There are plenty of accelerators aiming to sway young startups to join their ranks rather than apply to Y Combinator, but Pioneer‘s sell is a bit different.First off, they are fully remote; founders selected to participate in the program chat with advisors via video chat.
Second, Pioneer is largely looking at companies that aren''t companies yet, framing themselves as more of a &startup generator& than an accelerator that aims to help entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley zero in on exactly what kind of startup they want to build.Earlier this month, I wrote about the accelerator, which is helmed by former YC partner Daniel Gross .Ex-YC partner Daniel Gross rethinks the acceleratorMy interview with Gross had some interesting longer bouts I didn''t have space to include, so I&m including the salient bits here.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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TechCrunch: Remote work seems to have its challenges; how have you overcome some of the humps of being a remote accelerator?Daniel Gross: My overall view is that remote can replace the majority of real-world interaction.
But there less inertia, if that makes sense, and so I think you can build real rapport and real relationships through a group video chat on the internet, but it will require much more thinking and effort around it than if you were just meeting up in the real world.