what is the real recourse here? you can't out them because of their connections in the community and needing to do business with their business partners in the future? I wish someone like David Cohen or PG would out them publicly and let the court of public opinion do the rest.
A horrifying startup accelerator story
101–110 of 146 posts
Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#102Nothing as bad, but heard of bad experience by teams at Microsoft + Techstars accelerator in Seattle where both sides lost interest in the class in the middle of the program. Not sure how good/bad the fundraising was across the board.
Could you elaborate on the bad experiences? And any idea which class it was?
Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#103is there a glassdoor for startup accelerators?
Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#104Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
My point was to say that while we've done things to get access, like YC, which was wonderful and a massive exception to this rule, just about every other time we've explored an access opportunity, it's been a big miss.
Sorry to harp on the pedantic point, but your parent's point still stands: you said you never once paid for access, when in fact you seem to have exactly once paid for access, which is different. The point that paying for access makes sense only if it is through YCombinator may be a good one but it's a significantly weaker one than you were originally making. Instead of an unequivocal "no", you're saying "no, but..."…
to be a pedant to your point, OP never actually said he "never once paid for access"... he said "never once has anything good happened from paying for access". they're semantically different.
Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#106My experience was not nearly this bad, but still horrifying for me, my co-founder, and our families. We had been talking off and on with an accelerator for about a month. We had pitched them, had a few calls, but lived on the other side of the country. They wanted to meet in person which was really not feasible for us. We worked at full-time jobs while hacking away on the side and scraping together whatever money we…
I have a horror story to share with regards to my experience within the LA ecosystem, but unfortunately now is not a good time and I don't have an anon account handy right now.;)
So accelanon your deal was in LA for $40K. There's only a handful of them. Hmm. My situation was pretty bad and I drove 3200 miles and rented a place for 4 expensive months. It was stressful, fun but not what I thought I was getting myself into. BUT the whole ordeal fired me up and I haven't lost a bit of focus. I am much better off now. If anyone wants info on what LA is all about hit me up.
Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#107Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#108Have fun figuring out which one it is: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators
https://angel.co/socraticlabs seems to fit the bill. Of course, keep in mind that this could very well not be the accelerator.
The MD seems to have confirmed it: https://twitter.com/heatherg/status/373318278833135616
"I've emailed @davidcohen and asked him whether he would be willing to share my response. Awaiting word."
Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#109This story is really frustrating and sad to hear, but I have to say, in the three years I've been working on my startup, never once has anything good happened from paying for access to any type of person (investors or customers), using any currency (equity or cash). We did YCombinator, which could be described as an "access" play, but apart from that, every time someone has offered us access to something in return fo…
I agree, very often we have these average gatekeepers who imagine themselves as top level power brokers at an elite world, and those should be avoided. But the best "gatekeepers" are not the ones that guard the gate, they are the ones who can show you where the gates even are, it's just very difficult to be able to distinguish the real valuable guys from the "hustlers" without having a lot of experiences yourself.
One of the great things about the SF/valley startup scene is how the whole gatekeeper dynamic doesn't work so much. The best VCs are all just a tweet or HN post away if you're really working on something great that they'll get excited about.
Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story
#110My experience was not nearly this bad, but still horrifying for me, my co-founder, and our families. We had been talking off and on with an accelerator for about a month. We had pitched them, had a few calls, but lived on the other side of the country. They wanted to meet in person which was really not feasible for us. We worked at full-time jobs while hacking away on the side and scraping together whatever money we…
I have a horror story to share with regards to my experience within the LA ecosystem, but unfortunately now is not a good time and I don't have an anon account handy right now.;) So accelanon your deal was in LA for $40K. There's only a handful of them. Hmm. My situation was pretty bad and I drove 3200 miles and rented a place for 4 expensive months. It was stressful, fun but not what I thought I was getting myself i…
Whats your contact info?