
Startup School is going global - katm
http://blog.ycombinator.com/startup-school-is-going-global
======
jw2013
Yet another respectable move for YC. Hopefully this will spur more global
interest in starting a startup. One thing I really appreciate YC in recent
year is making the startup school videos online so those can't attend will not
miss the talk. Of course those attend will meet tons of amazing people.
Bringing in smart and talented people into one room just sparks insightful
conversations. First in valley, and now globally.

Thanks, YC. That is so unselfish.

~~~
davidw
> One thing I really appreciate YC in recent year is making the startup school
> videos online so those can't attend will not miss the talk. Of course those
> attend will meet tons of amazing people.

Conferences in this day and age are strange beasts. The value of going to
listen to someone is, IMO, lower relative to the past because of videos, and,
even better, transcripts and notetakers who summarize and eliminate all the
blah blah blah. The value of talking to people in person though, is still
pretty high, as well as serendipitous meetings and discussions. I'd love to
see people experiment with different formats that involve less of the former
and maximize the latter.

~~~
grrowl
I go to conferences because the level of passion and excitement in the
discussions (and friendly arguments) had there greatly surpasses anything I've
come across at a meetup. It's a shame they usually cost almost $1000 or more
apiece.

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krat0sprakhar
> We're starting with New York and London, but in the coming years we hope to
> head to Asia, South America and Africa.

I hope they have India on their radar! It would be awesome for the Indian
Startup scene to hear all those great speakers live!

~~~
prayag
I doubt YC would want to enter India market. For all the talent and
entrepreneurial spirit that Indians have our startup culture sucks. There are
several reasons:

1\. The infrastructure: India doesn't have the tech infrastructure. Take the 3
major e-commerce requirements for example: internet access, online payment and
delivery. Even the basic internet infrastructure in India sucks. Most people
access the internet over their phones because getting home internet is still a
pricey affair for most people. A pretty small number of people have access to
credit cards and for those who do, processing payment online is a huge pain.
The postal infrastructure is also pretty bad. India post is flaky and other
courier companies are pretty bad or expensive or both.

2\. Government interference: Indian government is inconsistent, heavy-handed
and has very little interest in improving the tech sector. Most state
governments are downright hostile.

3\. Lack of exit opportunities: Indian tech sector lacks big players who can
provide the entrepreneurs and investors meaningful exits. The culture of
acquisitions as a meaningful way to get market advantage is not there. Your
only hope is sell to a American or a European company looking to gain a
foothold in the region (rare) or IPO (even rarer).

4\. Corruption and general apathy: To get anything meaningful done in India is
a struggle. From getting setup as a company to getting a good internet
connection. You have to fight corruption and apathy of the organizations (both
public and private) you are dealing with.

5\. Labor laws: Labor laws in India are a joke. They are a relic of the
socialist times and are heavily biased on the side of the employees. Setting
up any type of manufacturing or operations in India is a legal nightmare. If
that's not enough, the trade unions operate as a mafia and its downright
dangerous to deal with them.

There is a lot of opportunity in India too but until we overcome the problems
that entrepreneurs and investors face, Indian tech startup scene would never
take off.

~~~
rdl
I thought the idea of Startup School was to "sell" YC to founders there, along
with the implicit idea of moving to SV. Seems like a stronger case for India
than a lot of other places (great founders, but fucked up environment, so they
have the most relative advantage to moving, especially if they can keep enough
connections to India to continue to recruit for remote or relo.)

~~~
prayag
I don't know what Sama's plan is but it doesn't scale very well. If you plan
to fund thousands of promising startups, I don't know if you would want to
bring them all to the US. The biggest reason for that for the first few years
startups succeed more in one geographical region (as in one industry industry
segment and one customer profile) and asking them to move might not be the
best of idea. It will work for some but will destroy some other promising
companies.

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higherpurpose
UK is too far for most of Europe. Berlin would've been a more optimal choice.
UK has pretty poor/insane border policies, too, as we all know by now, and not
too eager to visit it.

