Virtual Incubator to All

http://pandodaily.com/2012/07/27/virtual-incubator-to-all-nreduce-adds-mentors-and-demo-days-is-it-the-pre-angellist/

by rrbrambley • 14 years ago

100 40 14 years ago

joemellin7• 14 years ago

Let me know if people have questions!

georgedyjr• 14 years ago

Congratulations to the nReduce team and kudos to an exponentially growing service that's aimed to help people get their startups off the ground. We could all use a little help and these guys make it interesting. Looking forward to demo day Joe/Josh. Also kudos to the Lizi team for kicking it off.

joemellin7• 14 years ago

Word! Bit ups to Team Lizi!

ph0rque• 14 years ago

Wouldn't it be awesome if nreduce become a ycombinator company? Too meta for me...

joemellin7• 14 years ago

Love it! If only YC had open enrollment.... :)

polyfractal2• 14 years ago

I just learned about nReduce the other day - very interesting model. Two questions for Joemellen:

- How are you guys going to make money? I realize the virtual model is very, very lean...but I imagine you'll have to pay the bills eventually. What's the business model?

- How does nReduce feel about smaller side-projects, lifestyle or micropreneurial projects? Is it only for teams and startups that are looking to get big?

joemellin7• 14 years ago

- We are going to make money in the future providing services to investors / service providers. That is all being prototyped and will be shaped in the next few months. But the main thing is that we will never charge startups / take equity.

- We are not a gate keeper. Meaning we don't say which projects get in.

The real filter is whether other teams will want to collaborate with you. If you have a small project and are not engaged you may have difficulty connecting with great teams. Or you could also just connect (build a group of other startups) with other part time people.

So in summary, any project can join. And for the most part if you are working consistently and help out the other teams in your group, you should have a great experience.

polyfractal2• 14 years ago

Great, thanks for the responses. I'll definitely take a look. I've been wanting to put together a mastermind of other micropreneurial people for a while...this might fill the role perfectly.

Best of luck!

davidtyleryork• 14 years ago

Super excited to be an nReduce mentor. The "cloud accelerator" idea is awesome, and the ability to get on-demand mentorship for any field is really compelling. Cheers to Joe for working his butt off to put this together.

joemellin7• 14 years ago

Thanks Tyler! This has really been a team effort! Josh and Team Lizi all make this possible. Looking forward to meeting up in NY.

dclaysmith3• 14 years ago

Right now the biggest value nReduce has provided my startup has been motivation--7 weeks in a row I've shipped new features or improvements to my startup (http://Thetaboard.com).

Coming up fast (and soon to eclipse) in importance is the virtual feedback/community the program provides. The weekly advice on specific items and general conversations about direction/business model/strategy is awesome.

I'm in Ireland but booking a ticket tomorrow to visit the nReduce team and my nReduce group members in Manchester next month. Anyway, the program is evolving and I think may end up being a real bonus for young/aspiring startups.

guscost• 14 years ago

100% agreed, the motivation and feedback are fantastic, and free!

snambi• 14 years ago

I agree. Motivation and group energy. I learnt more from interacting with other teams.

Smudge• 14 years ago

Hey! Your product looks really cool! (Playing around with the demo.)

A bit of unsolicited feedback -- the very first thing I did when I landed on your homepage was groan at the Lobster typeface.

(http://www.mishes.com/articles/lobster-font-abuse)

Don't get me wrong - Lobster's a great font, but because it is so overused I don't think it's a great choice for any real branding.

dclaysmith3• 14 years ago

Haha. Yeah, I actually had never heard of the font til I read that article but liked it so went with it! (my gf says its cliched and I should change so I may).

Glad you are liking ThetaBoard. It's gonna be good. Email me at support@thetaboard.com and I'll upgrade you to a premium account for free.

AlexanderZ2• 14 years ago

Same story over here with http://Feetlot.com

The last 4 weeks have been great, went from prototype to alpha.

