I'm not sure about the US, but in India this would be huge. The early stage ecosystem is fairly broken, but the startup scene is crazy hot - everyone is doing a startup and the talent pool is huge.
Early stage investors put around 20-50K USD and take 30% of equity (yes equity - convertible notes are shunned in India).
A USD 12K grant and the YC cred, would go a long way in rebalancing the ecosystem.
I personally believe that early stage pre-prototype money is so easy in the US... or the Kickstarter ecosystem is so effective (cant do a kickstarter from India).... or the university aided startup infrastructure is so mature, that this would not materially impact as many people as it would in India/Asia.
Early stage investors put around 20-50K USD and take 30% of equity (yes equity - convertible notes are shunned in India).
A USD 12K grant and the YC cred, would go a long way in rebalancing the ecosystem.
I personally believe that early stage pre-prototype money is so easy in the US... or the Kickstarter ecosystem is so effective (cant do a kickstarter from India).... or the university aided startup infrastructure is so mature, that this would not materially impact as many people as it would in India/Asia.