There's talent in every region, and I think it should be a priority to figure out ways to unlock it without re-siting companies in SFBA and NYC, but it's worth noting here that YC's SFBA-centricity is not an outcome of their belief that there's no talent outside SFBA. It's the opposite: they assume they're importing that talent to the area.
The YC SFBA thing is about network effects from companies working in close proximity, and about the investor market (1) believing the same thing and (2) having themselves an even more significant network effect that keeps them all in the same area.
woah, locking your investments into a single geographic area, how innovative and forward thinking! especially for a tech company! I really hope nothing bad happens that reduces the value of in-person networking or shared commercial office space, or God forbid someone invents a gadget that lets people work from places other than where they live
You don't have to like it, and it doesn't have to rationalize with whatever your conception of how innovation works is. I don't like San Francisco either. My point is that you have to at least engage with the SFBA argument that YC is making.
I work for a large-ish all-remote YC company in which none of the founders live in the Bay Area (or in the same city, for that matter). People have some odd ideas of how YC actually works.
The YC SFBA thing is about network effects from companies working in close proximity, and about the investor market (1) believing the same thing and (2) having themselves an even more significant network effect that keeps them all in the same area.