14 ms·

Seed Camp - A YC style startup bootcamp for Europe

19 points by danw 19y ago

pg 19y ago
Oy, another one. Its advantages compared to YC: 1) it is a collective rather than an individual initiative by members of the VC community, serial entrepreneurs, mentors, and angel investors and 2) it incorporates the challenges specific to European entrepreneurs in starting up businesses. Number 1 is not an advantage. We're entrepreneurs, mentors, and angel investors. The only thing we're not is VCs. But including VCs in a seed funding operation is a bad idea. It means any startup that doesn't get a follow-on funding offer from those VCs will be marked as a loser to all other VCs. Techstars has the same problem. I'm not sure what number 2 means exactly, but it is unfortunately worded. "Incorporating challenges" sounds like they mean it will be more difficult for a startup to succeed in London than in the US. That's probably not what they mean, but it's probably true.
- sethjohn 19y ago
  Paul seems to have a negtive attitude towards every one of the recent crop of YC clones. (Of course, perhaps I'm simply misjuding his tone due to insufficient use of emoticons! ;) Is he worried they will crowd the marketplace and diminish the success rate of YC companies? Does he think they are so poorly constructed that they will harm the young people who get involved? Or is it just a spirit of competetiveness?
  - corentin 19y ago
    Judging by his essays, Paul is clearly for more startups, not less startups. But you have to admit that, e.g. YEurope is just a cut and paste from YCombinator: from the name, to the website (same Heysan rolling stuff!), the amount they offer, the percentage they take, the application form, etc. Seriously, who would want to be funded by guys who just copy and can't create even their own ideas and thoughts? It may explain why european startups are just copying US startup concepts to adapt them to european markets...
    - davidw 19y ago
      Since PG and company can't really scale past a pretty small number of startups, I don't really get what the problem is. The more the merrier, until the bubble bursts.
      - corentin 19y ago
        I'm not against the idea; quite the contrary, the more the better. The problem is that most of those copies of YCombinator aren't even started by hackers and they just basically copy their model while at the same time pretending they know the "european way".
        davidw 19y ago
        In terms of knowing a thing or two about Europe, they probably do, because they are successful European businessmen (and women?). If they aren't hackers... well, I suppose that just leaves space in the market for someone to go them one better, no? Basically my point is: as good as the original? Probably not. Good enough, and better than nothing for some people? Probably.
      - pg 19y ago
        Really? How much can YC scale? We ourselves aren't sure of the upper limit. One thing I've learned from being around technology for so long is never to bet against the possibility of scaling things.
        davidw 19y ago
        I'm not betting on anything, I just got the impression you guys were close to your limit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29072 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29072 As far as I'm concerned, "it's all good" as they say. YC seems like a cool idea, so if you guys manage to scale it, great! If other people do something similar, that's good too from my point of view. I'll defer to your longer involvement with technology, but YC is inherently a people operation, rather than a technology operation. I think technology scales more than people in some ways, but like I said, you guys are doing something good, so it's all icing on the cake, I guess.
cbetta 19y ago
Interesting view. I am currently at Essential Web 2007 in London with Saul, and I might confront him with your issues.
rms 19y ago
They have the best approach to interviews out of all the YC style companies. There is a one-week intensive learning experience, a week long Startup Camp. At the end, they pick 5 teams to invest E50,000 for a 10% stake. One week will give them enough time to really get a sense for the team members. The rejected applicants still get the benefits of the one week program. edit: Seems to add extra characters in front when I use the character

19 points by danw 19y ago

pg 19y ago

Oy, another one. Its advantages compared to YC: 1) it is a collective rather than an individual initiative by members of the VC community, serial entrepreneurs, mentors, and angel investors and 2) it incorporates the challenges specific to European entrepreneurs in starting up businesses. Number 1 is not an advantage. We're entrepreneurs, mentors, and angel investors. The only thing we're not is VCs. But including VCs in a seed funding operation is a bad idea. It means any startup that doesn't get a follow-on funding offer from those VCs will be marked as a loser to all other VCs. Techstars has the same problem. I'm not sure what number 2 means exactly, but it is unfortunately worded. "Incorporating challenges" sounds like they mean it will be more difficult for a startup to succeed in London than in the US. That's probably not what they mean, but it's probably true.

sethjohn 19y ago
Paul seems to have a negtive attitude towards every one of the recent crop of YC clones. (Of course, perhaps I'm simply misjuding his tone due to insufficient use of emoticons! ;) Is he worried they will crowd the marketplace and diminish the success rate of YC companies? Does he think they are so poorly constructed that they will harm the young people who get involved? Or is it just a spirit of competetiveness?
- corentin 19y ago
  Judging by his essays, Paul is clearly for more startups, not less startups. But you have to admit that, e.g. YEurope is just a cut and paste from YCombinator: from the name, to the website (same Heysan rolling stuff!), the amount they offer, the percentage they take, the application form, etc. Seriously, who would want to be funded by guys who just copy and can't create even their own ideas and thoughts? It may explain why european startups are just copying US startup concepts to adapt them to european markets...
  - davidw 19y ago
    Since PG and company can't really scale past a pretty small number of startups, I don't really get what the problem is. The more the merrier, until the bubble bursts.
    - corentin 19y ago
      I'm not against the idea; quite the contrary, the more the better. The problem is that most of those copies of YCombinator aren't even started by hackers and they just basically copy their model while at the same time pretending they know the "european way".
      - davidw 19y ago
        In terms of knowing a thing or two about Europe, they probably do, because they are successful European businessmen (and women?). If they aren't hackers... well, I suppose that just leaves space in the market for someone to go them one better, no? Basically my point is: as good as the original? Probably not. Good enough, and better than nothing for some people? Probably.
    - pg 19y ago
      Really? How much can YC scale? We ourselves aren't sure of the upper limit. One thing I've learned from being around technology for so long is never to bet against the possibility of scaling things.
      - davidw 19y ago
        I'm not betting on anything, I just got the impression you guys were close to your limit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29072 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29072 As far as I'm concerned, "it's all good" as they say. YC seems like a cool idea, so if you guys manage to scale it, great! If other people do something similar, that's good too from my point of view. I'll defer to your longer involvement with technology, but YC is inherently a people operation, rather than a technology operation. I think technology scales more than people in some ways, but like I said, you guys are doing something good, so it's all icing on the cake, I guess.

cbetta 19y ago

Interesting view. I am currently at Essential Web 2007 in London with Saul, and I might confront him with your issues.

rms 19y ago

They have the best approach to interviews out of all the YC style companies. There is a one-week intensive learning experience, a week long Startup Camp. At the end, they pick 5 teams to invest E50,000 for a 10% stake. One week will give them enough time to really get a sense for the team members. The rejected applicants still get the benefits of the one week program. edit: Seems to add extra characters in front when I use the character