The US also provides such a program: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/ https://seedfund.nsf.gov/ > Or just bootstrap, since their costs are lower, free healthcare, etc

The US also provides such a program: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/ https://seedfund.nsf.gov/ > Or just bootstrap, since their costs are lower, free healthcare, etc. Germany does not have free healthcare. From the employer side, the employer is responsible for paying 7.5% of employees income. Among numerous other taxes you’ll need to pay for each employee you bring on. I think a lot of it is probably just the language barrier for YC specifically. Not that German founders don’t speak English, but it’s a whole different ball game trying to fund a startup and hire talent in a country where prospective industry contacts and even employees will need to speak German in order to really feel at home. Not to mention a different regulatory environment. That’s not to say there aren’t accelerators focusing on Germany, because there are. But building such a network when YC is based in the US isn’t an overnight thing. Whereas in the US/UK it’s really trivial to find support, contacts, and devs from all over the world who are willing to relocate just by nature of the fact that the local native language is one they already know.