Jamie, I have a friend at Digg who is trying to contact you. They're looking for designers, if you're interested in a job.
Booted out of Bootup Labs
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Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#12Why did bootup labs offer funding that is almost 7 to 10 times the 'industry' standard? It's disappointing that an incubator close to home really wasn't.
Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#13When I saw this title, my immediate thought was "hmm, I wonder if this is about Bootup Labs?" I've met the people behind Bootup Labs, and I like them. They're smart. They're enthusiastic about what they're doing. But I was never really convinced that they were able to make things work financially. I've seen enough startups that I can usually tell when a startup is running on fumes and spending all their energy on try…
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Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#14everything happens for a reason, I am sure you will create something create after this.
Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#15What a horror story. What sort of program offers $100k to that many groups and doesn't follow through? "Whoops, we were $500k short." That goes beyond just being embarrassing.
What sort of program offers $100k to that many groups and doesn't follow through? Not to be facetious, but: A program which doesn't have as much money as they're offering people. The founders of Bootup Labs put some of their own money in, but they're raising money (or trying, at least) from VCs for the rest. They're paying themselves [EDIT: or not -- see reply from dannyrobinson below] from the $50k/startup managemen…
> $50k/startup management fee
What?!
Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
What sort of program offers $100k to that many groups and doesn't follow through? Not to be facetious, but: A program which doesn't have as much money as they're offering people. The founders of Bootup Labs put some of their own money in, but they're raising money (or trying, at least) from VCs for the rest. They're paying themselves [EDIT: or not -- see reply from dannyrobinson below] from the $50k/startup managemen…
> $50k/startup management fee What?!
Bootup Labs is structured as an investment plus a services contract. They give you $50k in exchange for 5% equity, then you immediately pay the $50k back to them in exchange for the office space, accounting services, legal services, mentoring, et cetera. Then they give you a $100k line of credit which converts (at their option) at 1% equity per $10k.
It's a very effective way of protecting themselves from downside risk -- if all the startups bomb, the startup founder have nothing and the investors have nothing, but Bootup Labs still has their $50k/startup -- which might be part of the reason why they've had trouble convincing VCs to invest. I think many VCs would be skeptical of a startup CEO who said "we have no revenue and a completely untested business model, but we're going to pay ourselves $100k salaries with your money".
Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#17[deleted]
Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#18From @bootuplabs on twitter: > HI all: we're moving up the blog post we were going to put up tomorrow to this eve - please stand by
All Canadian startup hopefuls are/will be watching for an official response closely.
Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#19That really sucks!
But dude, why give up on the idea? you're selling the domain and moving on? Incubators aren't necessary.. keep plugging away and launch anyway.
Re: Booted out of Bootup Labs
#20Danny, one of the bootuplabs founders just posted this comment on the post.
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This is not how it went down Jamie. After everything that we did for you and Steven, I'm shocked at how you have twisted the truth for PR reasons.
- you were in our office for 2 months, not 3.
- you program is 5%-15% for $150k over 8 months
- you received $6k over that 2 months
- we received nothing in return.
- we paid your legal fees.
- we introduced you to many people who you can still call on today.
We are not out of money, we just closed a round. It was a condition of their investment that we let you go.
Yes, it wasn't an ideal situation, and we didn't plan on it working out this way. But in the end, I made sure that you got the better end the deal
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Sad to see them trying to argue over facts when these guys moved across the country and gave up everything to be there, then they act like they should be happy to have even had the chance. Wow.