Ignite 100, The UK YC?

by thehodge • 15 years ago

35 37 15 years ago

thehodge• 15 years ago

From the Site -

It’s a straightforward deal. Each team will receive £5,000 per founder (to a maximum of £15,000) for which we will accept 8% of founder shares per start-up (not per founder). We do not have any strange terms and conditions and we align ourselves entirely with the other founders of the business – effectively becoming a co-founder of the business. In addition, we provide you with office space and other services from various partners including hosting, legal and professional services etc. Subject to the teams achieving pre-agreed milestones, the balance of the £100,000 will be released in the form of a convertible loan with a discount of 20% against the next funding round. Teams are not obliged to accept the loan note at the end of the programme.

mattmanser• 15 years ago

Subject to the teams achieving pre-agreed milestones

Wonder what they are. Doesn't sounds so simple to me.

tropikai2• 15 years ago

i guess pre-agreed means that both sides decides what milestones can be achieved during the programme

AwesomeTogether• 15 years ago

isn't 8% a lot of equity for less money compared to other incubators?

fernandose• 15 years ago

anyone know the relationship between this and springboard? Seems to contain a lot of the same people, even some of the pages looks similar to the sb site?

tropikai2• 15 years ago

Yes, executive director is the same. It is really high-end programme as well as springboard.

amirmc5• 15 years ago

Same guy running it (jdbradford). It'll be the 4th accelerator cycle he's run (3rd in the north-east).

dmitri19812• 15 years ago

Makes me wonder why there are so many iterations. Also, have there been any interesting success stories to come out of his accelerators?

jgrahamc4• 15 years ago

It seems to me that what the UK is crying out for is not a "UK YC" but actually YC. I see lots of activity here in London and I'm guessing that if there were an outpost of YC there'd be a ton of people applying.

Also, whenever I see these programs with a ton of mentors (http://ignite100.com/view/mentors/) I think "quantity over quality". Look at YC: a tiny team of people. You don't need 50 mentors, you need three good ones. Also, Ignite 100 looks like it is a rebranding/relaunching of a previous program called The Difference Engine. I'd like to see some successes from that before judging this program.

And there are quality VCs in London (e.g. Accel has a major office here).

amirmc5• 15 years ago

YC doesn't do outposts. They might decide to have an 'ambassador' like Alex was on the East Coast. Dunno how that worked out though.

Edit for your second comment: Meeting the 3 mentors you need is only going to happen if you've had a chance to meet many more. Obviously it wont be the same 3 for everyone. I doubt the YC teams restrict themselves to only getting advice from the YC partners.

pwaring2• 15 years ago

Agree on the quality/quantity point - I haven't even heard of most of the companies these mentors work for and I'm always a bit dubious when someone describes themselves as a 'serial entrepreneur'.

However, the fact that there are quality VCs in London doesn't help much if you're 'up North' (yes, there is life beyond Watford). It's good to see something like this outside of the South East region.

jgrahamc4• 15 years ago

The problem with geographical dispersion is exactly what YC worries about too. Initially YC was Boston + Silicon Valley and then became Silicon Valley only. If you were going to do a non-Silicon Valley YC then you'd need to put it somewhere where there was high connectivity between entrepreneurs, VCs, engineers, etc. etc. You really need the ecosystem.

In Europe there are probably only two places like that: London and Berlin. And I'd argue that Berlin is far behind London. You could include Tel Aviv as well at a pinch.

rvkennedy• 15 years ago

It's a fact of life that describing someone as a 'serial' anything rarely inspires confidence.

swombat2• 15 years ago

Accel, Eden, and others.

I agree, btw. Seedcamp (with all its pros) is not YC. If YC did decide to open an outpost here, they would certainly see a lot of interest - despite the weather.

In fact, YC already funds UK and European startups, so although this is a big step (splitting the nest), it would not be that different from what YC does already. A good smattering of tele-conferencing technologies could even help resolve the "pg is not ubiquitous" issue.

sim0n• 15 years ago

Apparently YC's second most common home country for accepted applicants is the UK (tied with Canada) so I don't think the UK really needs a YC outpost as long as people are still willing to make the trip to CA.

As pg says, the silicon valley area is also great for startups. For the brief few months that I've been here as a part of YCS11, it's been fantastic.

britman• 15 years ago

this is an interesting stat as I still don't understand how you can get around the "visa" issue of working in the US with a UK passport.

cynusx2• 15 years ago

seems like the signup form is broken.

jfhollingworth• 15 years ago

what's broken? seems to work for me

cynusx2• 15 years ago

Well, I signed up with an email address and a password with special characters in. I got "invalid email/password combination" When I retried with a different password it complained that an other user already registered with that email address.

I then retried with a different email address and dead simple password and got the same.

thisisfmu• 15 years ago

What explains the proliferation of UK incubators, given the rather modest success achieved here with similar programs?

jgrahamc4• 15 years ago

My take is that it seems like easy money for the people who create these incubators. They don't risk much cash and they hope that they'll find the next Zuck and make a packet. Given the strong FS sector in the UK it's not surprising that there's money chasing ideas.

