Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

archgrants.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 103 posts

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#31

Post by Nat0 »

palish wrote: post #12

EDIT: Post removed. I truly apologize for offending you. I don't like the idea of making people unhappy, so I've removed my post.

I have lived in Kansas City for several years and would partially agree with your statements. I have seen most of the best people I know move elsewhere, primarily to larger cultural hubs, leaving behind a large portion of people who lack vision and tenacity. There are definitely still bright spots, they are just more difficult to find.

Reminds me of the Onion article about Saint Louis adding 4 Million jobs: http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-adds-4-million-jobs-but-...

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#34

Post by brianmckenzie »

palish wrote: post #12

EDIT: Post removed. I truly apologize for offending you. I don't like the idea of making people unhappy, so I've removed my post.

Hi there!

I also live in St. Louis (moved here about a year ago after six years in SF), and I'm quite fond of thinking. Shoot me an email if you want to meet up sometime, if nothing else I can probably introduce you to at least one other person here who is into quantum mechanics.

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#35

Post by sawyer »

firefoxman1 wrote: post #6
sachingulaya wrote: post #3

"Your business model, including 3- or 5-year financial projections that include sales, profits, cash flows, and returns on investment." How can anyone reasonably predict where their N-month old company is going to be in 3-5 years?

Well, if you've ever had to write a business plan, you'll agree the projections for a startup end up being complete BS, but they make investors feel safe looking at a 20+ page document with lots of charts and numbers. That said, business plans can be useful and help the founders solidify their business model, predict costs, etc. If anything, it helps you get a vague idea of what to expect a few years down the road in…

Filling out the YC application thoroughly and thoughtfully will do more to make you think about your business than writing a business plan. You don't have to submit it, but answering the questions as if pg were going to be evaluating it is a great mental exercise!

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#36

Post by philwelch »

The overwhelming tone I'm getting from the comments defending STL here are along the lines of "come on, St. Louis isn't that bad, and at least it's cheap". Which is quite different from the sales pitch you get for Silicon Valley, which is "everything you could possibly need is right here". The choice between "not that bad" and "actively helpful" is obvious.

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#37

Post by tptacek »

jws wrote: post #25

Things to know about St. Louis: The City of St. Louis is a separate entity from St. Louis county. When I last checked the employee map for a 150 engineer software company, there were two employees living in the City of St. Louis, (a receptionist, and a newly divorced man in an apartment) the remainder where in St. Louis County, St. Charles County, and living on the "east side" in Illinois (but far enough to clear Eas…

St Louis has a city income tax?!

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#38

Post by philwelch »

bpodgursky wrote: post #9
brandnewlow wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how is it worth $50k to make it harder to raise the $500k+ you'll probably need to build your company?

1) you don't need $500k+ in funding to build a successful software company. 2) this is especially true living in a part of the country with a reasonable cost of living. Somewhere like Missouri, $50k is two reasonable years of runway for a single 20-something (even in a metro area like St Louis, you'll be able to rent for ~$400 .) 3) it's pretty ridiculous (and arrogant) to assume that nowhere else in the country can…

If you're a one-man shop, there's little point taking any funding, and it's doubtful even these guys would fund you.

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#39

Post by mhartl »

firefoxman1 wrote: post #28
mhartl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

business plans can be useful and help the founders solidify their business model, predict costs, etc. I would guess the vast majority of tech entrepreneurs would disagree with the implication that business plans are generally useful.

Haha is that a stab at the "worry about the business model later" attitude in tech, or am I interpreting it wrong?

No, I'm being serious. Thinking about your business model is useful, and planning is useful, but the formal practice of writing an official "business plan" (with revenue projections, etc.) is from a bygone era. More than anything, business plans give people (in this case, Arch Grants) a false sense of security.

Re: Ten $50,000 grants for startups who move to St. Louis

#40

Post by anrope »

It is a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg type problem.

Best case, 10 startups pop up all at once as a result of these grants, and more follow. I think this is actually a reasonably good try at jump-starting a startup culture.

The nice thing about a web startup is that, aside from "culture" and government regulations, there aren't really any reasons you couldn't run your startup out of a cabin in remote Alaska with a satellite internet connection.

Of course, it does go deeper than just an initial seed. There also needs to be a government with policies that won't restrict the growth of startups.

For all the complaining in Maine about college graduates leaving the state, I would love to see them try something like this.

Post reply on HN