Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
bethnalgreenventures.com
Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
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Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#2I lived there for 3 months. This place is hell. It's one of the biggest ghettos in London.
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#3different interests highlighted: great. But what about the programme itself? That is the value proposition for founders.
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#4Maybe helpful for the orga of the programme:
Most accelerators underestimate the overhead for a young team to move for several weeks/months to london or fly back and forth for weeks. You should try to provide help or even space for that.
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#5different interests highlighted: great. But what about the programme itself? That is the value proposition for founders.
Yes my thoughts exactly. They are not selling themselves at all. Anyone here been through the programme?
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#6I'm all for more things like this, especially in the UK, heck I'm currently in London working for a consulting company in a bank and would love to jump into a startup but I have to say that what they're expecting compared to what they're willing to put in seems a little...lopsided.
"Once a year, we work with a group of very early stage companies and provide them with up to £15,000 of investment and a three month programme of support"
"If we’re going to tackle climate change, we need new products and services that will help people reduce their energy use by a factor of 10 not just by a few per cent."
I can't see £15,000 getting you anywhere with something of that scale, even if you're a seriously smart cookie basic operating costs still apply. . . especially considering London rent etc.
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#7This just looks like a typical UK 'jobs for the boys' venture - draw a salary for three years, wrap it up, move onto the next one. Little surprise to see NESTA throwing money at it:
Bethnal Green Ventures is co-ordinated by Paul Miller. Paul has spent the last seven years learning how to start new organisations that use technology to solve social and environmental problems, primarily through School of Everything and Social Innovation Camp. Before that he worked at the think tank Demos and the sustainability charity Forum for the Future.
So basically he's a quango man, who's added a few tech names as 'advisors'.
Nothing will come out the other end. But it will keep a few Shoreditch hipsters gainfully employed.
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#8It is frustrating that their Alumni page lists some groups they worked with, but does not have links to those people.
A google search for one returns some information, but it's 404 on the bethnalgreenventures website.
Perhaps some cultural notes about Bethnal Green - an area in the east end of London - would be useful?
I was born there, but left something like 40 years ago.
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#9I'm all for more things like this, especially in the UK, heck I'm currently in London working for a consulting company in a bank and would love to jump into a startup but I have to say that what they're expecting compared to what they're willing to put in seems a little...lopsided. "Once a year, we work with a group of very early stage companies and provide them with up to £15,000 of investment and a three month prog…
I imagine like YC (and other seed accelerators) the idea is to give you enough funding to build a prototype in three months which you can then use to raise further financing.
Re: Bethnal Green Ventures: a UK accelerator programme for stuff that matters
#10different interests highlighted: great. But what about the programme itself? That is the value proposition for founders.
Yes my thoughts exactly. They are not selling themselves at all. Anyone here been through the programme?
This is actually the first time we've run the programme properly. We did a test run about 12 months ago but at that stage didn't have the money to invest. Even so the teams got a lot out of it I hope. Good Gym (www.goodgym.org) has probably progressed the most but it was a different set up then - they're a not-for-profit.
The value for teams will definitely come from our network which we're still adding to the site to show who's involved. I think maybe we're underselling ourselves by being a bit British about the whole thing. Any advice gratefully received.