When I think about my group and that they are waiting for my video (as I wait for theirs), I just can't slack around and so I get back to coding. When I record videos, I feel like I'm on TV but for ~15 people. Just can't let them down!

nodesocket2• 14 years ago

Same story here from Commando.io.

nReduce is quite active in San Francisco and we have been involved since the first meetup. Joe and Josh are doing an amazing job, essentially they built an entire social platform in a few weeks. We really love the ability to post weekly video updates, and get great feedback from other founders.

mindcrime• 14 years ago

Love the idea behind nReduce. We (Fogbeam Labs) will probably look to participate in the future. The initial opening was really bad timing for us, but down the road should be an option.

No, it's not the same thing as YC, but that's OK. Support is support and everything counts in it's own way. The one thing I realize more and more with every passing day is that this is hard. After the 10th time that somebody declines to return your email, or answer your phone call, after someone blows off a planned appointment with you for the 4th time (after 3 previous reschedules), when you get off work at the $DAYJOB and trudge home on sore feet to crawl upstairs and hack for another 4, 5, 6 hours, when you wake up on < 8 hours of sleep day after day after day, and when you fly from Chicago to RDU for the 4th time in a month so you can be home to meet your cofounders to hack a few hours.... you realize that this is no joke. Making a startup go takes some fucking serious hard work and sacrifice.

So yeah, if a group of people from a virtual incubator (or even something like Startup Guild, or the local Hackers & Founders meetup) do nothing but provide support, encouragement and the occasional "attaboy", that can be huge.

and now to go listen to 'Til I Collapse for the umpteenth time... :-)

'Cause sometimes you just feel tired,

Feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.

But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength

And just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up

And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.

marcamillion2• 14 years ago

Do you guys find that some of the investors you are talking to are interested in companies outside of the US?

For instance, there are some famous VCs (A16Z come to mind) that only want action in US-based companies.

How are you guys tackling this issue?

joemellin7• 14 years ago

Great question. We have a variety of investors committed to demo day, most of which are in the US. It seems to be based on investor preference / education about how to invest overseas, etc. Our role in this is building the network and then letting investors select what types of companies they are interested in funding.

nl• 14 years ago

A16Z don't like non-US companies? They thought Skype was "US enough" then?

marcamillion2• 14 years ago

I don't have a 'LinkedIn' URL and have no desire to create a profile.

Why are you guys insisting on having a LinkedIn URL?

That's very annoying.

railsjedi3• 14 years ago

You can also sign up by email on the login page. We just put the linkedin icon on the homepage to make things easy on people. It's a work in progress still :)

Definitely appreciate the feedback!

coopdog• 14 years ago

I really wanted to like nreduce, but the whole experience just came off as buggy for me. They said we'd get info about the meet ups but it never came which resulted in me blowing off a few appointments on tuesday nights twice to be there ready for the details, only to twiddle my thumbs. Sent tweet to prompt even but no reply at all. Finally the system for choosing other startups to group with arrived and I'm thinking there we go now we're in business, except clicked the invite button did nothing at all.

A bit later my account went into some strange mode that I can only guess is being locked out. I figured they were moving back into physical space and left them to it, which is why I was surprised to read about the online focus in the article.

Maybe after it's had some time to iron out the bugs I'll give it another shot, but the lack of communication overall was pretty frustrating

joemellin7• 14 years ago

Hi- So sorry to hear that. When you are ready to give it another shot, please send me an email and I would be happy to talk you through the process on the phone and simultaneously fix any bugs that you encounter.

We very much appreciate you are willing to give us another chance!

dclaysmith3• 14 years ago

There were certainly teething problems but every week it got better and tighter. The nReduce guys have been a participant in the program as well as guides. If you were willing to put up with some rough areas in week one you were rewarded as they improved and refined the system in later weeks.

It's by no means perfect. There are startups at all levels so sometimes you feel like other groups are slacking when really they are just in a different place (or are actually slacking).

There is no penalty for failure. (penalty is the wrong word but you wouldn't want to wash out of YC--pg has anyone?) groups would just fall off.

I tweeted the other day that the monthly demo day was too frequent and I think that is true. I think they should have 2-3 a year. In the end, inclusion into 'physical' incubators/funding/press will be the measure of nReduce's success and TOO much exposure may be a bad thing.

The ui is crude but improving. Angel list was a mailing list at first wasn't it? Hard to criticize nReduce for the ui when their model is still being flushed out.

