karlosferra

Like I said before, Cuba has been closed to a number of things for 50 years, including internet. However, things are starting to change for good, including internet access.

A few years back, only people from universities or other "privileged" entities, had access to it. Recently there have been changes that allow other sectors of the population to get internet access.

Is there broadband? No. Is it in every home or mobile device? No. But that is where the country that has been closed for 50 years to technology is headed finally.

This on its own constitutes a great business opportunity for any company that leverages that change, for instance.

"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been" - Wayne Gretzky (i heard it from S.Jobs first).

I agree with 1. Especially in countries that don't have anything like this available.

I can speak from Cuba, since I am originally from there. Cuba has been closed for 50 years to America, but that is changing now. There are really smart people, that just don't have the necessary access to capital or good advice.

Creating a branch of YC there would have a tremendous impact for local economy and people in addition of being a great business venture in a market that has been closed for half a century and is finally open. It's also worth mentioning that given the current economic situation, funding a startup in Cuba would only take a small fraction of what it takes to fund it in the US, with a lot of potential ROI since almost every industry can be disrupted significantly.

Hi Sam, Have YC considered doing a lower tier of funding?

Funding 120k is good for early startups, but I think YC could have far more reach and impact if it had an option to provide less capital to a greater number of startups. The purpose being to allow founders to support themselves and fully focus on their startup without having to worry about daily jobs.

I see two major benefits: 1) YC would have greater and broader impact since for the same amount of seed would be possible to found 12-15 more companies that are ready to move from the idea to execution stage.

2) (this touches me personally) For non US founders, we have to worry about rent, food etc. I believe that if founders had the oportunity to fully focus on their startups for 3 months without a daily job, it would have tremendous impact for the early startups, and as a nice side effect YC could have another pool of really good candidates/ideas. At the end of the 3 months the founders would have had a chance to demonstrate themselves, their execution level, etc., at a very low cost.

I truly believe the ROI on something like this would be considerable.

I know that capital is not the only (and arguably not even the most important) advantage of been admitted to YC, but personally speaking, if I had this option 3 years ago I'd have pursued it no questions asked. I feel that there might be other founders that would be in the same boat.

Do you have any thoughts on this? Thanks! Carlos.