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YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

blog.ycombinator.com

81–90 of 93 posts

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised private healthcare isn't more of a drain on the American economy. I often wonder how many businesses aren't started because of that cost.

I often wonder about the impact of a private healthcare system on economic activity too. The truth is, we’ll never really know until there’s some sort of public option.

You can look at Europe for example

Personally I didn't start a company in one country (but moved to another) just because of the high bureaucracy cost and high taxes.

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often wonder about the impact of a private healthcare system on economic activity too. The truth is, we’ll never really know until there’s some sort of public option.

You can look at Europe for example Personally I didn't start a company in one country (but moved to another) just because of the high bureaucracy cost and high taxes.

I know plenty of Europeans that are entrepreneurs who do well for themselves. The American attitude of the European system being incapable of producing anything meaningful because it doesn’t capitulate completely to corporate interests is overplayed. Just look at Arm and the U.K. for example.

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#83

The post fails to specify this, so I hesitated to even bother to click through to the registration page, but this is a free course. Startup School for Future Founders A free, 6-week online course for aspiring startup founders. https://www.startupschool.org/future-founders I wish I had a clearer idea of what kind of schedule and time commitment is involved. I'm tempted to sign up, but I still have a lot of trouble kee…

[deleted]

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#84
post #2

Hey HN! We launched Startup School as an online program in 2017, but it was only for founders who were already actively working on building their companies. Since then we've heard from many folks considering in starting a company in the future, and we realized that a modified version of Startup School could be helpful for them as well. This requires some curriculum tweaks like a much stronger focus on finding and vet…

FYI I just tried signing in via my HN account, but there's an issue where it tries to collect my name and email, but fails because there's no input box for them

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your tech startup should succeeds or fails in spite of the particular corporate credit you choose. I'd have to agree. Instead of "company", think "domain name." Instead of "health insurance", think "I'm in my 20's and don't need it." Instead of "company credit card", think "don't spend anything." Instead of "design/eng. help", think "no budget, DIY", "co-founder" or at most Craigslist gigs. Or just keep working…

Telling someone they don’t need health insurance is irresponsible, there’s plenty of things that can go wrong in your 20s, like a car accident. If they decided not to have that while running a startup not only would they potentially lose their first mover advantage, they’d be saddled in crippling medical debt. One’s health should always come first, you don’t appreciate it until you don’t have it.

> Telling someone they don’t need health insurance is irresponsible

Unless you're offering to pay it, I don't see how your opinion can be taken seriously. Most startups take about 7 years of runway, and at $500-$1,200/month for a single person, those startups won't happen.

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#86
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a requirement to offer health insurance in the US. If you make someone an offer and it doesn’t Include health insurance, and they accept, and the individual mandate isn’t enforced anymore, then theres no additional burden on the company. I’ve been offered jobs without health insurance and didn’t accept them. I’ve contracted for those companies as I’m my own company and have had a group health plan for myself…

$1000 - $1200 per person per month? I know some consultants who can’t find health insurance that cheap. Are those high deductible plans?

The pre-ACA rate was $250/month for one working person. ACA plus inflation doubled that to $500/month, which is out of the reach of flyover country blue-collar wages.

For planning purposes, use $500-$1,200/month for a young single person now.

Historically it goes up around 20% per year, so I'm sure HN readers can do the Rule of 72 in their heads and realize where this is going.

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can look at Europe for example Personally I didn't start a company in one country (but moved to another) just because of the high bureaucracy cost and high taxes.

I know plenty of Europeans that are entrepreneurs who do well for themselves. The American attitude of the European system being incapable of producing anything meaningful because it doesn’t capitulate completely to corporate interests is overplayed. Just look at Arm and the U.K. for example.

> Just look at Arm and the U.K. for example.

Wow, one whole example. And it's owned by the US now.

Most UK "technology companies" are box-shifters retailing American products. Pathetic.

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#88
post #16

IMO, there needs to be a bootstrapping track. Perhaps the bootstrapping track should even be the primary one. Of course YC won't do this, but IMHO, bootstrapping leads to the best chance for young people to quickly become millionaires.

We've talked about this, and may build a track that officially targets this in the future. That said, with the exception of two pieces of content that talk about applying to YC, one piece about understanding SAFE financing, and perhaps part of our video about pitching your startup, really everything else we talk about is the right advice whether you're planning on bootstrapping or raising VC. Learning to build someth…

So if we're bootstrapping side projects instead of looking for angel funding, should we sign up for this future founder track or the original one?

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#89
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1000 - $1200 per person per month? I know some consultants who can’t find health insurance that cheap. Are those high deductible plans?

PPO with moderate deductibles. Are they doing individual or group plans? And sorry, this wasn’t SF proper, though when I managed a plan for 30+ employees in SF it was about $1500/per. That was high deductible with a roll-over HSA match. The broker was helpful in giving us a decent menu to choose from.

$1,500 for an individual HDHP is way on the high end, even for SF. Was the group full of 60 year olds? If it’s young people, it should be in the $500 range at most.

This was the quickest data I could find:

https://www.valuepenguin.com/best-cheap-health-insurance-cal...

Also, what is a rollover HSA match? Any HSA contributions don’t come from the insurance company so I don’t see why that would affect the premium.

Re: YC Startup School for future founders who aren't quite ready to start yet

#90
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a requirement to offer health insurance in the US. If you make someone an offer and it doesn’t Include health insurance, and they accept, and the individual mandate isn’t enforced anymore, then theres no additional burden on the company. I’ve been offered jobs without health insurance and didn’t accept them. I’ve contracted for those companies as I’m my own company and have had a group health plan for myself…

$1000 - $1200 per person per month? I know some consultants who can’t find health insurance that cheap. Are those high deductible plans?

$1k is way too high for an insurance premium for a young individual, even in SF.

Here’s a list of NJ insurance premiums available at healthcare.gov, and you can multiply by the age factor shown at the bottom:

https://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcra...

SF is more expensive than NJ, but not 2x to 3x more expensive for healthcare.

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