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They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

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Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#111

Post by morgante »

moralestapia wrote: post #23
iamleppert wrote: post #6

Add TechStars to the list of accelerators to be avoided at all costs. They make an investment in your company on terms they can claw back the money at any time. Most of these accelerators provide little to no value, in my experience. Unless you need to know what “product market fit” means. Hilarious.

Most VCs add zero value aside from the money. Bootstrapping is always better, if you can do it, of course. Exhibit A: Naval Ravikant, the flagship SV investor, widely regarded to as "a wise man", just released a kind of crappy messaging app that flopped. Imagine having unlimited leverage, unlimited money, unlimited reputation, a huge audience already in place and still that not being enough to put out a competent pro…

Startups are incredibly hard.

If Airchat "flopped" it still got way more usage than most bootstrapped startups ever see.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#112

Post by morgante »

behringer wrote: post #109
atherton33 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. The bankruptcy just transferred the right to exploit it from the mildly incompetent to expertly ruthless.

I prefer the term scam artist over "expertly ruthless"

I don't think the final buyers are scam artists. They're mercenary, but not deceiving anyone.

The scam artists are definitely the people preying on entrepreneurs' dreams to sell a worthless accelerator membership.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#113

Post by vidarh »

dylan604 wrote: post #105
vidarh wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had that as well. I've always wondered how someone felt so out of place they wouldn't stick it out until the end of the day, or give it a few days.

I always tried to think of it as they were interviewing for some other place they really wanted, but that place was taking a really long time to get back to them so they took something else before things got too dire financially. Then the other job finally reached out, so they said c'ya! I really have no idea the actual thought process though.

I wouldn't be surprised at that, but I personally would still at least stay out the day. And sit down with someone and tell them.

I guess the chance is small people will remember them, but you never know where you'll come across someone again - I had someone (that I thankfully had better memories of) that had worked for me show apply for a totally different position at a different company where I was the hiring manager without knowing I worked there, for example...

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#114

Post by langsoul-com »

darkerside wrote: post #51
atherton33 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of note from the article: she complained and was refunded the money after being stood up for the meeting, but they never cancelled the contract she paid to sign that gave them the right to buy her out of her own company for pennies, so once it passed to bankruptcy the creditors still took her company.

Wouldn't a contract like this be considered unenforceable? There were no services rendered, no exchange of value

Founder has no money to pay for lawyers. No doubt those fees would bankrupt the company completely.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#115

Post by langsoul-com »

moralestapia wrote: post #23
iamleppert wrote: post #6

Add TechStars to the list of accelerators to be avoided at all costs. They make an investment in your company on terms they can claw back the money at any time. Most of these accelerators provide little to no value, in my experience. Unless you need to know what “product market fit” means. Hilarious.

Most VCs add zero value aside from the money. Bootstrapping is always better, if you can do it, of course. Exhibit A: Naval Ravikant, the flagship SV investor, widely regarded to as "a wise man", just released a kind of crappy messaging app that flopped. Imagine having unlimited leverage, unlimited money, unlimited reputation, a huge audience already in place and still that not being enough to put out a competent pro…

The entire point of a vc is to fund many and hope a success works out. Read on what Paul Graham said about ycomb, have shit tons of people dig holes to find treasure.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#116

Post by stuffinmyhand »

dtnewman wrote: post #36
moralestapia wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most VCs add zero value aside from the money. Bootstrapping is always better, if you can do it, of course. Exhibit A: Naval Ravikant, the flagship SV investor, widely regarded to as "a wise man", just released a kind of crappy messaging app that flopped. Imagine having unlimited leverage, unlimited money, unlimited reputation, a huge audience already in place and still that not being enough to put out a competent pro…

No one gives away 20% of a company for advice. He gives them capital. Hopefully connections. And founders can take or leave the advice. Anyway, he is a successful entrepreneur having built AngelList. Sure, maybe he isn’t Midas, but a single failure in a startup doesn’t make someone an idiot. But assuming you are referring to AirChat, it seems too early to call it a failure anyway.

> Airchat is an app that lets you chat with anyone, anytime, anywhere. You can share photos, videos, and personal info with other users, but data is not encrypted and may be shared with third parties.

If this isn't gonna fail dramatically, I'm eating my hat

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#117

Post by moomoo11 »

morgante wrote: post #111
moralestapia wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most VCs add zero value aside from the money. Bootstrapping is always better, if you can do it, of course. Exhibit A: Naval Ravikant, the flagship SV investor, widely regarded to as "a wise man", just released a kind of crappy messaging app that flopped. Imagine having unlimited leverage, unlimited money, unlimited reputation, a huge audience already in place and still that not being enough to put out a competent pro…

Startups are incredibly hard. If Airchat "flopped" it still got way more usage than most bootstrapped startups ever see.

Can you explain why? Are you suggesting he used the money on marketing instead of product?

I don’t know too many bootstrapped companies that are billion dollar plus but most well run bootstrapped companies can end up becoming successful small and mid level companies that make a decent money. At least from a revenue:num_employees, can’t be capital intensive so they have to be profitable from early on. Pls explain I’m interested to learn thanx

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#118

Post by [deleted] »

hedora wrote: post #85
pavel_lishin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't listen to this charlatan. For only $6,499 I'll introduce you to a chap who won't charge you a cent over $6,498 for an introduction.

I charge as much as the second lowest bidder. Second lowest because sustainable value extraction is important to me.

[deleted]

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#119

Post by withinboredom »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #57
xpl wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They make an investment in your company on terms they can claw back the money at any time It is a loan then, not an investment.

Even worse - loans can't usually be clawed back at any time

Nearly all loans I have seen have a provision in the contract that the entire loan can be called at any time.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#120

Post by morgante »

moomoo11 wrote: post #117
morgante wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startups are incredibly hard. If Airchat "flopped" it still got way more usage than most bootstrapped startups ever see.

Can you explain why? Are you suggesting he used the money on marketing instead of product? I don’t know too many bootstrapped companies that are billion dollar plus but most well run bootstrapped companies can end up becoming successful small and mid level companies that make a decent money. At least from a revenue:num_employees, can’t be capital intensive so they have to be profitable from early on. Pls explain I’m…

> Are you suggesting he used the money on marketing instead of product?

No, a lot of the marketing/hype just came from Naval and other influencers on Twitter.

> most well run bootstrapped companies can end up becoming successful small and mid level companies that make a decent money

"well run" is doing a lot of work here, but:

- Most bootstrapped companies fail, period.

- Most of them fail without anyone ever noticing they existed. It's very hard to break through the noise, and I know lots of companies/projects that failed without ever getting more than a handful of users.

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