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HackFwd

hackfwd.com

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Re: HackFwd

#31

Post by danielsiders »

kayoone wrote: post #28
danielsiders wrote: post #20

A friend of mine just signed on as one of their referrers. It seems like a cushy big VC. They fly the referrers out to expensive resorts a few times a year and in exchange the referrers give HF a heads up on all the cool people and projects they know about. The goal seems to be providing a framework for people who wouldn't otherwise do a startup. I can't leave my family, I need a salary, I'm just afraid, I'm not moti…

i wouldnt generalize it like that. It doesnt really matter to them if you have a startup already or still a job and a prototype. The important part is that you have already built something to show and are passionate about it. They also form regular companies and they dont tell you how to spend your money or anything like that. They have very good financial advisers that develop a budget with you upfront and then its…

My primary objection is that they seem to be focused on acquisition of nascent talent and ideas in an attempt to corner the market on potential startup developers without a clear plan about what to do with them. The amount of money and perks going out to everyone involved both lessens the pressure to succeed and suggests a focus on acquisition instead of development. Of course everyone's there to make money and successful ventures support others but it seems like advisors are filling the roles of VC partners without appropriate remuneration and founders are being treated like employees. I don't like the value relationships all around, it doesn't seem like they help build successful companies, just cherry pick ideas and products in exchange for a salary. That doesn't seem good for the European tech economy or those who would otherwise become real founders on their own. It seems like they're trying to do an even earlier stage acquisition than companies like google have moved into, but without offering the future google does. Again, it might work there, but it's not something I'd want to be a part of or what I'd like to see long term in Europe. If it's a stopgap measure to keep talent there and in a few years a stronger community exists to help startups develop, then that's great.

Re: HackFwd

#32

Post by mcxx »

alain94040 wrote: post #25

At least in France, where I help organize the Founder Institute, we have plenty of angels, who will invest as little as 25K€. The difference with the US is that culturally, money and success is not as accepted as in Silicon Valley, so angels tend to hide. They don't put themselves up front and center as much as in Silicon Valley, but they are around to be found.

Will the angles invest pre-seed/seed money? Will they invest in teams not in France?

Re: HackFwd

#33

Post by robbschiller »

kayoone wrote: post #19

I am the founder of a HackFwd backed Company, but we just started this month. Of course its not cheap for founders with a good prototype, but the landscape in Europe is very different from the US. You dont have a lot of Angel Investing in Europe and VCs often only start at 500K EURs...so they are really filling a gap here, which is pre-seed/seed funding. Besides the money you get to know some of europes best and most…

I think the most important point there is that the European start-up environment is just simply very different that the U.S. that's something I don't totally understand being a U.S. citizen and not having traveled much in Europe but makes complete sense in looking at the difference in structures.

Re: HackFwd

#34

Post by Prezzer »

Hi all, I'm the founder of the first UK company to be invited onto HackFWD and speaking for myself and my two co-founders I can safely say we're absolutely delighted to be on board. Since our first contact with David, the "Talent Geek" we've been treated absolutely fantastically and have been humbled by the level of support received. The join process was very straight forward, fast and informal, which allowed us to remain entirely focussed on developing our product without the worry of jumping through hoops X Factor style.

Reading the comments here and previous comments from other articles, it seems that most people consider 27% equity to be too large a chunk to give away. Of course everyone will have different opinions on this, but our reaction was positive. We felt that the larger equity stake would encourage the investor to really support our growth, rather than looking for a quick flip in a few months time. We're working hard to build a really awesome product here with long term goals and so the opportunity to have 12 months of support from some of the most respected tech people this side of the Atlantic was a no brainer.

Had we not taken the investment and continued to bootstrap, our project may never have gotten off the ground - juggling client work which always took priority made it almost impossible to get any focus. Our logic implied that 73% of a multi million pound company supported by hugely experienced technology and business strategists was a whole lot better than 100% of a half baked idea and ongoing client hassle. Now, we're entirely focussed on building something awesome and that feels great every day.

To be honest, I think that the people who come on here talking about the money, aren't really true entrepreneurs anyway. I know I'm one, and I know for sure that money is way down on my priority list. We just want to build something awesome and HackFWD is giving us a wonderful opportunity to do that.

