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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

#31

Post by jedc »

medearis wrote: post #15
rms wrote: post #3

Great. 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.

Exactly. The value of each of these programs is directly related to the guidance, advice, and networking involved. Having a good selection process is also a good validation of teams/ideas.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#32

Post by webwright »

pg wrote: post #10

We 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 this stage can certain move, but it's expensive (in time and money) to do so. Some startups at this stage have spouses and kids, which makes this a bigger decision. If the spouse has a lucrative job, this makes it more expensive (especially in this market, where there aren't big piles of jobs sitting around in the valley).

In our case, YC was worth it. We left working wives behind and they visited us occasionally to remind us that we were married.

But if there was a similar quality program locally, we would've considered it. (For the record, I don't think TechStars is good enough that we would've punted YC for it if it were local, but it seems to be getting better).

Geography is less of a factor for YC applicants, I'd assume, because YC is far enough above the competition that it's worth it to move.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#33

Post by kapitti »

mattmaroon wrote: post #28
indiekid wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, having been in TechStars (founder of SocialThing), I think the programs are very different. Both have their merits, one is not necessarily better than the other, just different. Why the TS vs. YC animosity? We're (startup founders) all in this game together. Of course there will be competition and such, but we're all at the same stage at one time or another, so why not help? Why not be happy that there ar…

I wouldn't say it's animosity. I just think they're sort of lame copycats. For fuck's sake man, they stole YC's application word for word. I think that gives lifetime exemptions to those of us calling them a me-too act.

TechStars requested videos this year, before YC's latest application opened, which also requested videos - are we to now start saying YC copied TS? Get over it.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#34

Post by alabut »

pg wrote: post #10

We 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…

"Honestly, they'd have done better to just fund 20 startups in Boulder"

I've heard they might do that as well.

I'm guessing the difference between techstars and YC is less about going regional to source applicants than it is about spreading around the mentor pool, sort of like franchising the "learn from elders" experience rather than concentrating it. YC's a bet in the other direction, sure, but I'm also interested to see how this plays out because I just can't imagine the bay area has a complete lock on all of the previously successful entrepreneurs willing to advise the next generation of hackers. At the very least, there's a certain amount of mentors and potential investors that like being away from the echo chamber and prefer to talk in Boston about Derrida rather than in SF/SV about virality, or in the case of Techstars and Brad Feld, about Lance Armstrong, beer and whatever else people like in Boulder.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#35

Post by rantfoil »

indiekid wrote: post #25
mattmaroon wrote: post #9

These people set a new record for me-too-ness every month.

Personally, having been in TechStars (founder of SocialThing), I think the programs are very different. Both have their merits, one is not necessarily better than the other, just different. Why the TS vs. YC animosity? We're (startup founders) all in this game together. Of course there will be competition and such, but we're all at the same stage at one time or another, so why not help? Why not be happy that there ar…

I don't think there is any animosity between founders for TS vs YC. I've intro'ed TS startups to our investors before, and if/when we need to go back and raise another round, they'll do the same.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#36

Post by mattmaroon »

rustartup wrote: post #29
mattmaroon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it's animosity. I just think they're sort of lame copycats. For fuck's sake man, they stole YC's application word for word. I think that gives lifetime exemptions to those of us calling them a me-too act.

Finance (funding IS finance, right?) in itself is rather uninventive. Would you prefer to learn different rules each time you get new CC?

Well, there's uninventive, and then there's directly copying every move, sometimes literally by cutting and pasting. Though I suppose they say good artists copy, great artists steal. Maybe TechStars are great and just seem lame to me.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#37

Post by mattmaroon »

kapitti wrote: post #33
mattmaroon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it's animosity. I just think they're sort of lame copycats. For fuck's sake man, they stole YC's application word for word. I think that gives lifetime exemptions to those of us calling them a me-too act.

TechStars requested videos this year, before YC's latest application opened, which also requested videos - are we to now start saying YC copied TS? Get over it.

If TechStars made a video or a paragraph explaining it, and YC actually cut and pasted that into their site, then yes, I would claim that.

I'm not knocking TechStars for doing a similar thing. I'm knocking them for copying it line by line (often by cutting and pasting) and not innovating at all. Good businesses often borrow ideas from successful competitors, but they never copy them entirely. They always seek to improve.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#38

Post by pg »

alabut wrote: post #34
pg wrote: post #10

We 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…

"Honestly, they'd have done better to just fund 20 startups in Boulder" I've heard they might do that as well. I'm guessing the difference between techstars and YC is less about going regional to source applicants than it is about spreading around the mentor pool, sort of like franchising the "learn from elders" experience rather than concentrating it. YC's a bet in the other direction, sure, but I'm also interested…

The difference isn't in that dimension. The mentor pool in Silicon Valley is massive; probably several times the rest of the country combined.

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#39

Post by alabut »

pg wrote: post #38
alabut wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Honestly, they'd have done better to just fund 20 startups in Boulder" I've heard they might do that as well. I'm guessing the difference between techstars and YC is less about going regional to source applicants than it is about spreading around the mentor pool, sort of like franchising the "learn from elders" experience rather than concentrating it. YC's a bet in the other direction, sure, but I'm also interested…

The difference isn't in that dimension. The mentor pool in Silicon Valley is massive; probably several times the rest of the country combined.

I see, you're not just talking about network effects of aggregating all of the startups together, it's about having a common pool of investors as well. I wonder if angelconf is a first step towards a ycombinator-like structured approach towards the investing side of the equation?

http://www.angelconf.com/

Re: TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston

#40

Post by pg »

alabut wrote: post #39
pg wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference isn't in that dimension. The mentor pool in Silicon Valley is massive; probably several times the rest of the country combined.

I see, you're not just talking about network effects of aggregating all of the startups together, it's about having a common pool of investors as well. I wonder if angelconf is a first step towards a ycombinator-like structured approach towards the investing side of the equation? http://www.angelconf.com/

Not just investors. There is a collection of people associated to varying degrees with YC who advise the startups. (They're the old-looking people in the slides on our frontpage.) Sometimes they invest, but they don't only talk to startups they invest in.

One of the hardest parts of being in Boston for us was that this pool of advisors was so much smaller there. It was just a handful of people. Whereas in the Valley there are on the order of 50 different people we might introduce one or more YC startups to each cycle.

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