So all those years of "the only place in the country that you can possibly start a company is in San Francisco" turned out to be nonsense?
COVID really forced a shakeup of the status quo with remote work. We all saw that coming.
What I didn’t see coming was the massive amount of capital floating around in this COVID economy. Investors previously had the upper hand because they controlled a scarce resource, but now they’re all fighting to get allocations in interesting startups. Investors have to branch out of the usual startup cities to find deals.
Should be interesting for the startup world. I don’t see SF declining as a startup hotspot, but at least it’s no longer the only acceptable option.
This is not a new phenomenon and certainly not caused by COVID. For years now you could raise a few million by having Stanford/MIT/Berkeley/etc somewhere on your resume and a half baked idea about AI or Blockchain
COVID forced so many things, including an acceleration of a trend toward distributed advice. It's entirely possible (probable?) SF was the best place to start a company. It probably still is 2-10x better than the next startup hub for a complete outsider to break into startups. However, what I think is changing is that for insiders, ie ex big tech employees, or former founders, SF / SFBA at large are no longer requisite.
I believe it is primarily to maximize your immersion and focus on your startup. If this is true remote will definitely not work as well.
>> But if almost everyone in tech is remote.
This is not true now, let alone in the next 6-12 months.
People’s mindsets regarding investing and buying services from non consensus locations likely has dramatically changed.
1. Any YC advice does not apply to all companies, but only to startups.
2. YC has funded companies in many places.
3. YC is not in SF.
4. This announcement doesn't say anything about location.
The two definitions are equivalent though.
What will be interesting is if we move back towards in-person meetups or keep doing them online.