~~~
ardit33
Yep. Germany is part of the Schengen accord, and most people from Europe can
travel there without a visa (even if they are not part of the EU yet). While
England requires visas for most countries.

Also, London is not really a tech center anyways. Poor choice.

~~~
amirmc
> _" Also, London is not really a tech center anyways. Poor choice."_

A lot of tech companies have made London their base, including some prominent
YC companies. London is so big that it's many things to many people so if you
think it's 'not really a tech center', please elaborate why.

~~~
tim333
For what it's worth entrepreneur.com had London as #7 globally in the Top 20
Startup Ecosystems, the highest in Europe but well behind SV and Tel Aviv.
[http://www.entrepreneur.com/dbimages/article/the-
worlds-20-h...](http://www.entrepreneur.com/dbimages/article/the-
worlds-20-hottest-startup-scenes.jpg)

------
KeepTalking
I appreciate the idea of making startup school a more global event. Frankly
speaking for a lot of entrepreneurs making a trip to the bay area can be a
substantial dent on their pockets. I attended the previous year's startup
school and the experience and outcomes was phenomenal. I hope the quality of
speakers continues to maintain the current high standards and provide deep and
much needed insight.

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rdl
This is a great idea!

I wonder how YC could do a "Startup School Asia" \-- in general, for a larger
percentage of Asian founders, travel between countries in Asia is difficult,
compared to European founders (where IMO you could have SS in virtually any
major city and be no worse than 50% as good as any other in terms of access;
London is great but expensive, Berlin would be my pick.)

Singapore is probably the easiest and best choice for Asia, but there are
strong arguments for HK/SZ, Beijing, Shanghai, one of ~10 cities in India,
etc.

~~~
katm
There was a lot of debate over whether we should do the first European SUS in
London or Berlin. Both cities are great and each has its benefits.

We have some awesome YC alum in London (and the YC community there is
growing), and we're excited that they'll be joining us in July. We'd love to
do something in Berlin as well.

~~~
rdl
IMO the best way for YC to do something to start with in Germany would be to
get involved in CCC/31c3. (CCC is a weird combination of IEEE/ACM and
hackerspaces, and huge in Germany)

A "how to turn your project into a company? should you, and why?" talk by YC
(ideally, with European YC company founders, ideally in the product spaces
most interesting to CCC hackers) would be awesome. The downside is it's 27-30
DEC in Hamburg.

~~~
amirmc
In principle there isn't any reason a YC partner couldn't just give a talk if
they wanted to. For example Harj did a session at HackerNews London just over
two years ago [1]. I don't recall it being an official 'YC Event', just one of
the partners who happened to be in the UK at the time and was willing to do
it.

However, looking at the current list of YC partners [2], I don't see many that
might have ties to Europe, such that they'd be visiting much (never mind the
imposition of giving up family/holiday time to give a 'work' talk).

[1] [http://vimeo.com/30800728](http://vimeo.com/30800728)

[2] [http://ycombinator.com/people.html](http://ycombinator.com/people.html)

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larrys
"Startup School is a free, one-day event where you'll hear stories and
practical advice from founders and investors."

Not being a fan of rah rah one day type seminars [1] I'd like to know the
percentage of people who attend these types of 1 day events and actually go
away with something tangible that allows them to create something as opposed
to just feeling good or pumped up for a short period.

Separately, the act of actually traveling somewhere to attend is a bit
different [2] than not traveling or not being able to (for reasons other than
money). I wonder how that will change the benefits of the material presented.

[1] Forgetting the quality level, which I'm sure is high, it reminds me of
real estate or investment seminars that go from town to town. (Of course those
also have another ulterior purpose (to sell books or dvd's)).

Edit [2] I mean the level of commitment would seem to be higher for someone
who actually decides to make a journey and attend to better their future vs.
someone who doesn't (not that people who attend locally wouldn't travel of
course..)

~~~
alain94040
I see the value as twofold:

a) being inspired [by the right kind of founders, not get-rich-quick schemes]
and pumped up. It could mean the difference between launching your startup and
staying in your comfy day job

b) random encounters of other people who are more like you than most people
you meet everyday. That also has tremendous value. But you'll never know if
you never show up.

