My Previous Startup Accelerator Is Bullying Me and Threatening Me

http://palestinianstartup.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-previous-startup-accelerator-is.html

by ramigb • 12 years ago

86 26 12 years ago

palestinianstartup.blogspot.com

textphone• 12 years ago

The rise in the Accelerator trend has created a ton of badly behaving accelerators around the world.

Many insisting that they need to apply their own "local flavor" of business dealings, instead of directly applying the American models, in order to make it work in their country. Turns out that this usually means acting in extractive ways instead of value-adding ways. No care for their reputation and actively seeking out entrepreneurs that they can extract the most from.

Too bad that there's really no purely founder-oriented resource out there. Every major community online is really slanted towards the benefit of investors, or freelancers, which have different needs than startup founders. I started to make one a while ago, whenever I'm not so broke I'll someday launch it.

dublinclontarf• 12 years ago

Most founders tend to keep mum about bad experiences with Accelerators and investors (both Angels and VC's) out of fear that they will get blackballed.

If you publicly complain, it highlights you as a trouble maker and someone to avoid for investments.

edit: I forgot to mention the same can be said about complaining about co-founders in either failed startups or ones you have left. Investors take that as a bad sign as well.

valarauca13• 12 years ago

Luckily industry black listing was a major issue we already dealt within the late 1800's when it was common practice for local factories to share a black list of "trouble causing" employees so they literally could not work anywhere in town if they caused problems for a single companies, because that could potentially hurt anyone's bottom line. </sarcasm>

I love how an industry that claims to be so enlightened and educated barely cracks a history book when money gets involved.

bovermyer• 12 years ago

Don't forget the Red Scare, where if a person was publicly even just accused of being a Communist they would be shunned in every facet of their life. America is still dealing with the aftershocks of that one.

zo12• 12 years ago

One man's sarcastic dismissal of a concept is another man's brilliant opportunity at filling a need.

ehurrell• 12 years ago

It seems to take all kinds. If the other party wants to blacklist you they'll usually find a reason to allow themselves to, though usually people are reasonable enough that things don't get that bad.

bhouston2• 12 years ago

I think that what you have experienced is fairly normal at these small and new accelerators. My belief is that you have to make your own success, and take what benefits you can from the accelerator or another helping organizations and try to insulate yourself from any negative aspects -- which there likely always are.

Remember that these organizations are trying to make themselves look good to get more money to help more startups. So it is always a bit of a dog and pony show -- you are the people they are showing off. Maybe figure out a way to manage this so it doesn't cut into your time?

It is normal for those running an accelerator to be missing experience in your industry. It is your job to figure out what advice you should take and what you should ignore.

It is likely their grading system is not oriented towards your future success but rather fairly arbitrary. It is unfortunate and I don't know what to do about that. Maybe suggest changes and focus on that?

I'd try to not burn bridges with them. Burning bridges may seem like it is worthwhile in the moment, but it is best to just walk away or smile and nod. The world is small here in Canada (I keep running into people I dealt with 10 years ago in a different part of the country), I suspect the world is even smaller in a place like Palestine given its size.

I'd recommend finding a way to find a solution, making war with an accelerator is both draining and a distraction and hurts everyone involved. It is good to be passionate about your business, but you need to not burn bridges in this fashion, and really it is just a few month program.

The money delay is crappy, but investments are often delayed and cancelled in the real world (I've had clients promise they will paid the $10,000 they owe me repeatedly and then they stop responding, it turns out they went out of business and "forgot" to tell me) so you have to live with it, even if it does have real impacts on your business. Sometimes I think running a business is like being Muhammad Ali on the ropes where he dodges and weaves the punches people throw at you whether they are meaning to throw those punches or not.

nedalz3• 12 years ago

I urge you to read our response to his claims. hope.ly/1BLIuRz

vinayp10• 12 years ago

Yea man I have been in a few different accelerators, a couple of small ones and now I am in AngelPad and I can tell you the difference is mind blowing.

