Atlanta Gets Its Own Y Combinator In Shotput Ventures

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/atlanta-gets-its-own-y-combinator-in-shotput-ventures/

by vaksel • 17 years ago

28 48 17 years ago

jwilliams3• 17 years ago

See pg's comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=528924

"The root of the problem is that people think seed funding is regional. They think they're starting the YC of St. Louis, or wherever. Then after they get started they realize that in fact the seed firms are all drawing on the same national applicant pool, and that the default fate of the nth seed firm is not to be the YC of St. Louis, as they'd expected, but to be the YC of the nth quality bucket."

Not that I know anything about this venture yet, but the regional-centric commentary immediately made me think of this comment.

Edit: Seems Michael Arrington concurs: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/atlanta-gets-its-own-y-...

rjurney10• 17 years ago

I think Shotput is happy to draw entrepreneurs from all over the US, and this is good for our region.

In general, Shotput is important because there is almost 'no such thing' as seed funding in the southeast. A typical comment at an entrepreneur's round table here would be, "get to $1 million revenue, then someone will fund you." So this is important for the growing startup ecosystem in our region.

jwilliams3• 17 years ago

I wouldn't venture to disagree - comment was mostly based on the spin of the article.

lanceweatherby• 17 years ago

In what may be heresy here on HN I am going to partially disagree with PG. Regional YCs may indeed be of the nth quality bucket, but that does not necessarily doom them to failure anymore then not attending Stanford or MIT dooms a hacker to failure.

The proof as they say is in the pudding. TechStars seems to be doing just fine so far. Let's see what Shotput's births before we call their babies ugly.

tbrooks• 17 years ago

YC ignores a lot of good ideas because it's really focused on BIG ideas. YC wants to build Paypal, not 37signals. They lean toward ambitious infrastructure ideas which also have a higher failure rate. But there is a huge number of great ideas with lower risk/reward ratios that will still make stellar companies. I say bring it on... it's a great time to be in the HTML writing business. :)

MicahWedemeyer• 17 years ago

Many of us Atlantans have a lot of respect for the people involved in Shotput. As some others here have said, I'll wait to judge until the first class of Shotput companies graduates.

dbul• 17 years ago

There may be truth to this, however, I think the roles of the seed funding companies remains to be seen. The Philly venture for example seems to be different in that it pairs roles to create companies. I don't think this makes sense for our team, but the Philly venture may be right for someone.

It would be hugely beneficial to have a website where people sign up and indicate when and where they've applied (after the fact), maybe even indicate their beta site if it is available. Not only would we be able to see the breadth of applicants but also the history and results.

transburgh• 17 years ago

Why is the assumption that these funds get the talent based on the order in which they were launched?

rjurney10• 17 years ago

Its not that so much as valley elitism - the idea that if you aren't there, then you're not serious and are unlikely to succeed.

But I agree with you. Also, don't investors back companies they understand? Doesn't this mean a variety of seed-stage programs will back different startups? Isn't this a good thing?

Considering the philosophy behind YCombinator, I really don't get all the hating on the clones that happens here every time one comes up.

pg7• 17 years ago

They only do by default. If one were significantly different, it could do better or worse than that, depending. So far none has though.

coglethorpe• 17 years ago

Does Shotput Ventures use the "exploding term sheet" we were warned about?

ajju9• 17 years ago

They accept applications till April 10 [1], so the answer is no.

[1] http://www.shotputventures.com/program-timeline-2

vaksel• 17 years ago

I view all these "regional" YC knock offs as just early stage angels.

rjurney10• 17 years ago

I attended their open house, and I didn't get the impression they are just early stage angels, although if thats all they are that would still be great, because there are very few of those here. Many in the investment community in the southeast have been openly hostile towards the need for more early stage capital, let alone willing to fund seed stage companies.

Anyway, my impression from talking with the Shotput guys was that there was a lot of value add they were providing. I would suggest actually contacting them if you are interested, as I think you'll be surprised and impressed. Most of these guys are active advocates for our region's startups and do everything they can to mentor and open doors.

rjurney10• 17 years ago

Dear Paul Graham,

Everyone but you sucks.

