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YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#441

Post by sremani »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #234
sremani wrote: post #12

May be this is a dumb question, I will ask it anyway, Tijuana Mexico is about 500 miles from Bay Area, where as Vancouver Canada is 1000 miles. Que Canada?

How are you comparing Tijuana to Vancouver? I have lived in Tijuana. It's one of the worst cities in Mexico. Guadalajara or Mexico City would make much more sense, but even they can't compare to Vancouver. I openly say that the bridge that connects the Tijuana airport directly to the United States is the best thing that ever happened to the city.

I have never been to either of the cities, my question is a question of curiosity, that is why I qualified it with probably being a dumb question.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#442

Post by ruleabidinguser »

tptacek wrote: post #436
ruleabidinguser wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Given that this was the administration's attempt to implement a ban on Muslims entering the country This is an inflammatory comment, and not a given. > When insane people are in power, anything is possible Also inflammatory. >Maybe some big attack is carried out by a radicalized Muslim from France or Sweden, and the response is to ban entries from there. I'd have called this idea absurd not too long ago, but now I c…

No, it's not inflammatory. You don't have to agree with it or condone the idea of a blanket ban on Muslims --- you don't even have to stop supporting Trump to believe we shouldn't ban Muslims. What you can't do is object to facts that are simply on the record. Trump said early in the election cycle that he supported a ban on Muslims, and then after the election Rudolph Giuliani looked straight into a TV news camera a…

Sorry, I wasn't aware that he was openly for a muslim ban and that this was openly a muslim ban. I'm very used to people misinterpreting his words which is what I assumed was going on here.

And as far as trump supporters go I'm hardly one, but I probably fall more on that side of the spectrum.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#443

Post by keepper »

xiaoma wrote: post #320
khuey wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the most critical weakeness of Silicon Valley is real estate costs. I find it hard to imagine Beijing as a serious competitor though. If it were going to be anywhere in China I would expect it to be Shenzhen.

Shenzhen is a very different thing. It's important but not a challenger to SV. Huge startups come out of Beijing because it's the hub where the top students, founders, investors and regulators are. If you look at Fortune's list of unicorns, 3 of the top 10 are in Beijing. As they build, they're strengthening the founder/techie/investor ecosystem in the city even further. http://fortune.com/unicorns/

By that logic, Boston's Route 128 would have continued to be the "tech alley" of America. [1]

Just having the talent, a silicon valley doesn't make. Its about the culture of collaboration and openness.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/the-valley-of-my-dreams-wh...

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#444

Post by crazy1van »

l8again wrote: post #181
crazy1van wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any stats on how many prior YC founders were from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen?

I am curious to know why you think that's a relevant question?

Based on their statement YC believes the travel ban will affect their ability to conduct interviews. I was trying to get a rough feel for the magnitude of the effect by looking at previous YC startups.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#445

Post by chongli »

jimmyk wrote: post #430
chongli wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What conclusions are you referring to, in particular? The respective ones. If you collected statistics about Americans in the back of a squad car, you'd conclude that Americans are a bunch of criminals (shocker of shockers). That's the point: it's just about the silliest, most extreme way to bias your sample.

Are you saying that police officers, by virtue of the fact that they primarily interact with criminals, would conclude that people here on, say, student visas are a bunch of criminals?

No, I didn't suggest that at all. Read again.

Police officers have a completely different view of immigrants than do people on college campuses.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#446

Post by tn13 »

neptunespear wrote: post #402
ng12 wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you still live in the 1980's? Belle Haven is not gangland.

The area bordered by US 101, Willow Road and the Union Pacific tracks is an exception. However, the rest of EMP makes Vancouver's Downtown Eastside or even the neighbourhood of Whalley in Surrey look like the most peaceful, crime-free utopia that has ever existed. At least we don't have Nortenos and Surenos blowing each others' heads off like in adjacent East Palo Alto.

I think you are totally wrong on this one.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#447

Post by arcticbull »

kbenson wrote: post #246
xiaoma wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese concepts of race and nationality are hopelessly intertwined and Chinese nationalism has been increasing , not decreasing, over the past generation. In recent times, the very best chance of China becoming open—even in comparison to its neighbors—was in the late 80s... and we all know how that ended. The climate hasn't gotten close to being that tolerant since, and in the past five years, political control has…

> Of course it is possible to reverse course and open up, but it would take quite a bit of time to change in the ways you're suggesting. Interestingly, it might not need to open up all that soon to still reap the benefits. If in the future the US is also not very open, but China is apparently making strides to become more open, that could affect long term planning. I also wonder if China, having more control and less…

I would expect that role to be filled more by Hong Kong than by the mainland, and in Hong Kong's case, that's how permanent residency works. If you maintain uninterrupted residency in the HKSAR for a period of 7 years, you get your HKID.

It's also a relatively open place for foreigners, English is commonly spoken (and an official language, so all government documents can be completed in English, and all laws translated). Except when meddled with, it retains a high degree of autonomy from the mainland, and very much follows rule of law under HK basic law. Due to it's unique situation, it's also fairly apolitical.

HK companies also have the advantage of not being taxed on non-HK source revenue and have no trouble doing business with/in the mainland.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#448

Post by curiousfiddler »

If you don't provide opportunity and a good civil environment to brilliant/enterprising people, they will find a way elsewhere. And once Vancouver or any other city starts working for them, Silicon Valley will lose its exclusivity. The thing to note here is that this response from YC is not a political one, but a response that came out of market demand; it is pretty significant if it works out.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#449

Post by tptacek »

ruleabidinguser wrote: post #442
tptacek wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not inflammatory. You don't have to agree with it or condone the idea of a blanket ban on Muslims --- you don't even have to stop supporting Trump to believe we shouldn't ban Muslims. What you can't do is object to facts that are simply on the record. Trump said early in the election cycle that he supported a ban on Muslims, and then after the election Rudolph Giuliani looked straight into a TV news camera a…

Sorry, I wasn't aware that he was openly for a muslim ban and that this was openly a muslim ban. I'm very used to people misinterpreting his words which is what I assumed was going on here. And as far as trump supporters go I'm hardly one, but I probably fall more on that side of the spectrum.

This is one of those things where you're certainly entitled to argue the point --- maybe it isn't a Muslim ban! But there's enough evidence at this point so that you can't be outraged when someone else claims it's a Muslim ban, just like you can't be outraged if someone believes in anthropogenic global warming, or, for that matter, in the economic flaws in high minimum wages or rent control. The Muslim ban is firmly in the zone of "issues reasonable people can bring up casually".

(Another way to be inflammatory would be to introduce the Muslim ban unbidden as a distraction in a discussion about something else; for instance, if I said "rent control is a bad idea" and someone else said "if you believe that you might as well believe the Muslim ban is OK". But as you can see that's not what happened here.)

Either way, thanks for the chill response.

Re: YC will hold interviews in Vancouver for founders who can’t get US visas

#450

Post by nl »

mehaveaccount wrote: post #214
clamprecht wrote: post #4

Wow. We often wonder how the Bay Area would be unseated as startup capital of the world. Maybe it'll be the US's immigration problem.

Calexit would allow California to bring in anyone they want though, and SF wouldn't have to worry about the US immigration policy screwing up it's tech scene. I'm looking forward to the Calexit proposition vote.

Obviously this is a joke.

In case it isn't: the war that would follow an attempted Calexit might be slightly detrimental to startups in the Bay Area.

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