HN Explorer

Ask HN: Do YC startups hire remote employees from other countries?

10 points by Devraj4522 ↗ HN
I am asking in general, if you have experience working with a other companies, and want to work for YC startups, Is it possible to get job in these startups working remotely.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

11 comments

[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 34.9 ms ] thread
tcper
Most of them, no
evbogue
Is this because working IRL in the same room or building is more productive?
JonChesterfield
It will be because the mental image of a startup involves herman miller chairs and everyone in one room, grinding out broken code while sleep deprived against a background of colleagues fighting in a corner. With beer.

That this stereotype is self evidently absurd doesn't really detract from the psychological pressure to imitate. It's like the companies who carefully copy all the hiring practices they've heard about from Google but don't bother with the compensation or aggressively targetting specific university graduates to recruit from.

It's really easy to get a single room with a beer fridge and make everyone stressed, and some successful companies had that property, so let's copy the properties we know how to.

An alternative game plan would be to try to copy the aspects of companies that made them successful, as opposed to the aspects that are easy to copy, but that's very much harder to do.

patmorgan23
Neither. legal and compliance. If you hire someone in a new country you now have to comply with that country's labor and tax codes, a lot of times that means setting up a new legal entity in that jurisdiction. This can be really difficult/impractical for smaller companies.
ReDeiPirati
I think that's a false myth, there are now EOR like Deel and Remote.com that make this super easy today.

There's also the "false contractors" route, i.e. hiring remote contractors but treating them like employees. Which is also a quite common setup among early stage startups with a fully distributed DNA.

voytec
IT engineers in Poland willing to work for companies abroad, opened small businesses and applied for an European tax number.

We work as contractors - not employees - so no regional employment laws apply and we're just issuing invoices for services rendered.

jacknews
lol

proof for your assertion?

hiyer
I think so. I don't work at one, but I've interviewed at a couple of them in the past (both contacted me through the yc.com/jobs portal) and both were remote opportunities in India.
Devraj4522
Where were company located, and what is your country?
hiyer
I live in India. Both companies are located in US, but they had employees worldwide.