I've become very wary of accelerators that make bold promises, although my experience is nowhere near as bad this story.
Having been approached by 3 different accelerators, the story is always the same:
1. They offer a very nice chunk of funding
2. Declare how fantastic their team of mentors and legal connections are
3. They say they have some very low equity requirements
... fast forward ... about to sign an agreement ...
4. Funding is suddenly limited, or is now a range, with the upper figure as what they originaly offered... but with additional caveats
5. The equity requirements are now greater, since they 'forgot' to mention that additional equity is required at the end of the program
6. There is also suddenly an 'entry fee' to cover various expences that they also conveniently 'forgot' to mention
7. Many of their so called mentors/connections have not even agreed to be part of the program
There are certainly many good accelerators out there, but there are many more two-bit players out there willing to screw over early stage startups just to get themselves some funding (and equity, on the off-chance one of the startups actually become successful despite their 'help').
Agreed. There is some great content there, but its just such a shame it is hidden by a wall of frustration. SO/SE seems to have it pretty much nailed, but I guess Quora wanted to monetize quickly... to the detriment of its users.
haha ... I totally understand that GP didn't mean it this way. But there is something really funny about that statement, as if walking around with a bedazzled face won't make it easy to just say, "the person with the bedazzled face" to describe a very specific person :P
I actually came to ask the same question as hnncl... I thought it was something like 30% of SW teams that end up incorporating, but I can't remember where heard that figure.
Its awesome that you actually launched a business from it. Congrats!!
Having been approached by 3 different accelerators, the story is always the same:
1. They offer a very nice chunk of funding
2. Declare how fantastic their team of mentors and legal connections are
3. They say they have some very low equity requirements
... fast forward ... about to sign an agreement ...
4. Funding is suddenly limited, or is now a range, with the upper figure as what they originaly offered... but with additional caveats
5. The equity requirements are now greater, since they 'forgot' to mention that additional equity is required at the end of the program
6. There is also suddenly an 'entry fee' to cover various expences that they also conveniently 'forgot' to mention
7. Many of their so called mentors/connections have not even agreed to be part of the program
There are certainly many good accelerators out there, but there are many more two-bit players out there willing to screw over early stage startups just to get themselves some funding (and equity, on the off-chance one of the startups actually become successful despite their 'help').