Anyway, it's been helpful for loads of groups and I see a place for it in a: nReduce -> physical incubator / angel list sort of place. HN is the same thing--a community of like minded folks who tend to help each other. nReduce is just trying to organize the process a bit...

neurotech1• 14 years ago

I know of one company that "did not complete" the YC program, but that was a while ago. One of the co-founders had a family situation that was a factor.

stingrae• 14 years ago

My experience in nReduce has been totally positive. I like that nReduce, itself, is a startup in its own incubator. It is accountable to its own system.

guywithabike• 14 years ago

Why doesn't the article talk to any of the startups in nReduce, let alone mention them by name? Lazy tech journalism?

nodesocket2• 14 years ago

Commando.io (http://commando.io) is doing nReduce in San Francisco.

rrbrambley• 14 years ago

Too many? Too soon? Part of the agreement that came with joining was that you wouldn't "expose" other startups as participants, though I have no problem with talking openly about my experience. If anyone has questions, feel free to ping me.

AlexanderZ2• 14 years ago

Did I miss that rule? I had no idea I can't expose other startups as participants. Not that I did it, but still I wonder if it's true.

ptc• 14 years ago

Playing off the fact that the “Y” clearly didn’t stand for “yes,” ...

Uhh, no. Y-Combinator is a nod to the fixed point combinator: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-point_combinator#Y_combin...

railsjedi3• 14 years ago

Sure, of course, and the "n" is a nReduce isn't really an n. Stands for "Eta Reduction". http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Eta_conversion

But names are just names. We tried to have a bit of fun with ours.

StavrosK• 14 years ago

Argh! An η (eta) isn't an "n" at all. It's a vowel, with an "ee" sound. Your thing is pronounced "ee reduce".

DanielKehoe• 14 years ago

nReduce is remarkable. I've participated every week for the last seven weeks, out of curiosity mostly. Several things have surprised me:

* The sheer number of teams who joined up (300+ worldwide and 100+ in SF): There are a lot of people who are eager to participate in a startup incubator.

* The motivation, ability, and intelligence of the people I've met: These are the smartest and hardest-working people I've encountered in years.

* The power of self-inflicted group pressure to drive productivity: I consider myself highly self-motivated and productive but I stepped up my game knowing my peers were reviewing my performance via the nReduce weekly video check-in tool.

nReduce is a work-in-progress and I think we all realize Joe Mellin and Josh Schwartzman are making it up as they go along. I heard someone grumble that they didn't get pizza and beer at every weekly meeting. They missed the big picture. nReduce is a social experiment that is taking flight because there's a need and desire for startup aspirants to join together for mutual aid. It styles itself an incubator, it's a big meetup, it's an online social network. I see it as something more, though, as a unique form of social organization for smart people who are helping each other create businesses that deliver value.

chrbaudry• 14 years ago

nReduce is great virtual incubator. Joe and Josh have been working really hard, day after day, to integrate the suggestions of the users. It is still in progress and there are a few bugs, but the site is fantastic and the level of energy very high.

I have participated every week since the beginning. Virtually - using the site - as well as attending the SF Tuesday Beer+Pizza meetings. Both bring a lot in terms of motivation and feedback.

Kudos to Joe and Josh!

jyu• 14 years ago

I am currently an nreduce participant.

I see incubators providing three main benefits: 1. Community feel. Startups can get lonely, frustrating, etc. 2. Easier access to advisors/mentors/funders get to the next stage. 3. Credibility in the same way graduating from Stanford makes you seem more credible.

NReduce helps with #1, but #2 and #3 are unknown. It felt really rough initially, and has improved every week. We'll see what really happens in the next couple months. When people start getting access to their mentors and investors, we'll know if there are benefits outside of building a startup community.

justinpeck• 14 years ago

As a member of an nReduce company (http://QONQR.com) I can say that we've been very happy with the helpful and constructive feedback we receive from the other entrepreneurs in our group, and the weekly accountability of demoing progress to our peers has helped to keep us delivering regularly. nReduce itself is reporting their own weekly progress (as other commenters have mentioned) and Joe and Josh are really killing it.

Virtual Incubator to All

Related Stories