Also, we were in NYC a month or so ago for FFC and want to make sure we get to visit as many locations over time as we can.
It just feels like you are trying to meet people inside your bubble instead of trying to branch out and get more people interested in YC.
YC is missing out on 2 of the 3 largest US tech hubs.
I'm not sure if that is deliberate or accidental, but it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.
Specifically, I am selected in YC Startup school and will have to spend at least a day to travel to attend the session. Is it worth the extra time and money?
The people from YC (at least the few I've met) spend a crazy amount of time around startups and have a lot of insight into all kinds of random problems that startups have that they see from being so deep in the startup world, so if you can talk to one of the people from there who's in your general area, and you have specific issues that you're grappling with how to approach and how to avoid pitfalls, they might be able to add a lot of value pretty quickly based on having seen people go through similar kinds of problems.
If you just want to go to the general Q&A, already are around hackernews and are already in startup school, I'm not sure it would necessarily be worth a whole day of travel. The Q&A is necessarily pretty general, and you probably are already getting a good general footing from startup school, although I second the other guy's exception of if you're really good at networking, since there will be interesting people there.
YMMV if you are a better net-worker than I am.
Curious, what are some of the best blog posts/sites to follow?
The potential scope and scale of what can happen in Tokyo, especially regarding startups, is much larger than anything Kansai can currently deliver.
Any of the creative business/economic activity that Kansai is famous for will probably find its way to Tokyo if it wants to scale to maximum potential... at least for the time being.
I have a feeling that Tokyo-level scale will be what VCs are looking for. Maybe once the Tokyo market is more established, Kansai will get a serious look, but I don’t think the VC-level Japanese startup scene is developed well enough to warrant that at this time.
That’s just my 2 cents...