Y Combinator Startup Podcast
00:41:07 · Gustaf Alstromer, Chaz Englander, Arnie Englander
[00:41:07] S2: And you ended up being in in the batch with the '24, which was sort of like one of the first really big AI batches where most companies were building companies similar to you. How did that feel? Like, was there something... Like, just being in the Bay Area, like, eighteen months ago. [00:41:22] S0: I mean, it was just crazy. [00:41:23] S1: I think I think, again, working side by side with people building really cool products, working seven days a week, and that buzz, you know, around the office, around San Francisco, it's really, really hard to replicate. And we absolutely loved it, didn't [00:41:39] S0: Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting you mentioned that because That was the first batch where it was through and through AI companies pretty much. And it felt like in that Slack group in there, it felt like almost daily or hourly that there was a scientific breakthrough. It was phenomenal to be part. [00:41:58] S2: One question I get... I was in Munich, and then I was in Zurich on a trip recently. And then I was in London. I saw you guys. I was in London a year year and a few months ago. It's from European founders is where they should be based and where they should build in their companies. And I don't have the right answer. It's a controversial topic. You guys are based in London. I'm curious what you think as you're thinking about this question. [00:42:19] S0: Go Ed. Go on, Ed. This is [00:42:21] S1: a tough one. It's tricky. I think we absolutely love San Francisco. We've said it many times. Every time we come here... [00:42:32] S0: It's the best place
00:42:32 · Chaz Englander, Arnie Englander
[00:42:32] S0: It's the best place [00:42:33] S1: to work. There's something different about it, and we always thought, you know, being from The UK, this San Francisco Buzz, Silicon Valley, it's a bit of a myth. At least that's what I thought growing up. And then I think what was interesting with Fancy, we were a remote batch, right? So we didn't come to San Francisco. And then when we came here again for Model ML's batch, just being in San Francisco and being a part of the community, it was crazy. Chaz always tells a story when you're at the gym during the batch, and you just had people on the treadmill on their laptops, on Zoom calls, talking about funding rounds and X, Y, and Z. And in The UK, that just doesn't happen. Clearly. Clearly. So, look, we love The UK. If we had started a company again, I mean, we're trying to convince people to move to SF for this company. We think it's an incredible place to build a company. And like we say about work ethic, it is really challenging, we think, in The UK in particular, to find people who frankly want to work this hard. I think in San Francisco, it's a lot more common. I think in Europe, it's just not. One of the positive things about Europe, and we always said this, is talent and particularly engineering talent, which might sound counterintuitive. I think you've got amazing engineering talent in the Bay Area. The problem is it's very, very expensive, and the competition is just so, so high. You're going up against...
00:42:33 · Arnie Englander, Gustaf Alstromer
[00:42:33] S1: to work. There's something different about it, and we always thought, you know, being from The UK, this San Francisco Buzz, Silicon Valley, it's a bit of a myth. At least that's what I thought growing up. And then I think what was interesting with Fancy, we were a remote batch, right? So we didn't come to San Francisco. And then when we came here again for Model ML's batch, just being in San Francisco and being a part of the community, it was crazy. Chaz always tells a story when you're at the gym during the batch, and you just had people on the treadmill on their laptops, on Zoom calls, talking about funding rounds and X, Y, and Z. And in The UK, that just doesn't happen. Clearly. Clearly. So, look, we love The UK. If we had started a company again, I mean, we're trying to convince people to move to SF for this company. We think it's an incredible place to build a company. And like we say about work ethic, it is really challenging, we think, in The UK in particular, to find people who frankly want to work this hard. I think in San Francisco, it's a lot more common. I think in Europe, it's just not. One of the positive things about Europe, and we always said this, is talent and particularly engineering talent, which might sound counterintuitive. I think you've got amazing engineering talent in the Bay Area. The problem is it's very, very expensive, and the competition is just so, so high. You're going up against... [00:44:06] S2: You end up hiring from your own network anyway. Exactly. You're bringing people over from The UK. Exactly. Whereas
00:44:06 · Gustaf Alstromer, Arnie Englander, Chaz Englander
[00:44:06] S2: You end up hiring from your own network anyway. Exactly. You're bringing people over from The UK. Exactly. Whereas [00:44:11] S1: in The UK, I think the level is still really, really strong, but the competition is less. So your ability to hire that top class talent, I think, is probably stronger in Europe. [00:44:23] S2: That's a good question. If you're based in Europe, I've been giving advice. If you decide to stay in Europe, try to move to one of the few cities where there are other really ambitious Definitely. [00:44:32] S0: And there's [00:44:33] S2: just not that many of them. Definitely. London is one of them. But Europe is not one country, so it's like a big culture shift to... Or maybe not big, but it's a big change to move from, I don't know, Spain to London. It's not that big of a difference to move from Spain to San Francisco. [00:44:47] S1: Yeah. And I also think, as we spoke about our hiring process earlier, you've just got to be really rigorous with your hiring process. There are amazing people and amazing talent in these cities. You've just got to find them. So I think don't settle for second best. You've really got to find those people that are self motivated, hungry. Chances are, if they know about YC, they've got the right attitude. [00:45:08] S2: And I suspect a lot of your customers are in The US. [00:45:10] S0: Pretty much all of them. I'd say 80% of our customers are The US. [00:45:13] S2: How do handle that?
00:45:13 · Gustaf Alstromer, Chaz Englander, Arnie Englander
[00:45:13] S2: How do handle that? [00:45:14] S0: Well, I spend the bulk of my time in New York. Hans spends the bulk of his time in London, and then kind of split between Hong Kong and San Francisco. Interestingly, actually, for finance, as I mentioned this when I came in earlier, there's a surprising number of decision makers for global firms around technology implementation in San Francisco. It's not out of New York or out of London. It's out of San Francisco. So I think if we'd known more about that back when we made the decision to move the engineering team to London, that would have influenced things. But my view, for what it's worth, is I think people should do what it takes to move to San Francisco if that's not possible, if that's not where your customers are based. At the very least, as you said, move to a tier one city, and try and be as close to folks that are also building stuff. [00:46:02] S2: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming. It was great to see [00:46:04] S1: you guys. [00:46:04] S0: Yeah. Great to see you again. Yeah. Very Thank much.