Ask HN: How did/would you move yourself to the Valley for YC? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did/would you move yourself to the Valley for YC?

3 pointse1ven3 comments

I know that YC has applicants from around the country, and abroad.. I'd be very interested in hearing how you got yourselves to San Francisco for a reasonable budget.

A good friend of mine has been looking into applying to YC this year, and I'm trying to help figure out the logistics. In the event that he was accepted, it seems like hiring a moving van would cost nearly $3K by itself.

You could do PODS or a competitor for $2K, but if you're coming from the east coast, that's still a huge chunk of the initial YC investment. And that's potentially per founder!

Best option I can see would be to sell/give away everything except what fits in one car, drive out, and start life with 95% less stuff.

People usually have too much stuff anyway. A fresh start isn't the worst recommendation in the world, but it's still more than many people would agree to.

Are there any other reasonable options? How have other YC companies dealt with this? Does YC/PG have any standard advice?

A fresh start is great - clear the decks and boil your life down to what's most important - namely your ideas, hard work, inspiration, friendships, relationships, etc (in no particular order).

In terms of more standard advice for moving things, you can pack your belongings onto a standard pallet and ship the to yourself using your company name.

Shipping a pallet is much less expensive than your other options, but you need to ensure that your things are very-well packed onto the pallet. Obviously furniture doesn't apply here because it's too big or bulky, just smaller or pack-able items like clothes and other things that you place in boxes. It's important to watch a video or two about properly packing a pallet, because the goods can slip/shift a lot if not properly packed.

For furniture, there's a very active furniture-recycling scene in California and you can easily find free, or used furniture for cheap.

Good Luck!

Why would people move all their stuff to the Valley just for YC? Isn't YC a 3 month program?

If you're going to relocate to the Valley for YC and beyond then you should really just sell your furniture and start over. I moved from DC to NY for similar reasons, I found it to be barely cheaper to move my stuff than sell/rebuy, and that was only for a 225-mile move.

That's what I'm doing whether we get into YC or not we're planning on moving to Cali just bc there's better opportunities for programmers. We're selling most of our stuff and saving money like crazy. Also I have an online job that allows me to work from home. If you find something like you could move and still work while in Cali.

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