Allow me to explain. I either live in the valley or want to live in the valley. I idolize you and love this site. You are the smartest guy on planet earth, and anyone that copies you is pathetic because they could never be as cool as you. Who do they think they are!?

Now that I've impressed you with flattery and have defeated your enemies on your behalf, I'd like to tell you about Project Tomacco. With your help, we can caffeinate tomatoes and hook every college kid on a healthy alternative to coffee. Did you know tomatoes have antioxidants that fight cancer? Thats right, we're helping to prevent cancer. We're going to change the world, Paul, one tomato at a time.

Is there a way to attach a spreadsheet to a comment on hacker news? Because my projections are going to blow you away. If we get one percent of the tomato market you're going to be a very rich(er) man, Paul.

Signed,

Valley Hater

ajju9• 17 years ago

For those who may not be able to pierce @rjurney's smoky satire, this is indeed satire.

I have to agree with the spirit of what he's trying to convey in this comment: news.yc would be a more interesting community if a majority of the people didn't default to PG's opinion on everything in general (this is my anecdotal observation and might be incorrect) and YC clones outside the valley being of nth quality bracket in particular (this is a pet peeve since I live outside the valleY) without giving it some thought for themselves.

In fact PG himself seems to spend quite a bit of time thinking about how the valley can be recreated elsewhere seeing how he has written about it in more than one article and says:

"How hard would it be to jumpstart a silicon valley? It's fascinating to think this prize might be within the reach of so many cities."

Surely trying to recreate YC outside the valley can only help?

rjurney10• 17 years ago

I definitely mean no disrespect to PG, but I tire of these 'clone' programs being dumped on in every thread about them.

pg7• 17 years ago

Surely trying to recreate YC outside the valley can only help?

Well, no, actually. YC being in the Valley doesn't actually do that much for the Valley. I explained why here:

http://www.paulgraham.com/maybe.html

It's the stage after YC that makes the Valley what it is-- the angel stage. YC could be anywhere. We contributed as much to Silicon Valley when we were in Boston.

wayt2• 17 years ago

I'm one of the Shotput Ventures partners, and I'm looking forward to a great first "class" in Atlanta. We've got an interesting group of partners, with recent business hits in software and web svcs, complementary skills and backgrounds, and good networks. Check out our partners. I think we'll be excellent mentors for our hacker teams, primarily because we love what we're doing and want to help young hackers to build stuff people want and to dare greatly. We appreciate all that YC has done to innovate and evangelize the business model. I'm an especially huge fan of pg's inspirational writing and simple writing style. There are plenty of talented and determined hackers out there who need our mentoring and connections, and it's going to be a ton of fun working with them.

unalone4• 17 years ago

A slight criticism, looking at your application: asking me to fill out a PDF resume for a founding team is irritating and time-consuming. Is there anything that a PDF form can give you that you don't get from having applicants fill out relevant information into a text box? Drafting a PDF means that now I've got to spend time making my typography look pretty, getting things organized in a nice way, and generally spending more time on presentation than I'm putting into just conveying information.

One of the things I loved about the YC application was that it didn't require external files - excepting the Posterous video, which is a supersimple email-and-receive-link system.

quizbiz4• 17 years ago

Got accepted into Georgia Tech just the other day. And this news made my day today. Is that sad?

unalone4• 17 years ago

Not at all! It's great to have new, interesting people flooding to your location.

wayt2• 17 years ago

Congrats. GaTech is a great school with really smart students. But what's most important is what YOU do at GT. I hope you will take full advantage of this great opportunity, enjoy learning, and keep an open mind and an open heart. Don't worry about whether or not others think you are "cool." Have the confidence to love yourself and to be a beacon of loving-kindness toward others. Congrats!

quizbiz4• 17 years ago

are you kidding me? I have to be cool. :P

Atlanta Gets Its Own Y Combinator In Shotput Ventures

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