I have to say that I love this idea. It addresses the biggest deficiency in the typical Silicon Valley VC funding model, in that it requires moving to Silicon Valley. It also bridges the gap in low-level seed funding which stops many ideas from becoming reality. Perhaps you could call this "catalyst-stage funding" since it will probably reduce the activation energy for getting many ideas started (to use a physics analogy).
So, in short, go YC, you rock!
That said, I have a few questions:
1) Any idea of how many slots are open for this round? I expect you will get many more applications than YC normally gets.
2) Some teams may have members with families who won't want to move to SV and will work remotely. Other teams may have members who can and want to move. Some teams may have a mix. What are your thoughts on splitting a team, having some remote and some in SV? Would this provide advantages over having no one in SV, or would splitting the team have so many downsides that it would be better to be all remote?
3) For a team that already has a prototype and is beginning to work on getting customers, but is not able to relocate, would YCF be a good choice?
1) Around 20 -- we want to keep this test batch small. If successful, we'd grow future batches.
2) I think it would depend on your company and what you're trying to do. I can think of advantages to either way, and if accepted it's something we can talk about.
3) If you're just starting to get customers (or struggling with it), still apply. It will be a judgement call on whether you're too far along and should just apply to YC W16, but relocating or not won't make a difference in that assessment.
So, in short, go YC, you rock!
That said, I have a few questions:
1) Any idea of how many slots are open for this round? I expect you will get many more applications than YC normally gets.
2) Some teams may have members with families who won't want to move to SV and will work remotely. Other teams may have members who can and want to move. Some teams may have a mix. What are your thoughts on splitting a team, having some remote and some in SV? Would this provide advantages over having no one in SV, or would splitting the team have so many downsides that it would be better to be all remote?
3) For a team that already has a prototype and is beginning to work on getting customers, but is not able to relocate, would YCF be a good choice?