As a partner at YC for over 10 batches now, I've worked with lots of great founders who have come from all over the country, and many make having families work. The cofounders of MongoHQ both moved to Mountain View with their families (with kids) during YC, and it was a crowded house but a productive one too. It can be done.

There's also nothing that says you absolutely have to stay in the Bay Area afterwards. Many founders head back to where they come from if that's the right thing for the business.

what does the bay area offer that requires someone to uproot and come out there just for a few months? what if the location they are already in is ideal for their business? for instance i live where we have 3 cent per kwh power, moving to SF to work on anything power intensive will increase my startup costs 5 fold at a minimum, and that is power alone, let alone everything else being 5x more costly. the insistence that people come to you is strange to me.

Moving to an area specifically for your startup, even if you were told to do so, can really show your dedication (not just by saying it). You are proving that you are willing to do whatever it takes. I've known many who have moved for the 3 months @ YC and then have rightfully moved back... I don't think any of them have regretted. YC may be looking for someone who can make it work, if there is a will, there is a way. THAT is what they are looking for.

There is a method to the madness. They have proven it.

One problem is that, for a lot of industries, San Francisco is the wrong place to be.

If you want to be in fashion-tech, for example, you want to be in New York (or possibly London). And, there are lot of other industries concentrated in specific areas around the world.

Limiting to San Francisco is limiting your industry. Sure you can get a ton of web developers, but you'll lose access & relationships to the REAL industry insiders that matter for your vertical.

I think that can be true, but YC has a model that works for them, so it seems ok to me to not try to cover every industry in the world. Some of them are quite different, to the extent that YC's networks and expertise might not be as immediately useful anyway. For example Houston has a lot of energy-technology startups, especially in oil & gas, doing anything from the "hardware" side to analytics to GIS type stuff. But it's basically its own world that has little overlap with the Bay Area startup world. Different investors, different types of customers, different production challenges, different employee demographics, etc.

YC has proven an accelerator works when teams move to be part of it. That doesn't prove that investing in companies that are based elsewhere and take part remotely doesn't work though, or that moving was a contributing factor to success, or that founders who are willing to move are demonstrating a greater level of dedication (just a different sort of dedication).

To know whether remote will work YC needs to try it.

(Mind you, even with YC's intake, it's likely you'd never see a statistically significant result either way. There's too many variables and not enough samples.)

About living expenses, there are a few possibilities to save a little money, from couchsurfing (seems unreal, but I know a guy who lives through CS almost 2 years))) to housesitting (I saw a house, a cat sitter was needed, about in 20 miles from SF for 2 months). Or, the most popular, a flatshare - that's what we're going to do))