[kjullien]

I can't tell if this shows a terrible bias towards NA or if people who aren't from NA don't even bother applying for X reason(s) or get rejected.

edit: I am getting downvoted to hell for some reason when I'm simply trying to start a discussion based on a fact... hmmm... I don't get HN...

"The only other countries with top companies were Canada (2), the UK (2), Colombia, India and the Netherlands."

"94 of the top 101 companies are based in the US."

[tlb]

The map shows headquarters location, not where the founders are from. Many founding teams came from around the world, but put their company headquarters in the Bay Area because of access to engineering and design talent and later-stage investors.

[dragonwriter]

> Many founding teams came from around the world, but put their company headquarters in the Bay Area because

...they have to for at least 3 months to be a YC company, and after that the question is what is the compelling reason to move?

[stephengillie]

> I can't tell if this shows a terrible bias towards NA or if people who aren't from NA don't even bother applying for X reason(s) or get rejected.

Why not both?

There's a probably at least a bias to English fluency, if not a blanket rejection of non-English applications.

There's been a long-standing bias towards teams, which mandates a level of charisma and social skills that many talented engineers struggle with. For a long time, YC completely excluded solo founders.

And I believe being on-site is another requirement, which is classist. People from other states and countries who don't already have affluence probably don't even bother.

[dragonwriter]

> I can't tell if this shows a terrible bias towards NA

YC requires a 3 month relocation to Silicon Valley.

That itself creates a pretty strong bias.

There are probably language, cultural, and other biases at play, too.

[quaice]

You might be misinterpreting the data here.