I don't believe I got any value (except some money) out of the smaller ones I went into, where as AngelPad the value is HUGE. Stick to the big accelerators, there are a log of cowboy shops springing up and their value is limited at best.

noobermin• 12 years ago

I speak from ignorance, but I'm not sure the OP has another choice, being located in Palestine and all.

dhm• 12 years ago

"Listen to me, get out of here and move forward. This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened." -Don Draper, Mad Men, Season 2 Episode 5.

bhouston2• 12 years ago

What is the context?

defen• 12 years ago

Since no one is responding...a major character gives birth to an illegitimate child fathered by a married co-worker, has a sort of mental breakdown, and her family takes the child away and tries to cover the whole thing up. Don finds her in a hospital and gives her that advice.

swamp40• 12 years ago

He says it to Peggy, who is distraught and in the hospital, after just giving birth to a son and immediately giving him up for adoption.

I had to look it up too. You are right, the quote doesn't exactly explain itself.

razzaj2• 12 years ago

As a tech entrepreneur your most valuable resource, and your only real currency at the beginning, is time. As you interact with more people with different background you will experience more or less frictions, this is normal. You have to focus your energy and time towards your end-goal. If your end goal is to become an Accelerator curator, then by all means continue blogging about incidents like these, and get testimonies from other entrepreneurs.

If on the other hand, your end-goal is to get your product up and running, and change the world, put aside that bad experience (which in retrospect, sometime down the line will look ridiculous) in your life and focus on building your startup. Tech entrepreneurship is a long unbeaten path for most, filled with rewards, setbacks, victories, nay-sayers, supportive people, and assholes. Save your energy for the trip.

There is nothing more draining than fighting with people ready to do things you are not willing to do. If it is any consolation (it really should not matter though), if they are half as bad as what you are describing, they will implode spontaneously sooner than later.

now, switch from that blogspot window to Sublime and carry on hacking.

beambot• 12 years ago

Sometimes writing about it (publicly or not) can hone your thinking and get the thoughts out of the front of your mind. It can be therapeutic if done in moderation.

ramigb2• 12 years ago

Very true, when i write about my bad or good experience i can reflect easily by reading what i wrote and learn faster, i also can know if i am "bullshitting" or saying the truth, if i keep the post and feel that yes i didn't change my mind after a couple of hours i publish it, or i delete it before publishing it.

amasad• 12 years ago

we felt like students not like entrepreneurs

Alas, this is the case with many arab incubators. They fund the entrepreneurs, they take the majority of the stake in the company, they de-risk the whole venture and treat people like employees. What ends up happening is a lot of founders stop caring about "their" startup and leave. It has a lot to do with the culture. You need to be able to trust people to run this kind of business.

nedalz3• 12 years ago

Hi, we are really not like other accelerators, our deal is standard, 20K for 8%. We do our part for the 8% he has to do his for the 92%! anyway, here is our statement in response. hope.ly/1BLIuRz

nedalz3• 12 years ago

This is a statement by the accelerator regarding the unfounded allegations made in this post. We appreciate you taking the time to read the other side of the story. hope.ly/1BLIuRz

ramigb2• 12 years ago

Thank you for all your responses, this post got a really good attention which shows the power of hackernews and the community in here, which i follow on daily basis like most of you guys do, this has been a very tiring day and a very tiring week, this time could've been spent on a productive things from both parties, but sometimes foolish reactions and actions make people lose track of the most valuable yet illusional asset which is time.

I've updated my blog post to include a link to leaders response, i wish them no harm and i have no "beef" with them, i absolutely want nothing financial or logistic from them, the relation that we once had could never be mended sadly, but that doesn't mean i want anything bad to happen to them, i hope my next post on hackernews would be about something useful i've done, it's 12:27 am in Palestine so good morning to you guys and goo night to me.

My Previous Startup Accelerator Is Bullying Me and Threatening Me

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