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Mayor Bloomberg Unveils New York City Venture Fund (NYC Seed)
- fortes 18y agoQuick summary: "Unveiled on Monday evening as part of New York’s Internet Week, NYC Seed will provide up to $200,000 of investment into New York-based technology start-ups." http://www.nycseed.com/ http://www.nycseed.com/ "We encourage first-time founders. There is no set formula for why we invest in a company, but there are some qualities we would like to see. We are looking for a team with a compelling idea that makes sense today. Your team should be technically savvy, with members that possess a proven record of completing complex technology projects. We will ask to review a prototype of your product. " Note: Must be in NYC.
- helveticaman 18y agoTheir specs sound a lot like Ycombinator's.
- brandonkm 18y agoI can only guess this is an attempt to make NYC startup scene more competitive. I think this is a really cool thing for a city to do, maybe more cities need to take note?
- j2d2 18y agoAs a New Yorker, I'm psyched for this. I had a lengthy discussion with a coworker about how NYC is far less likely to breed the mind of an inventor. I showed him PG's recent article (http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html). I hope this brings the entrepreneurial spirit to NYC. There's LOTS of creative people here but many get blinded by the dollar signs of some fairly mundane industries. I'd love to see some dollars backing innovative ventures too.
- eugenejen 18y agoI am also in NYC, but I feel this fund will not work out. The problem is for East Coast VCs and Government funds, they are too timid to make themselves like fools. Unfortunately things are just like what PG said in his video that showed up yesterday in HN. "In technology venture funding, if you are too careful, you lose." Unfortunately, only few VCs such as Fred Wilson in East Coast have the courage to make themselves like fool once in a while but reap big rewards. Of course, if this fund is run by Fred Wilson, then I will have more confidence, but it is not.
- j2d2 18y agoHmm... I am curious. I don't have much experience in this regard, but I have a tendency to think the people of NYC would rather invest in financial instruments which a) they know very well and b) have astronomical returns without requiring everything involved in a start-up.
- johnrob 18y agoOne has to wonder, if a government institution gets involved in a fund, what kind of regulations would be at play? Quotas for race/gender ratios?
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- Alex3917 18y agoWould-be NYC founders don't need another source of seed funding, they need a community. What NYC really needs is the equivalent of the Y-Scraper and a nice space for like-minded folks to hang out and work together and mingle with potential funders and mentors.
- Frocer 18y agoNYC High-Tech Meetups usually have very good turn outs
- fortes 18y agoI'm new to NYC -- any meetups in particular that you'd recommend?
- Frocer 18y agohttp://newtech.meetup.com/1/ http://newtech.meetup.com/1/ This is the one run by the Meetup folks. Usually the first Tuesday of every month. They get 6-7 startup to demo their product. The turnout is usually great, at least 500+ people will show up.
- joshwa 18y agohttp://jellynyc.pbwiki.com/JellyInNYC http://jellynyc.pbwiki.com/JellyInNYC
- nick_a 18y agotheir application looks suspiciously like the y-comb app ;-) http://www.nycseed.com/nycseed%20application.pdf http://www.nycseed.com/nycseed%20application.pdf
- Alex3917 18y agoSort of a cross between YC and the DMV.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]