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For as much as people like to hate on open offices on HN, it still baffles me why there aren't more Y Combinator startups founded with remote work or private of

For as much as people like to hate on open offices on HN, it still baffles me why there aren't more Y Combinator startups founded with remote work or private offices as core company principles. Just a guess, but I wonder if the decision to just go with open offices has to do with the ability to scale such a plan quickly and easily, whereas scaling a remote team is too difficult or building or rearranging private offices takes too long and costs too much. A possibly poor analogy might be the difference between going with some cloud provider which scales more quickly vs building out your own server which is more costly and possibly more difficult to maintain.

iaw 10y ago
I think most people running start-ups are not anywhere near as talented or insightful as they are portrayed, in fact I think some of them are super insecure and have to portray themselves as "thought leaders." This leads to a situation where leadership can't honestly acknowledge when they've made a bad decision.
eob 10y ago
We (Cloudstitch, YC S15) are building remote work into our company DNA right from the start. It's been an educational journey, and we're stronger team because of it. One thing we've learned is that "diversity" is so much more than just race/gender/ethnicity. Geographic location, even within the US, can be a profound contributor to the diversity of ideas, experiences, and opportunities. Makes you realize a non-remote team is living in a [geographic] bubble by definition. If you're interested in building a better web stack / CMS that integrates with your office suite, give us a holler at hello@cloudstitch.com :-) PS: Re open office plans in early-stage startups, I suspect cost savings are a driving factor.
jgrant27 10y ago
What would you guess the average years of experience are for a Y Combinator founder ? I say this not as a judgement but simply because people earlier on in their careers often need more face to face guidance to help them get to the point where they have more experience.
wott 10y ago
Where would they put the foosball tables if they rent no office?

iaw 10y ago

I think most people running start-ups are not anywhere near as talented or insightful as they are portrayed, in fact I think some of them are super insecure and have to portray themselves as "thought leaders." This leads to a situation where leadership can't honestly acknowledge when they've made a bad decision.

eob 10y ago

We (Cloudstitch, YC S15) are building remote work into our company DNA right from the start. It's been an educational journey, and we're stronger team because of it. One thing we've learned is that "diversity" is so much more than just race/gender/ethnicity. Geographic location, even within the US, can be a profound contributor to the diversity of ideas, experiences, and opportunities. Makes you realize a non-remote team is living in a [geographic] bubble by definition. If you're interested in building a better web stack / CMS that integrates with your office suite, give us a holler at hello@cloudstitch.com :-) PS: Re open office plans in early-stage startups, I suspect cost savings are a driving factor.

jgrant27 10y ago

What would you guess the average years of experience are for a Y Combinator founder ? I say this not as a judgement but simply because people earlier on in their careers often need more face to face guidance to help them get to the point where they have more experience.

wott 10y ago

Where would they put the foosball tables if they rent no office?