Entrepreneurs Arthur Camara and Benny Giang would love to get into Y Combinator, but even if they got through the exclusive Silicon Valley startup accelerator’s competitive application process, they’d still have one big problem: they live in Vancouver, Canada, which is not exactly a short commute to Mountain View, California.
Over the past month, though, they’ve been getting a taste of Y Combinator life from home. Since early April, Y Combinator has been running a free, 10-week online course called Startup School: it’s meant to replicate a bit of the accelerator experience by combining online lectures from tech-world luminaries about starting a company with online mentoring from past Y Combinator participants and support from fellow Startup School students.
