Two things immediately come to mind, one specific and one a bit vague.
Specific: YC gave us an unbelievable network of founders, hackers and investors in the Valley, and that stayed with us even after we moved back to New York. There's absolutely no way we'd have as strong a west coast (or even east coast) network if we hadn't done YC.
Vague: Valley culture. YC is in many ways at the center of the Valley and embodies the best it has to offer. I don't know how to explain it, but there's definitely a different culture at YC and in the Valley in general than in New York or anywhere else I've been.
It's hard to quantify or describe concisely, because it's really the sum total of people's attitudes, and the conversations you overhear on the street, and the density of people who have built or are building startups, and a thousand other things.
The only analogy I can think of is traveling to another country. For instance, when I traveled to Europe, it felt extraordinarily different from the US, and the differences weren't always easy to pintpoint.
Specific: YC gave us an unbelievable network of founders, hackers and investors in the Valley, and that stayed with us even after we moved back to New York. There's absolutely no way we'd have as strong a west coast (or even east coast) network if we hadn't done YC.
Vague: Valley culture. YC is in many ways at the center of the Valley and embodies the best it has to offer. I don't know how to explain it, but there's definitely a different culture at YC and in the Valley in general than in New York or anywhere else I've been.
It's hard to quantify or describe concisely, because it's really the sum total of people's attitudes, and the conversations you overhear on the street, and the density of people who have built or are building startups, and a thousand other things.
The only analogy I can think of is traveling to another country. For instance, when I traveled to Europe, it felt extraordinarily different from the US, and the differences weren't always easy to pintpoint.