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"Like a Klingon starship de-cloaking in the middle of Europe, Lars Hinrichs is putting his efforts onto a new startup investment vehicle dubbed HackFwd."
So they're the enemy then?
Because it's so "IN YOUR FACE" and "made for nerds" I almost get a feeling that the whole thing is a huge insult to every serious hacker out there.
...Especially the flow chart seems so fucking insulting to me. Yaddayaddayaa, yes, every geek likes starwars & light sabers, yes we've read the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, yes, we've seen the back to the future trilogy etc.
In my opinion, funding entrepreneurship shouldn't be about making jokes on stereotypes. We're talking about peoples livelihoods here - not about star wars kids.
I like the idea but not the execution.
...And the art is in the execution.
The site is just way too "IN YOUR FACE" for my liking. Because it's so "IN YOUR FACE" and "made for nerds" I almost get a feeling that the whole thing is a huge insult to every serious hacker out there. ...Especially the flow chart seems so fucking insulting to me. Yaddayaddayaa, yes, every geek likes starwars & light sabers, yes we've read the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, yes, we've seen the back to the future…
This Lars guy (and the others) are not. They have made money etc. (which makes me jealous), but they are not geeks. And they should not talk to us like that.
It's like when your parents attempt to use slang that doesn't come from their generation to appear trendy. They fail, and fail hard.
This is somewhat non-obvious, but their copy is written against a background of other early stage investment stuff in continental europe. This sounds almost bizarre to Silicon Valley attuned ears, but funding hackers early stage doing original ideas is not common in Germany. It's encouraging to see people putting their money where their mouth is in hopes of changing that.
They do have a couple of folks that they've roped in, notably the Xing founder, who lend it some credibility.
27% is pretty steep, but hopefully that'll downshift some over time. The amounts that they're willing to invest for up to three person teams fall in the range of a decent early angel round, and it'd be nice to see the numbers fall closer to the expected dilution for such.
The biggest problem that I see is that it plays somewhat into the problematic mindset that's common in european would-be entrepreneurs: fear of risk. There are a lot of programs attempting to do that badly at the moment, grants from the state and whatnot, but they rarely produce good results.
Actually the best description comes from the TechCrunch article ( http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/06/08/xing-founder-lars-hinric... ): "Like a Klingon starship de-cloaking in the middle of Europe, Lars Hinrichs is putting his efforts onto a new startup investment vehicle dubbed HackFwd." So they're the enemy then?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's been my experience that the people who are involved in, and want to be prominent in[1], venture/entrepreneurship/funding in Europe are cargo culters, and their idea of tact is not the same as in the UK/US - they also don't do a good job carrying off lovable arrogance, like Americans and Brits have much practice doing. Case in point: ZenDesk. Their "here's our new price, this is transparent cuz we didn't charge y…
I particularly enjoyed this video http://vimeo.com/12149977 in which we are told that Twitter is useful for keeping up to date on new technologies.
The cliche with a little snippet of code asking the audience to raise hands ("look at us we're such nerds!")... Tasteful.
They spoke a lot but said nothing.
Somehow it's funny to see how the audience might be a little more informed than the presenters... Especially the question at around 23:00 to me seems like a big "fuck you" to the presenters. The sigh at 23.22 sends chills through my spine as the presenter knows that he hasn't got any clue of how to answer to that nerd-question - but he won't be able to admit that because then he wouldn't be such a nerd he thinks he is.
I love it.
Actually the best description comes from the TechCrunch article ( http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/06/08/xing-founder-lars-hinric... ): "Like a Klingon starship de-cloaking in the middle of Europe, Lars Hinrichs is putting his efforts onto a new startup investment vehicle dubbed HackFwd." So they're the enemy then?
Pity it was the Romulans with cloak technology and not Klingons.
30% for a year of "roughly my current salary". Oh so you want it for free? Sure, why not.
The site is just way too "IN YOUR FACE" for my liking. Because it's so "IN YOUR FACE" and "made for nerds" I almost get a feeling that the whole thing is a huge insult to every serious hacker out there. ...Especially the flow chart seems so fucking insulting to me. Yaddayaddayaa, yes, every geek likes starwars & light sabers, yes we've read the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, yes, we've seen the back to the future…
I don't like it when non-technical people talk about geeks. It doesn't feel right. The reason this community works is because PG is a geek (or hacker or whatever word you want to use) so he immediately has credibility. This Lars guy (and the others) are not. They have made money etc. (which makes me jealous), but they are not geeks. And they should not talk to us like that. It's like when your parents attempt to use…
There's a lot of nay-saying going on here, so I'm going to throw out some cautious optimism: This is somewhat non-obvious, but their copy is written against a background of other early stage investment stuff in continental europe. This sounds almost bizarre to Silicon Valley attuned ears, but funding hackers early stage doing original ideas is not common in Germany. It's encouraging to see people putting their money…