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The median household income is about 50k/yr in the US, so "livable" or not, it's being lived on by (more than) half the population. Plenty of people would jump

The median household income is about 50k/yr in the US, so "livable" or not, it's being lived on by (more than) half the population. Plenty of people would jump at being paid $35k for a year plus have $15k in tooling + materials. Lots of craftsmen would be able to establish a new business with that level of funding. I think you have unrealistic beliefs about how things work.

jlarocco 10y ago
> I think you have unrealistic beliefs about how things work. Do I? What percentage of VC money goes to people living in areas where $50k would be a good year's salary? It's practically 0. YCombinator won't even invest in companies that won't move to the valley. http://www.ycombinator.com/faq/#q21 http://www.ycombinator.com/faq/#q21
- SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
  A small but not trivial amount of VC capital, but that's not what people are responding to. For somewhere like Seattle or Las Vegas, 50k/year is a reasonable seed round salary. However, most people are just commenting that you're wrong about 50k/year not being livable for most of the country. Almost everywhere, including places like Seattle, 50k/year is what half the households make, so works for an individual salary. It's the vast minority where 50k/year isnt livable for a single person. Of course, that's also partly what people are calling out elsewhere in the thread: high VC spending close to them is about social connections rather than what makes economic sense. I expect that if you had the capital, you could eat most VC's lunch by just spending everywhere but those hyper expensive areas.
- tylerlh 10y ago
  Founders need to live in the Bay Area during the 3-month period in which they're participating in the YC batch, but I believe companies are free to move to wherever they'd like once that period is over. I can think of a couple that were based in Chattanooga (median income ~36k) and moved back there after YC.

jlarocco 10y ago

> I think you have unrealistic beliefs about how things work. Do I? What percentage of VC money goes to people living in areas where $50k would be a good year's salary? It's practically 0. YCombinator won't even invest in companies that won't move to the valley. http://www.ycombinator.com/faq/#q21 http://www.ycombinator.com/faq/#q21

SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
A small but not trivial amount of VC capital, but that's not what people are responding to. For somewhere like Seattle or Las Vegas, 50k/year is a reasonable seed round salary. However, most people are just commenting that you're wrong about 50k/year not being livable for most of the country. Almost everywhere, including places like Seattle, 50k/year is what half the households make, so works for an individual salary. It's the vast minority where 50k/year isnt livable for a single person. Of course, that's also partly what people are calling out elsewhere in the thread: high VC spending close to them is about social connections rather than what makes economic sense. I expect that if you had the capital, you could eat most VC's lunch by just spending everywhere but those hyper expensive areas.
tylerlh 10y ago
Founders need to live in the Bay Area during the 3-month period in which they're participating in the YC batch, but I believe companies are free to move to wherever they'd like once that period is over. I can think of a couple that were based in Chattanooga (median income ~36k) and moved back there after YC.