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A horrifying startup accelerator story

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Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#61

Post by accelanon »

adambenayoun wrote: post #54
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…

My story about accelerator is all fluffy and red roses (I was with 500startups and the experience was AMAZING) and I moved from another country to the US in order to participate in it. I can only imagine what would have happened if they had cancelled on me at the last minute. I think these kind of stories need to include name and not be anonymous, I hate when people get away with this kind of behavior because no one…

No offense taken. Just remember that I'm still the little guy here, as are many others who feel they have to share anonymously. I don't have a large fund. I don't have lots of great connections. And I still need to do business, maybe with companies who have existing relationships with these people.

I wish it weren't so.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#62

Post by accelanon »

OnyeaboAduba wrote: post #58
accelanon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I understand urge for anonymity in these stories but I think it would be really helpful If the names of these accelerators where disclosed so people don’t fall into the same situations. I know "clues" are provided in both scenarios but there are literally dozens of accelerators out there (four alone in La area that I know of) some of which a couple of my friends have applied too. Avoiding these type landmines should…

I agree, but I'm not sure I'm in a position to do much were I to disclose the name. A comment or a story on HN! We'll all guffaw and shake our heads; then we'll move on. Your buddies a year from now probably won't know any difference. And if I'm remembered, at best, I'll just be perceived as a disaffected applicant.

I don't know that there's a good solution to this. I wish pud's fuckedcompany still existed, and there were a place for investors, too.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#64

Post by beachstartup »

throwaway98765 wrote: post #21
kumarski wrote: post #3

Have 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.

usually when i hear "barely covers the rent" i think of two cities

NY, and SF.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#65

Post by api »

I had an awful experience years ago that reminds me of some of these stories. I'd have to tone it down to make it believable.

Short short version: a guy with no money pretended to be a deep-pocketed investor, talked me into leaving my day job. At least that's how the story begins. Then it gets progressively more insane.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#66

Post by auctiontheory »

Startups looking for accelerators remind me of authors looking for agents and publishers - we don't realize how much power we have in the relationship, and also how much we can do for ourselves without someone to "help" us for a chunk of our equity.

Of course the right accelerator/VC/agent/publisher, at the right time, can help. It works best if you see them as a piece of YOUR plan, rather than see yourself as a supplicant to their network/deep pockets.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#67

Post by wwweston »

meepmorp wrote: post #17
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...

This was what I thought - some poor guy was doing maintenance at the wrong time.

And didn't even get superpowers out of it. :/

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#68

Post by adambenayoun »

accelanon wrote: post #61
adambenayoun wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My story about accelerator is all fluffy and red roses (I was with 500startups and the experience was AMAZING) and I moved from another country to the US in order to participate in it. I can only imagine what would have happened if they had cancelled on me at the last minute. I think these kind of stories need to include name and not be anonymous, I hate when people get away with this kind of behavior because no one…

No offense taken. Just remember that I'm still the little guy here, as are many others who feel they have to share anonymously. I don't have a large fund. I don't have lots of great connections. And I still need to do business, maybe with companies who have existing relationships with these people. I wish it weren't so.

Understandable.

Would you be willing to disclose this information in private? I'm not affiliated with any accelerator but do have my share of experience with them and this kind of information is very interesting to me.

If you do - then you know how to reach me (email is in my profile)

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#69

Post by jedc »

varelse wrote: post #13
kumarski wrote: post #3

Have fun figuring out which one it is: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators

Wow, if I'm reading that table correctly, the odds of playing the slots are still better than funding startups blindly: http://wizardofodds.com/games/slots/

Hi, creator of Seed-DB here. I'd stress that "exit" values are just that... for known exits only. Even if companies have raised money at billion+ valuations, that number is going to be zero for them. Assuming a 2-10 year horizon for most companies between accelerator and exit, most companies still have a long way to go before they'll have a meaningful number hit the 'exit' column.

Re: A horrifying startup accelerator story

#70

Post by jedc »

omegant wrote: post #7
kumarski wrote: post #3

Have fun figuring out which one it is: http://www.seed-db.com/accelerators

The numbers are amazing, it really puts in to context the meaning of Venture Capital!. Just a bunch of accelerators are getting exits so far.

This is mainly because a) most accelerators are new so the companies haven't developed enough to exit and b) it takes time to build a program that reliably finds/develops companies that can exit.
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