In my opinion, anyone with a great startup idea and a passion to match should definitely start hunting down HackFWD referrers and I say that with absolute sincerity.

Re: HackFwd

#35

Post by edanm »

Does anyone know if HackFwd is planning on working with Israeli startups? From the looks of their site, it seems they don't currently have any Israeli operations.

Re: HackFwd

#36

Post by afaict »

Based on my actual salary? Why not just a fixed amount for everyone? Seems unfair to those who have already reduced their income to a minimum to get started.

Re: HackFwd

#37

Post by andreyf »

stefanobernardi wrote: post #4

Disclaimer: I'm a referrer for HackFwd. I think it's pretty different. - It doesn't have a public application process. You can only be referred by someone in the network. - It doesn't require you to move anywhere. You can work from your home country/city. - It doesn't have a formal 3 month program with mentorship and dinners. It's a 1+ year stunt, with a quarterly weekend retreat where you get to present your achieve…

I think it's pretty different. - It doesn't have a public application process.

Why is this a good thing?

It doesn't give you $15-20k for 6%, but instead matches your annual salary with caps at 90k, 140k and 190 if you are a 1, 2 or 3 person team respectively.

In NYC, I'd expect three competent software engineers to be making ~400k. That's a 50% salary cut (it's livable, but certainly leaves room for competition). In other parts of the world, this would obviously be different... maybe you should adjust it for cost of living?

HackFwd always gets 27% equity, and you are required to give away 3% to advisors/referrers.

So your valuation of an idea ranges from ~$330k to ~$700k, based only on the number of founders? If the % equity is constant, doesn't that encourage an applicant to always come up with three founders, even if one of them ends up dropping out and not taking any equity?

Re: HackFwd

#38

Post by mcxx »

mcxx wrote: post #32
alain94040 wrote: post #25

At least in France, where I help organize the Founder Institute, we have plenty of angels, who will invest as little as 25K€. The difference with the US is that culturally, money and success is not as accepted as in Silicon Valley, so angels tend to hide. They don't put themselves up front and center as much as in Silicon Valley, but they are around to be found.

Will the angles invest pre-seed/seed money? Will they invest in teams not in France?

Why the downvote? I'm just asking questions I'm genuinely interested in.

Re: HackFwd

#39

Post by kayoone »

danielsiders wrote: post #31
kayoone wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i wouldnt generalize it like that. It doesnt really matter to them if you have a startup already or still a job and a prototype. The important part is that you have already built something to show and are passionate about it. They also form regular companies and they dont tell you how to spend your money or anything like that. They have very good financial advisers that develop a budget with you upfront and then its…

My primary objection is that they seem to be focused on acquisition of nascent talent and ideas in an attempt to corner the market on potential startup developers without a clear plan about what to do with them. The amount of money and perks going out to everyone involved both lessens the pressure to succeed and suggests a focus on acquisition instead of development. Of course everyone's there to make money and succe…

i dont really know where you got that aquisition idea from, but thats not what they want to do. The core message is that they want to help Hackers build a business, without them needing to worry too much about setting up the business and giving them good advice over the course of a year. Problems/Changes etc are discussed in quarterly meetings, foudners get high quality feedback and can work on their product. The goal is still getting another round of financing if the concept proves to be successfull but with that amount of money some startups will even have the chance to walk on their own without further funding.

I dont see whats wrong with that, and i also dont see much difference with Angel investing for example. In fact many successfull angel investors work together with their early stage startups to make them succeed, thats exactly what HackFwd does, just on a bigger scale. If you need more funding, they will prepare you for that, if not, fine.

Potential startups still have to have a good prototype, have to deliver a good pitch and ultimately get accepted which is how it works for any other investment vehicle basically. It is much harder to get early stage funding in Europe, so the existence of companies like HackFwd is a great thing for the tech economy imo.

Re: HackFwd

#40

Post by frisco »

jkent wrote: post #15

There is a European equivalent to YC. It's YC. (maybe)

> Will you help us set up something like Y Combinator in our country?

> Actually, the seed funding business [is] international.

From the YC FAQ.

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