3 ms·

A humble attempt to save Europe

19 points by solettyy 2y ago

A friend and I have been working on an idea to create a little bit of European dynamism—because to be honest Europe is cooked and I feel like I have to try do something We’re launching a nonprofit modeled kind of after YC and the Thiel Fellowship - https://foucaultfellowship.com/ (the name is a placeholder) - TLDR is: Get a bunch of top young engineers Give them 150k no strings attached Put them all in one hacker house Pair them with mentors that are top founders and VCs Coach them a little Do a demo day at the end Attract top VCs to the demo day Provide legal help to abstract Europe’s regulatory bullshit We want to make a statement that enough is enough and it’s time for Europe to grow balls and try do a startup initiative that one up’s the US. Long term vision is two fold: grow the amount of people and end up with a really strong community of young engineers all concentrated in one place and idea is it will attract capital and more people. Also create a path for young elite engineers to do startups as there is in the US. If you know anyone that would be interested in such an idea / could be willing to fund it (as a non profit) it would be much appreciated. Happy to talk more about it

aurareturn 2y ago
Give them 150k no strings attached This is going to be your biggest problem in this fine idea.
- solettyy 2y ago
  Of course :), however unfortunately that's how we make a statement that this program competes with US alternatives. It's also how we avoid leaking the top talent to the US and end up with a non elite cohort
  - aurareturn 2y ago
    I doubt US elite but no-exit talent can make $150k just to prototype random ideas.
    - solettyy 2y ago
      Thiel fellowship gives 100k
      - aurareturn 2y ago
        Silicon Valley/San Francisc/New York have insane cost of living.
  - bigyabai 2y ago
    > and end up with a non elite cohort You don't have to worry about this. Ideas are what matter - American startups aren't spun from any special cloth or unique talent. That's jingoist hoo-haa. Having worked for a few US-based startups, I can't help but roll my eyes when people venerate our business culture. At the bottom, startups are built with the cheapest foreign labor and shipped with the shittiest minimum viable product. Widespread success is attained less through iteration on innovation, and more through exploiting moral ambiguity and offshoring better than your competitors. You're not in a race to disrupt Apple and Google, you're in a race to find something equally as lucrative as an advertising or service monopoly. To beat America at it's own game, you'd have to import our own ignorant politics. Even China can't fully embrace that level of contradictory stupidity. I guess that's not really a new opinion, and I'm sure HN will drag me for bringing it up. My $0.02 is that you don't want an American economy, and Europe will work very hard to ensure startups don't reprise the mistakes of America's most lucrative (and harmful) success stories.
    - geremyy 2y ago
      [dead]
    - ethanol12 2y ago
      [dead]
vednig 2y ago
You should cold message some big VC's or Founders in Europe with successful exit to start with, raising the money. Also, you would be eligible for investment from other Non-profits later, when your fellowship starts making rounds and you can then ask other Non-profits to invest along you as well.
- solettyy 2y ago
  We've reached out to the VCs and big founders we know but indeed it's a good idea to simply cold reach out. Will get on that
  - Bengalilol 2y ago
    You could try to contact Xavier Niel's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_F
robocat 2y ago
> Pair them with mentors that are top founders and VCs Super difficult to get right. From my very limited experience in New Zealand: 1: Good founders need to be self-starters and discover their own solutions in many areas where they are ignorant. Leaning on experts can be counter-productive for unobvious reasons. Having self-doubt and thinking experts know what they are doing is subtly wrong thinking. Founders need to havea lot of belief in themselves. I'm not sure you can encourage self-belief but I am sure many people kick it out of founders (I've been on the receiving end of some destructive people - I think they were well meaning but they didn't know how to empower). Listening to advice is often good, but ignoring advice is often critical. 2: many advisors don't know how to support founders. Advisors often want to pretend they know the answers and sometimes they play status games and knock down founders. I remember one arsehole bankrupt guy trying to be a mentor. Too many advisors have the wrong motivations. 3: VCs want to go big. I saw investors push founders in particular ways that were regularly unhelpful. I'd love to see you succeed - there's a heap of talent that is out there.
- TheAlchemist 2y ago
  How did you get the experience in NZ ? Curious since I'm currently also in NZ and would like to learn a bit more about startups here.
  - robocat 2y ago
    We had an office at an incubator when we started our business. Facilities management saves a lot of headaches. We just paid rent, not equity. I learnt a lot by watching the other companies make mistakes. Most valuably, we didn't chase investors. Saved our time and effort, focused on profitability, retained 100% ownership, and avoided any misaligned influence from investors. A shared space or coworking with other startups is likely to be helpful I think. I like learning from peers. I'd now consider moving to SV if I wanted to try founding again. Wellington if in NZ. Even though I suspect a good idea can work anywhere.
  - robocat 2y ago
    Happy to yack if you are in Christchurch. I'm pretty unfamiliar with other cities.
juanani 2y ago
[dead]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
workfromspace 2y ago
Could someone help me understand why this was flagged? (I have no affiliation and I never heard of them until I saw this post)
- TheAlchemist 2y ago
  Because it's saying 'enough is enough and it’s time for Europe to grow balls and try do a startup initiative that one up’s the US'. I don't know who flags that, but since the beginning of this administration, that's very obviously either extremely corrupt or working for a foreign hostile government, most of the topics detailing this obvious statement are silenced. Maybe it's bots, maybe a way for Musk employees to avoid cognitive dissonance and try to silence the opposing voices. Who knows. But in case it's not clear, the whole Western world right now is realizing really quickly that US is no longer a viable long term partner. We're witnessing history in the making, enabled by a tech entrepreneur (or some may say a con man, both would be right), and we can't hold a discussion about it on Hacker News.
  - solettyy 2y ago
    indeed
- beardyw 2y ago
  Perhaps try "A humble attempt to save the USA" and see if that gets flagged. The word naivety hardly does it justice.

