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We were excited about Atlas and just applied two days ago and got rejected this morning. We have sales ready to get going but now have to legitimize the old-fas

We were excited about Atlas and just applied two days ago and got rejected this morning. We have sales ready to get going but now have to legitimize the old-fashioned way. With the "network" of venture capitalist firms and startup incubators able to give you an instant invite to Atlas, it felt like it's made for them (the venture firms) and not the businesses.

no1youknowz 9y ago
What's your route to "legitimize the old-fashioned way". Is it a case of incorporating the C-Corp and calling up Silicon Valley Bank yourself?
- devmunchies 9y ago
  Yes but I'm not knowledgeable about how to incorporate so I have a lawyer friend who's gonna help. Atlas was mainly for convenience and the free AWS credits.
contingencies 9y ago
So what's your business?
- devmunchies 9y ago
  Well I didn't think this was a place to market myself and it's not incorporated or anything so there isn't any benefit to share yet, is there? EDIT: shared below
  - saimiam 9y ago
    I'd take the opposite approach if anyone ever asked me what my business was - every interaction is an opportunity to refine and tighten the elevator pitch. Just do it and ask forgiveness if someone moans about being OT.
    - devmunchies 9y ago
      > an opportunity to refine and tighten the elevator pitch Thats a great insight, thank you. I'll just drop the website (work in progress). Gamma Fi: https://gammafi.com https://gammafi.com
      - blizkreeg 9y ago
        how long have you been working on it? have you shown it to any potential customers yet?
        devmunchies 9y ago
        I've been working on it since December. We've been showing it some people in relevant positions and getting feedback. I literally threw up a website to sign up for Atlas so it wasn't meant to be marketable just yet
      - thefalcon 9y ago
        IMO the first thing that you should have on your website is an e-mail collection mechanism. I want to sign up to know when you have a product because this looks promising.
        devmunchies 9y ago
        damn, I have a hard timeline to get launched in August but will try to throw something up soon because you are right.
      - mattm 9y ago
        When do you think you'll have a working demo? Would love to show this to someone on my team.
        devmunchies 9y ago
        I've took the whole month of July off to finish this up with the goal to have it finished by August 1st
BinaryIdiot 9y ago
That's interesting; I have an Atlas invite that I'm about to use but I do not have a workable business...yet. I didn't even realized they "rejected" people, I thought it was more of a waiting list type of thing.
- devmunchies 9y ago
  With all of the venture firms in the "network" I'm wondering if there is anything suspect with incorporating through them (ie. Equity percentages) but I'm probably just being paranoid. Feel free to share any detail after you use your invite. EDIT: was being paranoid. retracted
eropple 9y ago
I looked at Atlas this week, in large part because I have a healthy respect for 'patio11, but waiting to be approved when I can just file in Delaware with somebody like HBS and have it done in three days didn't really make sense to me right now. ($5K in AWS credits would be awesome--for some ventures I've done. This one, meh, whatever.)
- patio11 9y ago
  This goes for anyone on HN -- feel free to email me directly. I'm (my HN username)@stripe.com I'm happy to expedite things if e.g. they're time sensitive for you.
  - eropple 9y ago
    Right on--cool that you're doing that. My stuff already turned around, but I'll give it another look next time around if need be.
  - chasely 9y ago
    Thanks Patrick; this is the first time I've heard of Atlas and it looks like a great service. Is there a floor of what you expect from applicants, i.e., is a website showing some viable product required before an applicant would be considered competitive?
    - patio11 9y ago
      It's not a competition. Investors have some limited pool of capital or bandwidth and want to conserve it for the companies they think are most likely to be successful. We are not constrained in this fashion. We need to know what the business intends to actually do, mostly for compliance reasons. A working website or prototype we could look at makes this easier, but we know there are a lot of ways early stage startups get to market. We can be flexible -- if you don't have a website but do have a deck, we can evaluate that. We (and our partners) have a notion of what companies are a good fit for Atlas, and it's not quite as broad as "every business we could legally transact with." It's described in more detail in the FAQ, but broadly speaking we're looking for businesses that are intrinsically international and/or ambitious and technology-enabled. The world needs more hair salons, too, but we'd probably not work with a hair salon at the current moment in time. We're not confident that the thing we are building is appropriate to their needs yet, and want to stay focused while making something for our core audience.
patio11 9y ago
Hiya, I'm Patrick and I work on Atlas. I'm sorry about that -- that rejection appears to have been a mistake; I'll fix it for you (check your inbox in a few minutes, please) and look into fixing the underlying cause more broadly.
- devmunchies 9y ago
  Thanks, Patrick! You've made a fan out of me.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

no1youknowz 9y ago

What's your route to "legitimize the old-fashioned way". Is it a case of incorporating the C-Corp and calling up Silicon Valley Bank yourself?

