"...but YC moved our time line up by at least six months to a year..." - can you explain further - in broad terms of course - was that because of the focus of the YC process; the connections being a YC funded company brought, or something else?
Oh yeah sure - I was able to leave my job and focus on the startup with 100% of my time (instead of say 10-30%). The connections and being able to bounce ideas off of other really smart people was invaluable as well.
What's really hard for many founders (myself very much included) is telling your friends and family you're leaving this good job with health care benefits to do a startup. Having a name behind you makes this a lot easier; the YC money was almost irrelevant.
My suggestion to those thinking about this: do the math. Having just quit my job, I found that health care is cheaper than you'd think. COBRA ensures that you are covered for 18 months under your existing plan.
I can't think of any other benefit I'm missing. It seems to give a warm and fuzzy sense of security to a lot of people.
If you are in any sort of accident, the insurance pays for itself. I had an allergic reaction while uninsured, and it cost me $3700. An old roommate was in a bicycle accident while uninsured, and the bill was close to $18,000.
COBRA is a pretty bad deal though. Mine was almost $250. You can get a good Blue Cross plan for that much, or a simple disaster plan for much less.
COBRA was super expensive for me (over $250 a month) luckily we qualified for this young adults program in MA which is ~$130 per month. In the west coast, you can find even better deals. Obviously, this is a much bigger issue if you have a wife and kids.
