Hi! I'm part of a 17 people team of a company that is applying to YC. And as we are based outside the US it is prohibitive to move all team to San Francisco.
I fully support the 3 founders going to YC, while the rest of us stay here working hard and communicating remotely.
What do you think? It is viable/worthy for the 3 founders to do YC with a 14-people remote team?
Though I don't know your company, I do believe it is viable for the 3 founders to do YC with the rest of your team remote. Even in our batch, I can think of at least one company that was in a similar situation to what you're describing, and they got a lot out of YC.
It is still valuable even if the entire team isn't able to be in California. It comes down to the founders and the team committing to regular and open communication, making sure that the founders and team stay in touch and that the founders are able to share as much of what they are learning as possible with the team. Keep in mind, there are many companies that operate entirely remotely--Stack Overflow and Automattic, to name a couple. All it takes for your company to succeed working remotely is to build a good remote culture.[1] Your company, and therefore you and the rest of your team, will still get value out of YC from everything the founders will learn and can share with you, as well as from the YC network, mentoring, community, and branding that will stay with the company for the rest of its existence.
We were lucky that we were able to be able to bring our whole team--but that doesn't mean it's a prerequisite. Many companies can't bring their whole teams, for all kinds of different but valid reasons.
I fully support the 3 founders going to YC, while the rest of us stay here working hard and communicating remotely.
What do you think? It is viable/worthy for the 3 founders to do YC with a 14-people remote team?