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Comment by jgrahamc | Hacker News Reader

It seems to me that what the UK is crying out for is not a "UK YC" but actually YC. I see lots of activity here in London and I'm guessing that if there were an outpost of YC there'd be a ton of people applying.

Also, whenever I see these programs with a ton of mentors (http://ignite100.com/view/mentors/) I think "quantity over quality". Look at YC: a tiny team of people. You don't need 50 mentors, you need three good ones. Also, Ignite 100 looks like it is a rebranding/relaunching of a previous program called The Difference Engine. I'd like to see some successes from that before judging this program.

And there are quality VCs in London (e.g. Accel has a major office here).

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Agree on the quality/quantity point - I haven't even heard of most of the companies these mentors work for and I'm always a bit dubious when someone describes themselves as a 'serial entrepreneur'.

However, the fact that there are quality VCs in London doesn't help much if you're 'up North' (yes, there is life beyond Watford). It's good to see something like this outside of the South East region.

The problem with geographical dispersion is exactly what YC worries about too. Initially YC was Boston + Silicon Valley and then became Silicon Valley only. If you were going to do a non-Silicon Valley YC then you'd need to put it somewhere where there was high connectivity between entrepreneurs, VCs, engineers, etc. etc. You really need the ecosystem.

In Europe there are probably only two places like that: London and Berlin. And I'd argue that Berlin is far behind London. You could include Tel Aviv as well at a pinch.

It's a fact of life that describing someone as a 'serial' anything rarely inspires confidence.

Accel, Eden, and others.

I agree, btw. Seedcamp (with all its pros) is not YC. If YC did decide to open an outpost here, they would certainly see a lot of interest - despite the weather.

In fact, YC already funds UK and European startups, so although this is a big step (splitting the nest), it would not be that different from what YC does already. A good smattering of tele-conferencing technologies could even help resolve the "pg is not ubiquitous" issue.

Apparently YC's second most common home country for accepted applicants is the UK (tied with Canada) so I don't think the UK really needs a YC outpost as long as people are still willing to make the trip to CA.

As pg says, the silicon valley area is also great for startups. For the brief few months that I've been here as a part of YCS11, it's been fantastic.

this is an interesting stat as I still don't understand how you can get around the "visa" issue of working in the US with a UK passport.

YC doesn't do outposts. They might decide to have an 'ambassador' like Alex was on the East Coast. Dunno how that worked out though.

Edit for your second comment: Meeting the 3 mentors you need is only going to happen if you've had a chance to meet many more. Obviously it wont be the same 3 for everyone. I doubt the YC teams restrict themselves to only getting advice from the YC partners.

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