19 points by solettyy 2y ago

aurareturn 2y ago

Give them 150k no strings attached This is going to be your biggest problem in this fine idea.

solettyy 2y ago
Of course :), however unfortunately that's how we make a statement that this program competes with US alternatives. It's also how we avoid leaking the top talent to the US and end up with a non elite cohort
- aurareturn 2y ago
  I doubt US elite but no-exit talent can make $150k just to prototype random ideas.
  - solettyy 2y ago
    Thiel fellowship gives 100k
    - aurareturn 2y ago
      Silicon Valley/San Francisc/New York have insane cost of living.
- bigyabai 2y ago
  > and end up with a non elite cohort You don't have to worry about this. Ideas are what matter - American startups aren't spun from any special cloth or unique talent. That's jingoist hoo-haa. Having worked for a few US-based startups, I can't help but roll my eyes when people venerate our business culture. At the bottom, startups are built with the cheapest foreign labor and shipped with the shittiest minimum viable product. Widespread success is attained less through iteration on innovation, and more through exploiting moral ambiguity and offshoring better than your competitors. You're not in a race to disrupt Apple and Google, you're in a race to find something equally as lucrative as an advertising or service monopoly. To beat America at it's own game, you'd have to import our own ignorant politics. Even China can't fully embrace that level of contradictory stupidity. I guess that's not really a new opinion, and I'm sure HN will drag me for bringing it up. My $0.02 is that you don't want an American economy, and Europe will work very hard to ensure startups don't reprise the mistakes of America's most lucrative (and harmful) success stories.
  - geremyy 2y ago
    [dead]
  - ethanol12 2y ago
    [dead]

vednig 2y ago

You should cold message some big VC's or Founders in Europe with successful exit to start with, raising the money. Also, you would be eligible for investment from other Non-profits later, when your fellowship starts making rounds and you can then ask other Non-profits to invest along you as well.

solettyy 2y ago
We've reached out to the VCs and big founders we know but indeed it's a good idea to simply cold reach out. Will get on that
- Bengalilol 2y ago
  You could try to contact Xavier Niel's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_F

robocat 2y ago

> Pair them with mentors that are top founders and VCs Super difficult to get right. From my very limited experience in New Zealand: 1: Good founders need to be self-starters and discover their own solutions in many areas where they are ignorant. Leaning on experts can be counter-productive for unobvious reasons. Having self-doubt and thinking experts know what they are doing is subtly wrong thinking. Founders need to havea lot of belief in themselves. I'm not sure you can encourage self-belief but I am sure many people kick it out of founders (I've been on the receiving end of some destructive people - I think they were well meaning but they didn't know how to empower). Listening to advice is often good, but ignoring advice is often critical. 2: many advisors don't know how to support founders. Advisors often want to pretend they know the answers and sometimes they play status games and knock down founders. I remember one arsehole bankrupt guy trying to be a mentor. Too many advisors have the wrong motivations. 3: VCs want to go big. I saw investors push founders in particular ways that were regularly unhelpful. I'd love to see you succeed - there's a heap of talent that is out there.

TheAlchemist 2y ago
How did you get the experience in NZ ? Curious since I'm currently also in NZ and would like to learn a bit more about startups here.
- robocat 2y ago
  We had an office at an incubator when we started our business. Facilities management saves a lot of headaches. We just paid rent, not equity. I learnt a lot by watching the other companies make mistakes. Most valuably, we didn't chase investors. Saved our time and effort, focused on profitability, retained 100% ownership, and avoided any misaligned influence from investors. A shared space or coworking with other startups is likely to be helpful I think. I like learning from peers. I'd now consider moving to SV if I wanted to try founding again. Wellington if in NZ. Even though I suspect a good idea can work anywhere.
- robocat 2y ago
  Happy to yack if you are in Christchurch. I'm pretty unfamiliar with other cities.

juanani 2y ago

[dead]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

workfromspace 2y ago

Could someone help me understand why this was flagged? (I have no affiliation and I never heard of them until I saw this post)

TheAlchemist 2y ago
Because it's saying 'enough is enough and it’s time for Europe to grow balls and try do a startup initiative that one up’s the US'. I don't know who flags that, but since the beginning of this administration, that's very obviously either extremely corrupt or working for a foreign hostile government, most of the topics detailing this obvious statement are silenced. Maybe it's bots, maybe a way for Musk employees to avoid cognitive dissonance and try to silence the opposing voices. Who knows. But in case it's not clear, the whole Western world right now is realizing really quickly that US is no longer a viable long term partner. We're witnessing history in the making, enabled by a tech entrepreneur (or some may say a con man, both would be right), and we can't hold a discussion about it on Hacker News.
- solettyy 2y ago
  indeed
beardyw 2y ago
Perhaps try "A humble attempt to save the USA" and see if that gets flagged. The word naivety hardly does it justice.