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A horrifying startup accelerator story

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Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#41

Post by kevin_rubyhouse »

accelanon wrote: post #39

My 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…

Thanks for sharing. Any insight as to why investors sometimes back out at the last minute, after the startup has already committed to the change? I've read of that same thing happen at least a few times now... I just don't really understand why it happens.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#42

Post by fizx »

A word of warning: these personality types are incredibly common in the startup world, for a number of reasons: Driven, strong personalities are valued. It's easier to hide in a small company. As a founder, it's relatively easy to build a team that will tolerate your excesses.

Don't be afraid. Moving on after one month is ok. It won't irrevocably stain your resume. The self-aware hiring managers know this dynamic exists, and won't hold it against you.

There are thousands of amazing, hard-working, kind, creative, interesting people and teams. Find one and cherish it.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#43

Post by accelanon »

kevin_rubyhouse wrote: post #41
accelanon wrote: post #39

My 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…

Thanks for sharing. Any insight as to why investors sometimes back out at the last minute, after the startup has already committed to the change? I've read of that same thing happen at least a few times now... I just don't really understand why it happens.

I wish I knew. I think in our case it was the mentor. My guess is that they sent news of the great new deal out to all their mentors after we signed the note. The mentor got it in his inbox and jumped at my name. I can only imagine the hurried phone calls.

In that case, they just needed better due diligence. They shouldn't have had us upend our lives because of that simple failure.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#45

Post by Domenic_S »

accelanon wrote: post #39

My 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…

Thanks for writing this up.

> They agree to pay for flights so long as we pay for our own hotels and car rental.

This seems crazy to me. In my head, if a few hundred bucks for flights & lodging is too much to ask, how much dough could they really have to invest? Is this standard?

> It's a convertible note with pretty standard terms, fully signed by all the partners. We sign and send it back. [...] He explains that they can't do the deal. A check isn't coming. He can't explain why.

Is there any legal recourse available in this situation?

> My mind races and I think: it couldn't have been that mentor, could it?

Which mentor are you talking about here?

> Now I have to try to reorder my life. My job is gone. My apartment is already rented out to someone else.

You know, I've seen deals fall apart so often that until cash is in the bank I don't change my life. Maybe it's from my time as a car salesman in college - until the bank funds the loan, I wasn't counting my commission. Deals fall apart in all sorts of crazy and ridiculous ways.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#46

Post by comrade_ogilvy »

accelanon wrote: post #39

My 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…

If we were talking about a young aspiring writer-director moving to Hollywood and similar shenanigans happened, we would not be surprised would we?

Based on the OP and your story, I guess tech start ups have truly "arrived".

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#47

Post by accelanon »

Domenic_S wrote: post #45
accelanon wrote: post #39

My 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…

Thanks for writing this up. > They agree to pay for flights so long as we pay for our own hotels and car rental. This seems crazy to me. In my head, if a few hundred bucks for flights & lodging is too much to ask, how much dough could they really have to invest? Is this standard? > It's a convertible note with pretty standard terms, fully signed by all the partners. We sign and send it back. [...] He explains that th…

The convertible note was for $40,000, so they definitely had the money to spend if they were fully serious. I think they just played hardball.

There's no real legal recourse. I asked my lawyer the instant it happened. And even if there were, what's the best outcome you could get? Work at the accelerator with investors who hate you?

The mentor was the co-founder of the startup who "acquihired" me from my first startup.

And totally agreed on your last point. For me, it was definitely a lesson learned. The even better lesson was that I was spending a lot of time hustling for the wrong things. Why should I be working so hard just to get $40k? What would an accelerator do for me that I couldn't do for myself? Now I'm bootstrapping while consulting, a much more sensible choice for most businesses.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#48

Post by Bjoern »

JonnieCache wrote: post #14

Came here hoping for a particle accelerator horror story. Bo-ring. For anyone else who thought the same, here's an article about a russian who got his face caught in a proton beam: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski#Particle_acce...

Not quite Anatoli Bugorski, but still a very interesting discussion here:

"Putting your hand in the Large Hadron Collider..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMqPT6oKJ8&list=TLwUB7ALPnO...

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#49

Post by accelanon »

comrade_ogilvy wrote: post #46
accelanon wrote: post #39

My 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…

If we were talking about a young aspiring writer-director moving to Hollywood and similar shenanigans happened, we would not be surprised would we? Based on the OP and your story, I guess tech start ups have truly "arrived".

Funny enough, this all happened in Los Angeles. :)

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#50

Post by accelanon »

Domenic_S wrote: post #45
accelanon wrote: post #39

My 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…

Thanks for writing this up. > They agree to pay for flights so long as we pay for our own hotels and car rental. This seems crazy to me. In my head, if a few hundred bucks for flights & lodging is too much to ask, how much dough could they really have to invest? Is this standard? > It's a convertible note with pretty standard terms, fully signed by all the partners. We sign and send it back. [...] He explains that th…

The other thing to keep in mind is that the accelerators work something like this:

1) Fund a bunch of companies with the expectation that maybe 1 in 10 will succeed.

2) When the other 9 fail, you have a bunch of talented developers all in one place. And guess what? The really successful company is hiring.

It's pretty brilliant, if not Machiavellian.

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