devmunchies 9y ago
Yes but I'm not knowledgeable about how to incorporate so I have a lawyer friend who's gonna help. Atlas was mainly for convenience and the free AWS credits.

contingencies 9y ago

So what's your business?

devmunchies 9y ago
Well I didn't think this was a place to market myself and it's not incorporated or anything so there isn't any benefit to share yet, is there? EDIT: shared below
- saimiam 9y ago
  I'd take the opposite approach if anyone ever asked me what my business was - every interaction is an opportunity to refine and tighten the elevator pitch. Just do it and ask forgiveness if someone moans about being OT.
  - devmunchies 9y ago
    > an opportunity to refine and tighten the elevator pitch Thats a great insight, thank you. I'll just drop the website (work in progress). Gamma Fi: https://gammafi.com https://gammafi.com
    - blizkreeg 9y ago
      how long have you been working on it? have you shown it to any potential customers yet?
      - devmunchies 9y ago
        I've been working on it since December. We've been showing it some people in relevant positions and getting feedback. I literally threw up a website to sign up for Atlas so it wasn't meant to be marketable just yet
    - thefalcon 9y ago
      IMO the first thing that you should have on your website is an e-mail collection mechanism. I want to sign up to know when you have a product because this looks promising.
      - devmunchies 9y ago
        damn, I have a hard timeline to get launched in August but will try to throw something up soon because you are right.
    - mattm 9y ago
      When do you think you'll have a working demo? Would love to show this to someone on my team.
      - devmunchies 9y ago
        I've took the whole month of July off to finish this up with the goal to have it finished by August 1st

BinaryIdiot 9y ago

That's interesting; I have an Atlas invite that I'm about to use but I do not have a workable business...yet. I didn't even realized they "rejected" people, I thought it was more of a waiting list type of thing.

devmunchies 9y ago
With all of the venture firms in the "network" I'm wondering if there is anything suspect with incorporating through them (ie. Equity percentages) but I'm probably just being paranoid. Feel free to share any detail after you use your invite. EDIT: was being paranoid. retracted

eropple 9y ago

I looked at Atlas this week, in large part because I have a healthy respect for 'patio11, but waiting to be approved when I can just file in Delaware with somebody like HBS and have it done in three days didn't really make sense to me right now. ($5K in AWS credits would be awesome--for some ventures I've done. This one, meh, whatever.)

patio11 9y ago
This goes for anyone on HN -- feel free to email me directly. I'm (my HN username)@stripe.com I'm happy to expedite things if e.g. they're time sensitive for you.
- eropple 9y ago
  Right on--cool that you're doing that. My stuff already turned around, but I'll give it another look next time around if need be.
- chasely 9y ago
  Thanks Patrick; this is the first time I've heard of Atlas and it looks like a great service. Is there a floor of what you expect from applicants, i.e., is a website showing some viable product required before an applicant would be considered competitive?
  - patio11 9y ago
    It's not a competition. Investors have some limited pool of capital or bandwidth and want to conserve it for the companies they think are most likely to be successful. We are not constrained in this fashion. We need to know what the business intends to actually do, mostly for compliance reasons. A working website or prototype we could look at makes this easier, but we know there are a lot of ways early stage startups get to market. We can be flexible -- if you don't have a website but do have a deck, we can evaluate that. We (and our partners) have a notion of what companies are a good fit for Atlas, and it's not quite as broad as "every business we could legally transact with." It's described in more detail in the FAQ, but broadly speaking we're looking for businesses that are intrinsically international and/or ambitious and technology-enabled. The world needs more hair salons, too, but we'd probably not work with a hair salon at the current moment in time. We're not confident that the thing we are building is appropriate to their needs yet, and want to stay focused while making something for our core audience.

patio11 9y ago

Hiya, I'm Patrick and I work on Atlas. I'm sorry about that -- that rejection appears to have been a mistake; I'll fix it for you (check your inbox in a few minutes, please) and look into fixing the underlying cause more broadly.

devmunchies 9y ago
Thanks, Patrick! You've made a fan out of me.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]