------
AndrewKemendo
I am looking to apply to the New York instance, as it is close to where I am
located, however I am not exactly sure what someone would get out of going.
From the outset it seems as though it would be very valuable to go, but I
can't really tell what the tangible benefits are from going.

It is clear that I would be able to see world class speakers - but I can also
do that online as I did last year when I watched a large portion of the talks
posted. So is it also a networking event (obviously all these are that to some
degree)?

I guess I am just trying to figure out if it is worth taking a day away from
my startup, and spend money to get up to NYC to go (assuming I even got in).
Can anyone with experience having gone to one of these give some insight?
Thanks.

~~~
novaleaf
If you are in the "in" group, there's an invite-only event the night before.
That is obviously valuable as you will have been vetted in some way thus draw
more attention from vc's etc.

Otherwise, if you've seen the videos of previous years, you'll get exactly the
same (which is quite good), however I am disappointed in the lack of slides to
go with the presenter video recordings.

So if you don't have an in for the pre-event, there's not a whole lot to be
gained by a physical presence.

~~~
bra-ket
God, this is obnoxious, why do you need to desperately try to draw attention
of the freaking VCs? They will come to you and beg on a doorstep for a
precious minute of your time if you have a working business. Talk to users and
iterate on your product, don't waste your time listening to god damn
inspirational talks and schmoozing with investors.

~~~
novaleaf
not saying you desperately need to do anything, just stating the only real
benefits of a physical presence I see....

------
larrys
Question for the OP, YC, PG, dang, or anyone else.

YC owns both startupschool.com and startupschool.org but you have the .com
redirecting to the .org

While .org can be (and often is used) for anything it is typically associated
with organizations and more specifically non-profits [1]. So I'm curious why
you don't simply have this info under the .com since obviously the
overwhelming majority of your involvement is on a for profit basis (the
companies you fund are almost always for profit) and the school, while free,
is really a marketing feeder for YC which is for profit.

[1] Source: Me, I've been doing this "domain thing" since the mid 90's.

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hershel
I wonder , is this a part of an effort to scale YC globally ?

~~~
jfoster
Could be testing the waters for that. Could also be prep work for a
contingency plan if US startup visas don't happen.

~~~
kintamanimatt
I'm under the impression that the UK will grant a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa
to founders that have access to £50,000 in VC funding[0]. It would make a lot
of sense of YC to open up shop here in the UK.

[0] [https://www.gov.uk/tier-1-entrepreneur/access-
to-50000-inves...](https://www.gov.uk/tier-1-entrepreneur/access-
to-50000-investment-funds)

------
rainboiboi
Good to know that I'll be able to make it to the one in London during my trip
to Europe. Anyone knows the invitation rate or how they assess the attendees?

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tomek_zemla
Montreal is a beautiful city to have a Startup School in...

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mobiplayer
Just applied for the London event. For a second I was surprised to see that
"going global" meant "New York" until another second later I've read "London",
which still isn't global but a step forward. Very happy to see you guys coming
around!

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HorizonXP
I've made the trip out to Startup School for the past few years. I'll still go
to the original one, but now that I'm back on the east coast, it'll be nice to
hang out in a similar event with a different crowd. Excited!

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zck
What's the recommendation on applying to multiple Startup Schools? I've been
to the last two, but I live in NYC. Do you consider it rude to apply to NYC
now, and the Valley one in the fall, and take up two spots?

~~~
jl
I'd recommend limiting your attendance to one. Our goal with SUS has always
been to share a lot of useful and inspirational advice from startup experts.
We'd like to keep as many seats open as possible for people who've never been.

~~~
tonyhb
Is it OK to apply to both? I'm living in NY but am from London so I checked
both on the off chance that one was full.

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ig1
It's worth noting that it's a national holiday in the UK today so many of the
local HN regulars are likely to miss this announcement so it might be worth
making another one at some point prior to the deadline.

