Yet with the high rents and the lack of universal healthcare it takes a crazy person to take such a risk. I personally will start my startup from abroad when the time is right.
Yes, it’s still risky. But at least you’re still understood because of the pervasive startup culture in SV. Everyone in SV can relate to startups. I think what’s tough outside of SV is that people don’t relate to startups. People might think you’re just weird.
Investors want to meet a slightly smarter but younger version of themselves. This makes them feel comfortable with the risk of their investment, they imagine all kinds of congruencies between you and them, even if they don't exist. They want to convey some nugget of wisdom that you, the entrepreneur, reverence as they key to their success. But most of all, they want you to be a money tree that buds and flowers and bears fruit continually, to the degree the generated revenues are a problem. Anything less, and they go silent for a while before applying pressures with rarely helpful advice from non-technology or old-technology backgrounds.
Some VCs want to see you have a good team that works together, and some combination of good ideas and work history that makes it seem like your startup will take off even if you have to pivot and give up your current prototype.
Others are having a midlife crisis and want to be your new rich dad, or they want a cult leader who makes them feel smart and throws cool insider parties. In this case it helps to be a white guy or at least Elizabeth Holmes.
One would hope YC is the first since we’re on their website, but having read pg’s essays and noticed his advice for startups is half post hoc fallacies (“use Lisp because I did”) and half is unethical (“don’t hire women or people with accents to get culture fit”) I dunno.
There's a strong distance effect, where investors will invest more easily companies located near them. It could be that this will change after a year of experience with doing everything online, but it's been true historically.
