What is the problem accelerators are solving?

http://whoyoucallingajesse.com/past/2013/11/07/problem-accelerators-solving/

by jmacd • 13 years ago

6 13 13 years ago

whoyoucallingajesse.com

ChuckMcM• 13 years ago

The actual source URL: http://whoyoucallingajesse.com/past/2013/11/07/problem-accel...

jrodgers3• 13 years ago

That's me!

davidcrow3• 13 years ago

The article should have in the header a canonical URI that points to Jesse's original post. My bad if the template doesn't have this explicitly.

infogulch• 13 years ago

Thought it was an article about particle accelerators. Dissapointed. yawn

davidcrow3• 13 years ago

I like the idea of putting founders into a cyclotron, accelerating them to near the speed of light, and seeing what kind of energy they release when they collide with other founders.

davidcrow3• 13 years ago

But we should put them in inflatable sumo suits for cushioning. Maybe a helmet.

simonlast• 13 years ago

"Unlike college, it is extremely hard to know which programs are adding value and which ones are wasting everyone’s time." Ha.

jrodgers3• 13 years ago

My thought there was there are rankings and historical data on employment success. Sure, it could be disguised as brand success.

acgourley• 13 years ago

There is a fourth problem they solve: very early stage companies are willing to raise quick money on terrible terms as long as it doesn't actually set a valuation for their real seed round. Accelerators are positioned to do this because they can maintain a pretense that the shitty terms are made up for in mentoring and other services.

It would be much harder to raise a seed round on a 4M cap if you had just given an investor effectively a 1M cap 3 months before. But with accelerators that's not an issue!

jrodgers3• 13 years ago

I think that is a problem they create ;) The terms are insane.

accelguy2• 13 years ago

9 out of 10 accelerators out there are bad copies of ycombinator made by greedy (and cheap) investors trying to ride the startup gravytrain like in the dotcom years and/or desperate politicians trying to get some of that sweet gentrification SF complains so much about.

I was unfortunate enough to land in a combination of BOTH: the accelerator was made by investors with literally ZERO experience with technology companies who were extremely cheap, and a local government that wasted taxpayer's money on it. I say waste because most of the money went to friends and family of the investors/organizers who didn't put a dime out of their collective pockets but went ahead and hired each other (and each other's acquaintances) to fill mentor roles within the accelerator.

What a joke that was, we got literally nothing out of the experience, we lost precious time having to deal with all the bullshit they made us go through. Contacts? they were nobodies, so no rolodex magic for us. Press? again, a bunch of nobodies, all press we got was BYO, in fact the accelerator mooched off our existing contacts with tech blogs and got some coverage for themselves.

Because the "investors" were cheapstakes along for the ride nobody got any investments from that network, only one team which secured a line of credit from a local no-name bank thanks to the local government (again more taxpayer money).

There should be a tripadvisor for accelerators, there was no way we could know what we were getting into.

mamcx• 13 years ago

Hey! are you on my Country?

Recently declared as "the most innovate-foster culture of Latin America" or something like that.

But is also WORSE. You need to spend 6 months, half-time attending talks, filling stuff and more or less wasting time... all for the chance to finally meet the investor.

Is a great business for the "accelerators" that are giving US20.000 for each startup (they "Value"), but only US 2.000 in cash, for the kind of thing THEY decide to buy (and no startup accelerator program here help in pay salaries, ie, the people you truly need. Is for buy business cards. Seriously).

The time I waste on that is one of the things I regret more. Saddly, you don't know the full terms UNTIL you have "win" in the top 100 of 1000, get pass the interview, fill stuff then get to the point of get that amazing benefits.

accelguy2• 13 years ago

No never been to latam

What is the problem accelerators are solving?

Related Stories