I trust that you have well intentions, but I'd like to dispute most of your points. (I was once a YC founder -- that startup had since been shut down) 1. YC's

I trust that you have well intentions, but I'd like to dispute most of your points. (I was once a YC founder -- that startup had since been shut down) 1. YC's investment amount can cover your costs while in SF, but not much more than that. If you have family to support back home, it may not even be enough for that. If your startup didn't have other investments already, you're also on the hook to raise funds at the end of YC too, or else you're in another bad place. 2 & 3. Having been a YC founder on your resume does not make you a gold standard everywhere, you still pretty much go through the exact same hoops at interviews everywhere. I job-hunted after our YC startup shut down. It was not any easier than before YC. In fact, it seemed like it was harder (not because of YC experience but because the overall environment for software engineering interviews got a lot different than I last job-hunted 10+ years before that). In the end I landed at a place I'm very happy at now as a regular ol' senior engineer, but it was certainly not effortless. Of course, YC is awesome and there is no downside for the company or yourself to getting accepted. But definitely not riskless if you have a family to support and you don't already have a lot of savings as safety net.