Presentation critisism aside, their application process is not exactly accessible:
You can't apply directly to join HackFwd, you have to know one of these people and convince them of your idea.
Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
21–30 of 35 posts
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#22There's a lot of nay-saying going on here, so I'm going to throw out some cautious optimism: This is somewhat non-obvious, but their copy is written against a background of other early stage investment stuff in continental europe. This sounds almost bizarre to Silicon Valley attuned ears, but funding hackers early stage doing original ideas is not common in Germany. It's encouraging to see people putting their money…
Basically the people listed at HackFWD are the same type of people responsible "for grants from the state and whatnot" - so should anyone expect different results?
I have no idea what would make you say that. Their board includes the founder of Xing (German LinkedIn competitor that IPOed, #225 in global Alexa rankings and #15 in Germany) and StarOffice (which exited to Sun and became OpenOffice) and the other two are also founders that look like they have some credible experience. Those aren't exactly bureaucrats.
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#23In what sense is this 'freeing' the talent? We're not exactly in shackles here in London. Also, the name HackFwd is a bit surprising since none of the people involved are hackers in my mind. Update. The HackFwd people disagreed with me about my assessment of the people not being hackers. I asked them who they'd highlight as a hacker and they pointed to http://hackfwd.com/people#prof.-franz-guenthner Second update. Th…
I don't see anything objectionable in that beyond typical angel/incubator rhetoric. Isn't something like: "we provide the seed capital that frees up entrepreneurs to pursue their ideas", a pretty stock justification for the role they play?
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I particularly enjoyed this video http://vimeo.com/12149977 in which we are told that Twitter is useful for keeping up to date on new technologies.
Oh wow. The cliche with a little snippet of code asking the audience to raise hands (" look at us we're such nerds! ")... Tasteful. They spoke a lot but said nothing. Somehow it's funny to see how the audience might be a little more informed than the presenters... Especially the question at around 23:00 to me seems like a big "fuck you" to the presenters. The sigh at 23.22 sends chills through my spine as the present…
You caught me. It was this special day of the year I decided not to wear my suit and stop doing excel sheets for a second.
Here are some slides I created in a prior attempt to impersonate someone who's mental abilities are clearly above mine:
http://www.slideshare.net/evilhackerdude/building-great-stuf...
If you'd like to talk to the person I'm trying to impersonate, here's his Twitter:
http://twitter.com/evilhackerdude
I'd love to talk to you!
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#25In what sense is this 'freeing' the talent? We're not exactly in shackles here in London. Also, the name HackFwd is a bit surprising since none of the people involved are hackers in my mind. Update. The HackFwd people disagreed with me about my assessment of the people not being hackers. I asked them who they'd highlight as a hacker and they pointed to http://hackfwd.com/people#prof.-franz-guenthner Second update. Th…
> We're not exactly in shackles here in London.
Well, London is about as good as it gets in "Europe", of which a great deal remains where 'startups' are a something of a foreign notion. So I say the more the merrier, and things will sort themselves out.
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Basically the people listed at HackFWD are the same type of people responsible "for grants from the state and whatnot" - so should anyone expect different results?
I have no idea what would make you say that. Their board includes the founder of Xing (German LinkedIn competitor that IPOed, #225 in global Alexa rankings and #15 in Germany) and StarOffice (which exited to Sun and became OpenOffice) and the other two are also founders that look like they have some credible experience. Those aren't exactly bureaucrats.
I'm not saying that they are bureaucrats, I was talking about the mindset. I know some guys from 'High Tech Gründerfond' (German state fond) and I really see no difference between them and HackFWD, only that they read something about YCombinator in 'Brand Eins' or on Techcrunch and now are trying to make a hyperbolic copycat of it...
Thanks for the lesson about Lars, not that I didn't knew it already ;)
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#2730% for a year of "roughly my current salary". Oh so you want it for free? Sure, why not.
I wonder what sort of equity Y Combinator would take if they ran a similar operation in Europe. Maybe 30% is more to do with business conditions than with HackFwd's own preference.
I don't know any specifics, but on Y Combinator's page they say:
"We make small investments (rarely more than $20,000) in return for small stakes in the companies we fund (usually 2-10%)."
Which I assume means $20,000 = 10% (max of both ranges). So a 30% stake, at this stage, is worth $60,000, which is less than the salary of an average experienced programmer, so is it such a bad deal?
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have no idea what would make you say that. Their board includes the founder of Xing (German LinkedIn competitor that IPOed, #225 in global Alexa rankings and #15 in Germany) and StarOffice (which exited to Sun and became OpenOffice) and the other two are also founders that look like they have some credible experience. Those aren't exactly bureaucrats.
I'm not saying that they are bureaucrats, I was talking about the mindset. I know some guys from 'High Tech Gründerfond' (German state fond) and I really see no difference between them and HackFWD, only that they read something about YCombinator in 'Brand Eins' or on Techcrunch and now are trying to make a hyperbolic copycat of it... Thanks for the lesson about Lars, not that I didn't knew it already ;)
That's not fair at all. If you look at the profile of the folks leading High Tech Gründerfonds one wouldn't assume that they are experienced in building companies (their backgrounds are in banking and consulting) and they also have a quota from the state to make a certain number of investments per year that they try to reach.
HackFwd doesn't look particularly similar to Y-Combinator and it's disingenuous to say that successful entrepreneurs (and active angel investors) are finding out about YC though Brand Eins. When I look at this I see it as a nice idea, with a competent team, with a couple of problems that look like they'll need adjustment along the way. I certainly wish them the best.
So, now, in like spirit, I'll write off your comments as the typical German nay-saying. ;-)
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not saying that they are bureaucrats, I was talking about the mindset. I know some guys from 'High Tech Gründerfond' (German state fond) and I really see no difference between them and HackFWD, only that they read something about YCombinator in 'Brand Eins' or on Techcrunch and now are trying to make a hyperbolic copycat of it... Thanks for the lesson about Lars, not that I didn't knew it already ;)
That's not fair at all. If you look at the profile of the folks leading High Tech Gründerfonds one wouldn't assume that they are experienced in building companies (their backgrounds are in banking and consulting) and they also have a quota from the state to make a certain number of investments per year that they try to reach. HackFwd doesn't look particularly similar to Y-Combinator and it's disingenuous to say that…
"I'll write off your comments as the typical German nay-saying."
Weels I can live with that. I usually keep my mouth shut about such things - it was just a little bit too funny to see it and as 'davidw' already said "...the more the merrier, and things will sort themselves out." :)
Re: Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies
#30Proving the old cliche once again that "Europeans just don't get it". Compare and contrast with YCombinator, or if you think that's unfair because Y is so well-known, to the other tens of incubation/early acceleration programs in the US. I don't want to be too negative, but can't they at least get their HTML design more appetizing?