I can't figure out why there is such a protective attitude about YC around here. Sure, the board is a service (experiment) of pg and YC, but seriously folks, they don't have a mentoring/seed investment patent on this kind of an operation. Why can't folks be happy there are more opportunities out there? Are you claiming that only YC startups can benefit from such a program or that only YC can be beneficial the young company?
TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
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Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#12These people set a new record for me-too-ness every month.
Call it me-too if you like, Matt, but there's some great stuff coming out of Techstars. I don't care where innovative companies come from - just that they get off the ground.
Sorry to hear you're not into that.
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#13We didn't leave a void when we left Boston, because we weren't filling one when we were there. No one seems to get this, but seed funding is not a regional business. Startups at that stage can move. Most of the startups we funded in our Boston cycles didn't come from Boston, and practically all left Boston afterward. We could have been anywhere. Anywhere with decent coffee at least. Honestly, they'd have done better…
I think teams would apply to YC no matter the location, but not likewise for TechStars.
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#14We didn't leave a void when we left Boston, because we weren't filling one when we were there. No one seems to get this, but seed funding is not a regional business. Startups at that stage can move. Most of the startups we funded in our Boston cycles didn't come from Boston, and practically all left Boston afterward. We could have been anywhere. Anywhere with decent coffee at least. Honestly, they'd have done better…
"Startups at that stage can move."
What if they don't want to? What if they don't want to be in California. This gives them options.
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#15Great. The more funding opportunities out there the better it is for all of us.
I think that most people's interest (including mine) in doing YCombinator or TechStars is not really the funding. It seems that you'd be much better off in this case just saving the 6 or 8k yourself. Rather, the network and guidance in getting your idea off the ground seems to be the real value.
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#16I don't really believe that this is just a coincidence. If they were planning a second location they wouldn't have gone to Boston where there was YC. They would have tried to go some place w/o much competition, like New York. And if they were indeed planning to take YC on, why Boston and not Silicon Valley?
Because YC is supply-constrained. If you believe there are more fundable opportunities than YC can handle then it makes perfect sense to "compete" in Boston. I wouldn't be surprised if it were all just a story, though.
pg commented above, so that can't be their reason. Maybe they just like Boston?
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#17We didn't leave a void when we left Boston, because we weren't filling one when we were there. No one seems to get this, but seed funding is not a regional business. Startups at that stage can move. Most of the startups we funded in our Boston cycles didn't come from Boston, and practically all left Boston afterward. We could have been anywhere. Anywhere with decent coffee at least. Honestly, they'd have done better…
"Startups at that stage can move." What if they don't want to? What if they don't want to be in California. This gives them options.
It happens that I have a lot of data about the number of startups that need to be in Boston to participate in something like YC, because they were the ones who waited for summer cycles to apply when we had the summer cycles in Boston. Of those we accepted I don't think the number was ever more than 3 a year.
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Startups at that stage can move." What if they don't want to? What if they don't want to be in California. This gives them options.
It happens that I have a lot of data about the number of startups that need to be in Boston to participate in something like YC, because they were the ones who waited for summer cycles to apply when we had the summer cycles in Boston. Of those we accepted I don't think the number was ever more than 3 a year.
What about network effects? I'm aware that SV is the best, but perhaps there are some benefits to diversifying their presence? Additional exposure to local mentors, raising startup buzz in the area with media/event coverage, even interacting with other local businesses? Since YC decided to leave I imagine these probably weren't very big effects, but I'm curious.
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
It happens that I have a lot of data about the number of startups that need to be in Boston to participate in something like YC, because they were the ones who waited for summer cycles to apply when we had the summer cycles in Boston. Of those we accepted I don't think the number was ever more than 3 a year.
What about network effects? I'm aware that SV is the best, but perhaps there are some benefits to diversifying their presence? Additional exposure to local mentors, raising startup buzz in the area with media/event coverage, even interacting with other local businesses? Since YC decided to leave I imagine these probably weren't very big effects, but I'm curious.
In my experience, concentration produces the most powerful network effects. E.g. the closer the startups are brought together, the more they help one another. This is true both within and between cycles, and between startups and the greater community.
Though this isn't the reason we decided to be in CA year round, such interactions are much increased here. I was sitting in a cafe in Palo Alto recently having lunch, and in the course of one hour I ran into 3 YC founders and 2 angel investors I knew, all 5 of whom were there independently.
The thing we used to like about going back to Cambridge in the summer was the lack of this, actually. If you had to overhear the conversation at the next table, at least it was about Derrida and not virality.
Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
#20I can't figure out why there is such a protective attitude about YC around here. Sure, the board is a service (experiment) of pg and YC, but seriously folks, they don't have a mentoring/seed investment patent on this kind of an operation. Why can't folks be happy there are more opportunities out there? Are you claiming that only YC startups can benefit from such a program or that only YC can be beneficial the young c…
I think YC and any other incubator are operating in the same space, but not necessarily in competition. That sounds like a contradiction, but the way I see it that funding startups (and I only have limited experience in this field so be gentle in your rebukes :) )is more about getting the right mix of people, ideas and money than it is about just the money.
A vc should - at that stage - bring a lot more to the table than just cash, and if the chemistry isn't working out well then that can be because of the team, but it could also very well be the vc that doesn't work well with a specific party. So, more vc's in a certain region will make it easier to find the right 'mix' without any competition taking place.
One startup I'm involved in is now in its third year, they have raised about 200K in funding from 8 different parties, mostly angel investors but also one corporate investor, the team is working out quite well after some initial shake-out.
I can fully imagine that the past would have looked different if we had not 'clicked' on a personal level with the founders, but if we had not and they would have found traction with other investors I would not have seen that as competitor running away with our business, simply a mismatch of characters.
I think most vc presentations that bomb will do so on a personal level rather than on the ideas presented, in fact I would be surprised if there were not several teams pitching roughly the same idea to a number of vcs at the same time (and sometimes even to the same vc...).
The short version of all this, first of all it is about you and the vc getting on the same page, second there is the quality of the idea and your plans for executing that idea, third there is the money.
The last two are 'fixable', the first is not.