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Comment by dfranke | Hacker News Reader

If you got accepted into the program, why would you not be able to afford it? YC pays your moving expenses up front.

perhaps 5000+5000n isn't enough to cover your actual expenses for the period.. perhaps you have a mortgage, or dependents, or debt, or a lease that can't be broken, or you need health insurance (see other thread)...

This is why YC's audience is typically college students and very recent grads, who are less likely to have additional obligations. Or, rather, originally the YC concept was geared towards this audience, and the funding amount is an artifact of that.

In theory it's supposed to be suitable for both groups. People who have cheap lives, like recent grads, can actually do everything on our funding. People with expensive lives may not be able to, but they'll also tend to have savings.

Is that true? I didn't pick up on that fact. I just assumed that is was 5K + 5Kn.

Check out #5 and #8 on this page: http://ycombinator.com/s2007.html

I think they will cover whatever you want initially (eg, moving expenses, renting a place), but my interpretation is that that comes out of the 5+5n.

Right - that's what I had assumed. From what was said in the thread above, it sounded like moving costs were above and beyond, which I didn't think they were.

"Moving costs" for anyone inside the US is sure to be less than $1000.

How can you say that with such certainty? I moved from Washington, DC to the Bay Area last fall, and my costs were significantly higher than $1000. Even if I cut all the corners, a hypothetical move to Boston would still cost me thousands of dollars.

If I was doing YC for a summer, I wouldn't need to move. I could just fly there with a couple of suitcases and a laptop, but I'd need some way to cover my existing apartment rent. That's a pretty significant expense over 3 months. And I suspect YC is not looking for companies who see the experience just "doing YC for a summer."

You're trying to do it in one step:

1. Move

It's easier to do it in three steps:

1. "Do YC for a summer" 2. Secure more funding 3. Move

My point was all you need to do YC is a plane ticket and your bags, maybe buy a bed and a desk when you get there.

Fair enough. I probably took your comment a bit too literally. $1000 is not enough to move cross-country, but it probably is enough to relocate for three months. :)

Yes, the moving expenses come out of the 5K + 5Kn. What we mean is that we write you an initial check personally for those.

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