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The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

magicbell.io

41–50 of 100 posts

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any suggestions? Spain has been a potential target for temporary relocation for me!

I got the impression that English level is really poor in Spain (when I was visiting Valencia, didn't go to Barcelona). Even with younger population - I was going out in the evening with some friends, we approached like 4 groups of 20-something and none of them could even give us basic directions. In shops and tourist places it's better but barely.

English is the most spoken second language in Spain, with ~35% of the population being able to speak it. Portugal is slightly worse at 27%, along with Ukraine (18%), Romania (31%), and Italy (34%). France (39%), Croatia (49%), Estonia (50%), Slovenia (59%), and Greece (51%) are all a bit higher. And then the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg, and Switzerland are all between 60-70%+.

And although I wouldn't worry too much about language too much if your focus is primarily on work, Spanish is perhaps the easiest language to learn as an English speaker. You can achieve professional level fluency in 600 hours of study. Certainly with 80-100 hours of concentrated study and continued practice after that you can learn more than enough to get by in daily life.

Two big advantages with learning Spanish: 1) pronunciation is easy to learn and is the same for both written and spoken Spanish; 2) there are lots of cognates, so if your English vocabulary is good then you already know lots of Spanish words.

Spain is great, but for the purposes of picking a country for working remotely and having a longer runway, I would argue heavily for Mexico over Spain if you're picking a Spanish speaking country. The overall cost of living is low, internet access can be great depending on the area, you'll be on a similar timezone as the US, and services (cooking, laundry, babysitting, etc) are very inexpensive - leaving you with much more time to work (or to use your downtime more effectively than running errands/etc).

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#42
Had some trouble scanning through the article. You have this header

> Tips on applying successfully

And the next subheaders are

>> Talking about my idea only from a customer's perspective

>> Writing to sound impressive

>> Stopping to apply after a couple of rejections

Things were confusing, I had to go back and read the small print after the first header, which says "do NOT do these things". Maybe the first headers should read something like "pitfalls to avoid when applying"? Or rephrasing the sub-headers?

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got the impression that English level is really poor in Spain (when I was visiting Valencia, didn't go to Barcelona). Even with younger population - I was going out in the evening with some friends, we approached like 4 groups of 20-something and none of them could even give us basic directions. In shops and tourist places it's better but barely.

Can confirm, the average level of English in Spain is pretty bad. Even in Madrid, where I lived for a year. It's almost like they're proud of it - AFAIK they're very protective of their language, dubbing every movie (at least until recently), which in turn limits their exposure to English. On the other hand, living in Spain and speaking fluent English can be almost like a superpower in some circumstances.

And why wouldn't they be proud of it? Countries that intentionally focus on their own language (e.g. Japan or France) have managed to maintain more of their own cultures, while smaller ones have been more easily gobbled up by global American culture.

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#44

Had some trouble scanning through the article. You have this header > Tips on applying successfully And the next subheaders are >> Talking about my idea only from a customer's perspective >> Writing to sound impressive >> Stopping to apply after a couple of rejections Things were confusing, I had to go back and read the small print after the first header, which says "do NOT do these things". Maybe the first headers s…

Excellent feedback! I updated the article and used the heading you suggested. Thanks.

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm, the average level of English in Spain is pretty bad. Even in Madrid, where I lived for a year. It's almost like they're proud of it - AFAIK they're very protective of their language, dubbing every movie (at least until recently), which in turn limits their exposure to English. On the other hand, living in Spain and speaking fluent English can be almost like a superpower in some circumstances.

And why wouldn't they be proud of it? Countries that intentionally focus on their own language (e.g. Japan or France) have managed to maintain more of their own cultures, while smaller ones have been more easily gobbled up by global American culture.

Being proud and focusing on your culture, yes. Being proud of not speaking the lingua franca of the world, no.

(And for the record, my native language is Spanish)

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#46

So magicbell is a dropdown displayed with an API? $99 /month for 2000 users? I don't understand what problem is trying to solve your startup. To me it seems that you're trying to sell a library more than a service.

It sounds really simple to do, but we literally spent a month or two implementing a notification inbox, browser push notifications, granular settings and permissions, etc at Spectrum. Even with all that work it was still relatively buggy!

I'm very glad MagicBell is tackling this — I never want to build another notification system myself, I'd much rather pay them to solve this problem for me!

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#47
I would love to hear experiences regarding Remote vs On-site YC. What is the magnitude of difference? How much does the average startup lose out on networking because of the lack of physical presence.

And for people from Europe, is it a net positive that the batch is remote, or is the on-site still better?

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got the impression that English level is really poor in Spain (when I was visiting Valencia, didn't go to Barcelona). Even with younger population - I was going out in the evening with some friends, we approached like 4 groups of 20-something and none of them could even give us basic directions. In shops and tourist places it's better but barely.

Maybe, just maybe, it's on you to learn the local language (even just basics) if you feel like relocating there?

He's not saying it's not his responsibility. He's just stating the difficulty level. Of course it's on you to learn the language, but you also should of course know the culture of where you are thinking of moving.

Re: The Y Combinator Experience – Remote Edition

#50
post #33
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can live off a bunch of years in Spain for that money.

You could easily do that in the USA as well. Median income is $35K and that’s before taxes and without a corporate shell to transform some of the larger living expenses into corporate pre-tax deductions.

Survive, yes. Thrive, no. The USA is an expensive place.
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