If you look at the list of mentors etc. involved in these incubators they tend to be second-rate. I got invited to be a mentor in one of these programs and the participation required from me was really minimal yet my name would be all over the thing. I wasn't able to take part because of other commitments, but it strikes me that there's a real quantity over quality problem.

My (jaded) view is that it's a version of new adage: "those that can do, those that can't incubate". That may be unfair to these specific folks, but until we see some success from these incubators. Compare, for example, all the effort in branding/marketing these programs to the effort YC spends on the same. You do not need a slick web site and list of mentors to make this stuff work. Hello, you can even use HTML tables for layout and still get people who do cutting edge web work in your program. What you need are quality principals.

I'd be happy to work for a real YC-like in London (actually, it would probably have to be YC itself) because you'd be working in a really small team of really smart people. Not in some massive team of 'mentors' who aren't providing a great deal of value.

amirmc5• 15 years ago

Wouldn't say this is proliferation. Rather, a rebranding of a previous incarnation after it got more cash.

highace• 15 years ago

From the about page: "The founders move to Newcastle..."

Closes tab

swombat2• 15 years ago

I wouldn't downvote this. England is not like the US, where there are many "hub cities" which are all the centre of something. England has effectively got just one centre: London. And living in London is very, very different from living in any other place in England. For one, there are far fewer British people in London. It's a cosmopolitan, international metropolis, with all the benefits that brings.

Asking people to move to Newcastle would be a bit like asking people to move to, picking a random one, "Tulsa, Oklahoma". Sure, it's a city, and there are people there and all that, but... why the hell would you move your startup there?

amirmc5• 15 years ago

You're not really 'moving' your startup. The founders are just spending 3 months there. Where they end up after that is up to them.

I don't see any harm in spending time in a place that (potentially) has fewer distractions so you can actually build stuff. Besides, I think you're doing Newcastle a disservice. Sure, it's not London but it's still a pretty big city.

pwaring2• 15 years ago

I'd disagree with that, England does have several 'hub cities' - see Manchester (largest non-London airport, probably second biggest financial services area outside of London) and Birmingham as just two examples.

Moving your startup to Newcastle means: a) Lower costs in terms of rent and staff (you have to pay people more in London). b) Fewer competitors trying to poach your staff.

Of course you don't get the same international connections as you do in London, but it's not a case of London holding all the trump cards.

jdbradford• 15 years ago

Hi guys. Lots of very interesting points.

ignite100 is essentially a private sector spin-out of the Difference Engine.

One of the key issues accelerator models have struggled with is what happens post programme. The additional funding allows teams to maintain momentum after the programme and create a runway to the next funding round.

Happy to take any questions here, or you can get me at jon at ignite100 dot com

chegra• 15 years ago

How about a Accelerator that caters for single founders? I wrote a post about it here: http://chestergrant.posterous.com/proposal-for-a-single-foun...

HelenUK• 15 years ago

I have to agree that the location won't help Ignite100. Though Ignite100 may help the North East.

If I had to choose between moving to the North East to be part of an incubator or moving to London and going it on my own, I'd still choose London, The probability of chance opportunities, networking and connections are far higher in London and these things make the difference. Even YC was moved to Silicon Valley because the cultural pull meant businesses would benefit from being there.

As someone who has recently been part of a UK incubator scheme outside of London and "up north" the mentoring side of it had neither quantity or quality and it was a compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding. The best parts of the scheme were interacting with other startups and the support from the staff administrating the scheme.

The fact that YC accepts global applications gives me great hope. When I think of YC, I think of founders/mentors that champion, encourage and problem solve with the teams, Super smart, dedicated applicants willing to travel around the world for a 10min interview.

I wonder how many applicants to Ignite will come from afar?

I still have my sights set on YC, Though I'm still looking for the right co-founder.

jgrahamc4• 15 years ago

   compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding

Compulsory and paid from your funding? WTH?

helen842000• 15 years ago

Yeah, we were told our funding amounts and then advised that around £1200 (which in my case was about 15%) of this had already been allocated to cover training, office space (which I never used) and mentor meetings.

Some of the other businesses only got a small amount of funding to start with which left them with very little after subtracting this expense.

However, just to have had a place or any funding at all in the UK in my opinion is a great thing.

I think YC have it spot on, their funding is the right amount to allow a team to concentrate on their idea yet not so much that they can be complacent about running costs.

I still had a full time job whilst part of my incubator. The funding couldn't be used for living expenses.

I wonder how much further along I would be now if that wasn't the case.

I think great things happen when afforded the time to focus on that one thing.

ignifero• 15 years ago

Why do we keep hearing about London-based incubators, but then all the great European companies are born elsewhere?

Ignite 100, The UK YC?

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