Dalton &amp; Michael</a>, we discuss the hot button issue of… living in the Bay Area! If you’re starting a company, does it need to be in San Francisco?<br><br>One rare aspect of this episode: it’s one where Michael and I disagree.<br><br><strong>In this episode, we talk about: </strong></p><ul><li>The pros and cons of living in the Bay Area, while trying to cut through all of the noise startup founders hear on where to live.</li><li>The one big advantage of living in the Bay Area in this moment, which is<strong> </strong><a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmEyx9TEkRw\%22>maximizing luck</strong></a>.</li><li>The network effects of living in the Bay Area. These effects aren’t always obvious to people who don’t live here; sometimes they aren’t even obvious to the people making use of them.</li><li>Why you want to be around the top .001% of people in your field, and why for startups that means being in the Bay Area.</li></ul><figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZqGOCF4O6ks?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Does Your Startup Need To Be In San Francisco?\"></iframe></figure><p>Michael lives right in the middle of San Francisco. I live about 30 minutes outside of SF. 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For those founders who are doing ML and need GPU resources for training ML models, in addition to YC’s <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/">standard deal</a> investment of $500,000, we’ve put together new deals worth over $1,000,000+ that can be used to access GPU compute resources with Microsoft Azure and AWS.</p><p></p><p><strong>FAQ</strong></p><p><em>What if I already applied to W24?</em></p><p>Unfortunately, you won’t be eligible. This is only for founders who did not already apply for W24, since we already sent out notifications for our regular application cycle.</p><p><em>What if I apply before December 13th?</em></p><p>That's fine.  You’ll hear back from us by December 20th.</p><p><em>Am I too early to apply to YC if all I have is just an idea? Should I wait until I have more traction?</em></p><p>No, if you have at least one co-founder and you are all excited to do a startup, it would be a mistake to wait to apply. 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Does your startup need to be in SF? Dalton & Michael say...

by Dalton Caldwell8/1/2023

YC Group Partners Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel in front of the text "The Great Debate"

In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we discuss the hot button issue of… living in the Bay Area! If you’re starting a company, does it need to be in San Francisco?

One rare aspect of this episode: it’s one where Michael and I disagree.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • The pros and cons of living in the Bay Area, while trying to cut through all of the noise startup founders hear on where to live.
  • The one big advantage of living in the Bay Area in this moment, which is maximizing luck.
  • The network effects of living in the Bay Area. These effects aren’t always obvious to people who don’t live here; sometimes they aren’t even obvious to the people making use of them.
  • Why you want to be around the top .001% of people in your field, and why for startups that means being in the Bay Area.

Michael lives right in the middle of San Francisco. I live about 30 minutes outside of SF. While we disagree on exactly where we each want to live, we agree on this: if you want to maximize your odds of success as a founder — and why wouldn’t you want that? — you should live in the Bay Area.

Author

  • Dalton Caldwell

    Dalton is Managing Director, Architect and Group Partner at YC. He was the cofounder and CEO of imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009), and the cofounder and CEO of App.net.