~~~
kintamanimatt
It worked out for us — it's 10am the next day and it's prominently placed, so
we won't have missed it!

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workoy
Stepping out of your hometown to do a one day workshop is going global ...
yay.

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vjvj
It seems like it's aimed purely at developers & designers, but from past
sessions, this would be useful for any kind of founder.

What's the deal for technically minded founders that aren't devs/designers?

~~~
amirmc
Just apply. The form is pretty simple and will only take a few mins to fill
out. There's no need to 'pre-reject' yourself.

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pskittle
Thanks for the update! is there a list to get on for other countries?

~~~
katm
You'd likely hear the news here first. But you can sign up for YC's mailing
list: [http://eepurl.com/G3Aiz](http://eepurl.com/G3Aiz)

~~~
pskittle
Just did , Thnx!

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johnpt
This is great news for us in Europe. Thank you!!!

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dlp211
I never new about this, but I would love to go. And they are coming to NY
which is awesome because that is where I am, except for about 4 days in June
(one of which is the 18th) when I'll of course be in Mountain View. Maybe next
year :(.

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dalek2point3
are videos from previous startup schools available online?

~~~
katm
Videos from SUS 2012 and 2013 are on YouTube. Playlists for each are here:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg/pla...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcefcZRL2oaA_uBNeo5UOWg/playlists)

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Keats
Right during the Europython for the London one.

That's annoying.

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loceng
Wow. This will be interesting to watch. :)

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markovbling
Please come to Cape Town! :)

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graycat
Interesting that Silicon Valley believes that going to NYC is "going
international"!

~~~
mobiplayer
Watch out mate, I've been voted down into oblivion for saying the same (and
adding that with London it's okayish to say "global").

Obviously the idea is to attract European and Middle East attendance in the
London event and I think it is a good choice. Pretty much any airport in
Europe flies to London and there are plenty of low cost flights (Ryanair,
Wizzair, Vueling, Norwegian, Easyjet, etc) as opposed to e.g. Berlin.

~~~
graycat
Yes, a post like mine, intended to be comedy, can be too close to the line of
nasty criticism and look mean. But it was fun to take the opportunity to crack
a joke suggesting that Silicon Valley is so insular that they regard NYC as
going international!

That's a lot of air traffic just for warm beer! But, where do people in London
live? I mean with all the Russian and Mideast money buying up all the
properties, a little one room condo goes for, what, $20 million?

And, England is a huge step down from where it was when Di was alive.

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melindajb
95% of the best founders are outside the US? Really? if that were the case
we'd have seen a lot more publicly traded companies of the size of Yahoo,
Microsoft, Intel, eBay, etc. If it could have happened, it would have
happened. We aren't even tapping the founder set we have in the US
proportionally.

I applaud the concept of adding diversity to the pool (even-gasp! people with
accents--) but I have a sneaking suspicion this is really about finding
cheaper labor for the us based companies in the end. What investors are really
going to put money into companies in countries in Africa and Asia where
property rights, IP, and other laws don't protect companies as well as the US?
What about places that demand even more corporate taxes? Color me skeptical.

~~~
jackgavigan
US Population: 317,987,522 World Population: 7,164,066,667

Source: United States Census Bureau -
[http://www.census.gov/popclock/](http://www.census.gov/popclock/)

By those estimates, the United States accounts for less than 4.44% of the
world's population. Or, to put it another way, more than 95% of the world's
population is outside the US.

So, unless you believe that there is something special about people in the
United States that makes them better founders than people from other
countries, it's not a massive stretch of the imagination to conclude that
there are 19x as many good founders outside the US as there are inside it.

~~~
dlp211
Actually I would argue that it is a big stretch of the imagination that there
are 19x as many good founders outside the US. The problem is by the
opportunity provided of where people live, their status is society, and a
variety of other factors such as available education, access to technology
etc. For that reason the multiplier has to be much less.

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erikb
So yes, I would like to join "SC Europe" but I won't be able to make it to
"London". Maybe call it "SC London"?

