One advantage of funding so many startups is that we can observe trends among them. Immigration issues seem to be the single biggest external source of pain for startups right now.
The second biggest is the iPhone app store approval process. And the two have a lot in common: absolute judgements made by people who don't really understand what they're judging, and who are not subject to any kind of external forces themselves.
Agreed, the limits placed on immigration in the US is quite bizarre, which is likely to prevent people from paying taxes and profits into the US.
I'm a writer and I see a lot of similarities in myself to start-up's and the general population here on HN. Our essential constraint for developing is access to a computer, and you can do that anywhere, but as immigrants we move for quality of life. I'm going to write wherever I am, it's a simple fact and I'm sure everyone on her will develop wherever they are, which is the same for any immigrant.
I'm lucky that I benefited from my move. Any sale I make to Europe (I'm from the UK) now cover the loss for selling to a foreign market (roughly 1/3 loss due to paying translators and a foreign editor) by the exchange rate potentially doubling my income, so I still make 32% more per sale for cost of living than I would in the UK for equivalent sale without being punished for sales to the US (essentially a 1/3 cut and then a 1/2 cut on top of that for the exchange rate, meaning having to sell 5 copies in the US for 1 in the UK).
Again I'm lucky that my cost of living decreased while my quality of life increased, and this isn't the case for immigrants from poorer countries. Immigrant developers are moving to the US for an increased quality of life for a decreased cost of living when compared to their job. They'll spend much more money in the US than they would in India or wherever they come from, so the whole reason they want to move is assimilation, which the xenophobes are incapable of grasping due to either wilful or unwilful ignorance.
Startups with non-US founders, by and large, probably don't experience the same level of pain with immigration as startups with US founders. That's because most startups with non-US founders aren't in the US and never have to deal with US immigration policies, which are reputedly the most troublesome in the world.
So I think Maciej's point stands: if you were funding companies that weren't in the US, you would be less likely to think immigration issues seemed to be the single biggest external source of pain for startups right now.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how you could have interpreted Maciej's comment so as to think that your response might make sense. Can you elucidate?
Do you think there would be an advantage for a ycombinator like group that wasn't based in the United States? Or do other venture capitalists have this covered?
There are several people I'd like to hire, but can't because they're outside the US. It's really too bad, because they're a perfect fit for our team. We've been looking in the US but can't find anyone that fits nearly as well. <sigh>
It's not always about the existence of talented people. You tend to know a lot more about friends, family, and old coworkers than the 10,000+ people in the US who are ready, willing, and able to do the job, but which you don't happen to know. And it's hard to separate dependable, knowledgeable people that get stuff done, from the sea of idiots out there.
Can you provide some specifics? You say you observe this trend in YC startups? Is it because people are applying as they finish school and need a different visa to stay and participate in YC? Is it because you get lots of applicants from people not in the U.S. and they can't even get a visa to fly over for the interview? It can't be because the founders can't "hire" good talent. The YC process isn't enough to pay salaries.
YC startups grow up and get funding and then can pay salaries. Pg gets to observe that too.
But I think PG was mainly referring to non-US YC applicants that want to continue staying in the valley after the 3 months. In general a YC round is about 10-20% foreign
The second biggest is the iPhone app store approval process. And the two have a lot in common: absolute judgements made by people who don't really understand what they're judging, and who are not subject to any kind of external forces themselves.