[mrkurt]

I did the opposite: moved for the summer, leaving my wife + 4 kids in Chicago. It wasn't easy. Others I knew moved their whole families for ~4 months. That also wasn't easy.

If I did it again, and budget permitting, I probably would split time — weekends in Chicago, Monday through Thurs or Friday in Mountain View.

What was interesting was how shocked family members and friends were that we'd work something out like this. If it had been a military deployment, though, no one would have batted an eye.

[randall]

I totally valued the experience of being home on the weekends... I was commuting from Utah, but it was really really draining to travel that much. If possible, I think I'd opt to bring the family out. (My wife was pregnant, so that wasn't a real option for us.)

[ryanSrich]

If you don't mind. Would you be willing to go a bit deeper into how you were able to afford that (flying every weekend/YC in general)?

I assume you had quite a bit of money saved in order to afford your typical living expense, flying to and from YC every weekend, and a place to stay in Mountain View.

If you did in fact save, were you doing that actively in the event that you got into YC or did you essentially just drain your savings once you got in?

[randall]

We already had revenue which was paying for my salary, and had been for the prior 6 months. We were in a position where YC's value and my desire to be with my family meant we could spend the cash to achieve both.

[joshdotsmith]

I was going to say just this. I went through basic training two years ago, and will leave again for Signal BOLC next year. Basic was hard and BOLC will be easier; a deployment would be much harder than YC.

[mlichtenstern]

"If it had been a military deployment, though, no one would have batted an eye." Right!

However, as a man, I think it is deemed more common / acceptable to travel on business. My project manager is former military and now contracts with FEMA, deploying weeks to months at a time, leaving wife and two kids behind.