5 ms·

Hatch – DigitalOcean's new incubator program

64 points by farslan 10y ago

budhajeewa 10y ago
As DigotalOcean is already very developer friendly, it's great to see it becoming startup friendly in a financial/mentoring fashion.
Veen 10y ago
> Must be backed by a partner accelerator, incubator, or VC firm. Be nice if this could be used by people who are bootstrapping their company and don't intend to take investment or have anything to do with VC. Although I guess DigitalOcean is relying on VCs and incubators to do the work of filtering out spurious claims and con artists.
- whamlastxmas 10y ago
  I was disappointed to read that line. I figured DO would be doing their own filtering and therefore creating another avenue for getting access to (the equivalent of) capital. Nope.
- s_kilk 10y ago
  It sort of highlights how the business model for these VPS hosts is basically to tap an IV into the bloodstream of sweet sweet startup cash from VCs. They have little interest in helping out bootstrapped startups, because why hook into a thin vein when theres a nice fat one available?
- no1youknowz 10y ago
  I echo the other sentiments here. It would be awesome for them to recognise someone who is bootstrapping their tech stack. Give them enough leeway to start turning a profit to pay for their stack.
- ensignavenger 10y ago
  I agree! It would be great to see these programs opened up to normal 'bootstrapped' startups! The only 'cloud' platform that I know of that has a similar program open to 'bootstrapped' startups is Redhats OpenShift- https://www.openshift.com/startups/index.html https://www.openshift.com/startups/index.html They don't give many details, but it appears the amount of credit given is customized for each participant. They also don't really say what their evaluation criteria are.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- mitchwainer 10y ago
  Hi! I'm one of the co-founders of DigitalOcean. Our plan is to open the Hatch program up to bootstrapped startups around the world. We've launched the Hatch program in beta to pilot the program to a small group of startups over the next month. While in beta, we're going to be working to refine the offering and eligibility criteria for bootstrapped startups to apply. For now, we've included a call to action on the Hatch landing page for those bootstrapped startups who are interested in joining the Hatch program once we open it up to a larger group of startups.
  - no1youknowz 10y ago
    This is great news. Thank you for being responsive to the bootstrap community :). How long do you expect the beta to last for and I couldn't see a CTA for bootstrapped startups. But I'd rather send an email for consideration to whoever is running the program / support when you guys have opened the program. Thanks
  - ensignavenger 10y ago
    Very good news! Once I am ready to start my company, I will definitely be applying.
asadlionpk 10y ago
Great stuff! Their initial offering is $100k in digital ocean credits. Other cloud services also have similar offerings for startups Here are some links for comparison: AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/benefits/ https://aws.amazon.com/activate/benefits/ Azure: https://bizspark.microsoft.com//plus/ https://bizspark.microsoft.com//plus/ Google: https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/ https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/

64 points by farslan 10y ago

As DigotalOcean is already very developer friendly, it's great to see it becoming startup friendly in a financial/mentoring fashion.

Veen 10y ago

> Must be backed by a partner accelerator, incubator, or VC firm. Be nice if this could be used by people who are bootstrapping their company and don't intend to take investment or have anything to do with VC. Although I guess DigitalOcean is relying on VCs and incubators to do the work of filtering out spurious claims and con artists.

whamlastxmas 10y ago
I was disappointed to read that line. I figured DO would be doing their own filtering and therefore creating another avenue for getting access to (the equivalent of) capital. Nope.
s_kilk 10y ago
It sort of highlights how the business model for these VPS hosts is basically to tap an IV into the bloodstream of sweet sweet startup cash from VCs. They have little interest in helping out bootstrapped startups, because why hook into a thin vein when theres a nice fat one available?
no1youknowz 10y ago
I echo the other sentiments here. It would be awesome for them to recognise someone who is bootstrapping their tech stack. Give them enough leeway to start turning a profit to pay for their stack.
ensignavenger 10y ago
I agree! It would be great to see these programs opened up to normal 'bootstrapped' startups! The only 'cloud' platform that I know of that has a similar program open to 'bootstrapped' startups is Redhats OpenShift- https://www.openshift.com/startups/index.html https://www.openshift.com/startups/index.html They don't give many details, but it appears the amount of credit given is customized for each participant. They also don't really say what their evaluation criteria are.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
mitchwainer 10y ago
Hi! I'm one of the co-founders of DigitalOcean. Our plan is to open the Hatch program up to bootstrapped startups around the world. We've launched the Hatch program in beta to pilot the program to a small group of startups over the next month. While in beta, we're going to be working to refine the offering and eligibility criteria for bootstrapped startups to apply. For now, we've included a call to action on the Hatch landing page for those bootstrapped startups who are interested in joining the Hatch program once we open it up to a larger group of startups.
- no1youknowz 10y ago
  This is great news. Thank you for being responsive to the bootstrap community :). How long do you expect the beta to last for and I couldn't see a CTA for bootstrapped startups. But I'd rather send an email for consideration to whoever is running the program / support when you guys have opened the program. Thanks
- ensignavenger 10y ago
  Very good news! Once I am ready to start my company, I will definitely be applying.

asadlionpk 10y ago

Great stuff! Their initial offering is $100k in digital ocean credits. Other cloud services also have similar offerings for startups Here are some links for comparison: AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/benefits/ https://aws.amazon.com/activate/benefits/ Azure: https://bizspark.microsoft.com//plus/ https://bizspark.microsoft.com//plus/ Google: https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/ https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/