The best summary I have heard of whether or not to apply is:
"If you think you might need YC, you need it. If you think you might not need YC, you need it. If you are ABSOLUTELY SURE you don't need YC, you probably still do, but maybe not."
"If you think you might need YC, you need it. If you think you might not need YC, you need it. If you are ABSOLUTELY SURE you don't need YC, you probably still do, but maybe not."
YC is a great boost in the right direction, but most people that apply won't be accepted. What should they do? Well, if they were serious in the first place, they should start their company anyway. People who want to start companies should start companies; people who just want to get into YC (and assume that they'll then be on the gilded path) shouldn't do either.
Last I checked, doing YC requires one to live in the USA, a place that has been rapidly increasing in insanity for the last ten years or so. That's a net loss for anyone who values their basic freedoms.
Then again, some value customers, cash flow, and shareholder value more than their own personal liberties, so the "net loss" calculation will vary from individual to individual -- but note well that it will probably only become more likely as the US becomes worse.
Plot the points from the PATRIOT act to the TSA harassment and groping and throw _that_ graph in your deck.
YC has never required you to live in the US beyond the 3 months that the program runs. They strongly recommend it, but there are a handful of YC companies headquartered elsewhere (with the largest contingent in and around London).
2) Short of bussing down to Mexico and flying home from there, how would one avoid sexual assault at the hands of the US government after the program ends?
3) Whoever solves this telepresence issue for problems like this once and for all will make a mint.
2 - I've flown in and out of the US numerous times this year and have yet to be "molested" or even go through millimeter wave scanning. Even then the radiation dose is minuscule. You'll get more exposure to radiation on the flight itself than in the scan. Don't let your fear rule you.
3 - Telepresence isn't the problem; the 8-hour time difference is. Technology will not surpass this unless one side becomes nocturnal
I routinely spend two months a year in the US, and have never had a problem with the IRS over this. When I raised the issue with an accountant he bust out laughing. "Patrick, if the only refrigerator you own is in Japan and turned on right now, this is not a close call."