HackFwd • Hacker News Board

stefanobernardi wrote: post #4

Disclaimer: I'm a referrer for HackFwd. I think it's pretty different. - It doesn't have a public application process. You can only be referred by someone in the network. - It doesn't require you to move anywhere. You can work from your home country/city. - It doesn't have a formal 3 month program with mentorship and dinners. It's a 1+ year stunt, with a quarterly weekend retreat where you get to present your achieve…

The 1+ year thing stands out as the best idea there.

Re: HackFwd

#18

Post by timelinex » Wed, Dec 01, 2010, 2:58 PM UTC

troels wrote: post #14

ccarpenterg wrote: post #12

You get to keep 70% equity. You give 3% to your advisors. We take 27%. What do they actually offer?

A years salary, it seems.

Which varies from individual to individual. This program seems to favor a more mature Hacker.

Re: HackFwd

#19

Post by kayoone » Wed, Dec 01, 2010, 3:20 PM UTC

I am the founder of a HackFwd backed Company, but we just started this month. Of course its not cheap for founders with a good prototype, but the landscape in Europe is very different from the US. You dont have a lot of Angel Investing in Europe and VCs often only start at 500K EURs...so they are really filling a gap here, which is pre-seed/seed funding. Besides the money you get to know some of europes best and most successfull entrepreneurs who might make finding a Series A funding much easier as if you were on your own. You could also view it as a very special 1 year program in entrepreneurship because they teach you alot of things. We are really happy and look forward to the ride!

Our project wouldnt be able to take off with the money Y-Comb provides because its just too complex for that, heck we even invested twice that amount of our own money before getting HackFwd funding. If you have a pretty simple product and can show its potential with 20k$ and score a Series A, then YComb is probably a better fit but moving to the US from Europe for 20k$ wasnt an option for us anyway.

If you get accepted you will also be a referrer for the program, that way they want to built a big network of passionate founders/entrepreneurs in the future. Sharing knowledge is a big part of that and founders can say "Thank you" to anyone in the HackFwd network with the 3% equity reserved for that. You can also view most of their great talks at the quarterly events at http://www.passionmeetsmomentum.com

Re: HackFwd

#20

Post by danielsiders » Wed, Dec 01, 2010, 3:51 PM UTC

A friend of mine just signed on as one of their referrers. It seems like a cushy big VC. They fly the referrers out to expensive resorts a few times a year and in exchange the referrers give HF a heads up on all the cool people and projects they know about. The goal seems to be providing a framework for people who wouldn't otherwise do a startup. I can't leave my family, I need a salary, I'm just afraid, I'm not motivated enough.

Whereas YC and the US scene is all about entrepreneurship, Europe (in general--there are lots of great startups there but it's no SF Bay) has more trouble getting hackers to take the plunge. HF seems to take the approach that they'll take a huge equity stake in the idea rather than a specific company and then pay you for a year to develop it. It's not clear that you'd have to do a real startup, they might just get someone else to do that once you've built substantial IP. I think the goal is to basically bring all the people who MIGHT produce something of value into one place, pay them like employees, and be a European Google in the sense that they'll try lots of projects and the ones that succeed will pay for the others.

It's not a program I'd ever be interested in, but I'm not European or afraid of risks, and I applied to YC. It may work really well in that culture, should be interesting to check back in a year or so to see how they're doing