p><p>As YC founder Paul Graham <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"http://www.paulgraham.com/die.html/">wrote, “Bad shit is coming. It always is in a startup.” If you’re interested in starting a startup, we’re entering a counterintuitively good time to do it. It won’t be easy, but if you get through the early days, you’ll be better prepared than most. And if the challenge excites you, you probably have the right personality for it.</p><p>*Their products were also tailored to a cost-sensitive environment. Stripe made it easier for brick-and-mortar businesses to cut costs by selling online and Airbnb created a new income stream for hosts and lower-priced accommodations for travelers.</p>","comment_id":"63ed7c5ebb97530001aa5cd2","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/02/stephblog.png","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-02-15T16:44:14.000-08:00","updated_at":"2023-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00","published_at":"2023-02-21T08:30:00.000-08:00","custom_excerpt":"In an economic downturn, there are obvious downsides of starting a startup — but there are also powerful upsides; because to survive, you have to *actually* build something people want.","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"authors":[{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c8","name":"Stephanie Simon","slug":"stephanie","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2022/02/steph-af6b11e61b7a3c55b099c780fe0a359236ceaab496850b530d178aedb8cefb2c.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Stephanie Simon is the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. \n\nPrior to YC, she was a software engineer at Earnest and co-founded Murmur, a venture-backed local search startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/stephanie/"}],"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7116d","name":"Essay","slug":"essay","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/essay/"},{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a7117d","name":"Admissions","slug":"admissions","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/admissions/"},{"id":"63ed8ba5bb97530001aa5ced","name":"#271","slug":"hash-271","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"},{"id":"63ed8ba5bb97530001aa5cee","name":"#240","slug":"hash-240","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"internal","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/404/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"61fe29e3c7139e0001a710c8","name":"Stephanie Simon","slug":"stephanie","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2022/02/steph-af6b11e61b7a3c55b099c780fe0a359236ceaab496850b530d178aedb8cefb2c.jpg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Stephanie Simon is the Head of Admissions at Y Combinator. \n\nPrior to YC, she was a software engineer at Earnest and co-founded Murmur, a venture-backed local search startup.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/stephanie/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71173","name":"YC News","slug":"yc-news","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/yc-news/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/why-would-you-start-a-startup-in-an-economic-downturn/","excerpt":"In an economic downturn, there are obvious downsides of starting a startup — but there are also powerful upsides; because to survive, you have to *actually* build something people want.","reading_time":2,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":null,"feature_image_caption":null}]},"url":"/blog/apply-to-yc-summer-2021","version":null,"rails_context":{"railsEnv":"production","inMailer":false,"i18nLocale":"en","i18nDefaultLocale":"en","href":"https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/apply-to-yc-summer-2021","location":"/blog/apply-to-yc-summer-2021","scheme":"https","host":"www.ycombinator.com","port":null,"pathname":"/blog/apply-to-yc-summer-2021","search":null,"httpAcceptLanguage":"en, *","applyBatchLong":"Winter 2024","applyBatchShort":"W2024","applyDeadlineShort":"October 13","ycdcRetroMode":true,"currentUser":null,"serverSide":true},"id":"ycdc_new/pages/BlogPage-react-component-8e96e7cd-ba9e-4f31-89aa-0a4325ee0b91","server_side":true}" data-reactroot="">Apply to YC Summer 2021
by Lindsay Amos3/15/2021
The deadline to apply to the Y Combinator Summer 2021 batch is Friday, March 19 at 8pm PT. Due to COVID-19, Summer 2021 will be the third batch in a row to be fully remote.
We occasionally get questions about what a remote batch is like. Our 2020 Year in Review is helpful here, and I thought I’d include some quotes from when I asked founders from Summer 2020 (our first all remote batch) about their experience.
“Remote was super helpful, especially due to immigration reasons. Was cool meeting batch-mates over video. Special shout out to the MarketForce team in Kenya :).” — Dipo Areoye (Icon)
“We would not have applied should YC have been in person for S20. We were running a UK-regulated fintech at the time so it would have been very disruptive for us to move into a time zone which is 8 hours away from all our customers. YC being remote meant that we could stay close to customers while getting all the benefits of Office Hours, the talks, sharing metrics, etc. For founders based outside of the Bay Area / US like us, who plan to remain based outside of the Bay Area, remote can actually be a big plus. Plus, thanks to YC in large part, the US is now one of our largest markets.” — Jamie Parker (Heron Data)
“We were able to keep building our hardware product and working in the lab while doing YC, which probably would have been almost impossible if we had to go to SF for the summer.” — Michael Dubrovsky (SiPhox)
“One point of initial worry was about the participation of investors during the remote YC Demo Day. But we realized that it turned out as a huge advantage, because now we had 2K+ investors logging in remotely from different parts of the world to listen to our pitches. Hence, we were able to talk to way more potential investors than what we had anticipated. Second point of worry was networking with batchmates and building long-term bonds. I think it turned out fine and I am still close to a few companies from my batch. The group office hours and post demo day fundraising got us closer. And I don’t think we missed out on it.” — Saurabh Nangia (Mesh)
(A common misconception about YC is that founders do a lot of socializing during the batch. This has never been the case because founders are way too busy. The friendships tend to happen afterwards, either in small self-organized groups or at alumni events.)
“At the end of the day, we saw the remote thing as an opportunity to focus more on the business.” — Manav Kohli (PolyOps)
YC is a three-month opportunity to concentrate on your startup, alongside others who are doing the same, with access to the best resources to unblock you. If you have any more questions, I’d check out this page or you can email the admissions team at apply@ycombinator.com.
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Lindsay Amos
Lindsay Amos is the Senior Director of Communications at Y Combinator. In 2010, she was one of the first 30 employees at Square and the company’s first comms hire.