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Why All Incubators Should Follow 500 Startups and Use AngelList as a Gateway

11 points by salimmadjd 14y ago

Altaco 14y ago
I think it says a lot here that I read that whole thing and still have no idea what you do or why you're touting it about like this.
tomasien 14y ago
OP: consider re-writing to have less of a "this is why my startup is awesome and well-connected" and more of a "this is what Angel-list is actually going to be important". Here's a hint: it's about data. (Also, your landing page made me want really sad. Confidence is great, but being a douche is, well, being a douche) I realize this was a negative post and HN is too full of those these days, but this was needed
- tomasien 14y ago
  Second hint: 500 is using Angellist not to make things easier for startups to apply to theirs and other incubators, but to use the most accurate data available to quickly eliminate 95% of startups from consideration. They're not worried about losing a few in the process, they're concerned about efficiency and missing things hidden in plain site. You can quote me on that. Extrapolate from there.
  - salimmadjd 14y ago
    I agree...but the end result is the same that other incubators will follow the same process and at the end it's all good.
- salimmadjd 14y ago
  I'm all about candid feedback. So it's well taken and much appreciated. We were playing around with different wording and we were afraid if it was too duchy for average consumer or not.
barry-cotter 14y ago
That was interesting. In a post that took less than 5 minutes to read I learned the author has undergraduateresearch experience, was admitted to an MD/PhD programme and is an inveterate namedropper. There was alsp something about some startup he's involved in, how tons of people wanted in and he (and possibly existent but never mentioned cofounders) have only hired engineers. That's at least three overt uses of social proof; too overt, like an MBA who does not inderstand that his attitude will cause many, many nerds to think he's probably not bearable company. There was also something about some incubator's application process in there somewhere.
- salimmadjd 14y ago
  All fair points! BTW, the intention was not to name drop but to show how much referral capital I had to spend just for one incubator. MD/PhD reference was to show the solution of referral capital goes back a long time ago. We were going to do another post about co-founders and our company.
majormajor 14y ago
FYI, selekt.com is going to a parked domain page for Domains Made Easy. The logo in the top left of the page goes to "blog." so I stripped that prefix off to check out the main page, and was very surprised.
- salimmadjd 14y ago
  The change should be going through DNS now...
pg 14y ago
"The smaller the program the more attention you get." There's a math mistake here. The amount of attention you get depends not on the number of startups but on the ratio of full-time advisors to startups.
- salimmadjd 14y ago
  WOW from PG himself! I agree and this was not a jab at YC. But you guys now are taking like 80 companies and I'm not sure how much of your personal time is allotted to each company. I'm sure you guys have a ton of great mentors and we probably apply to you if AngelPad fall through. But you have to appreciate the perception. You are the face of YC and Thomas is the face of AP and as an founder you think to yourself how much time I can get from PG vs. Thomas?
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friendstock 14y ago
Just because 500 Startups is using AngelList doesn't mean that you won't need to use social capital to get their attention.
- salimmadjd 14y ago
  The point is you apply your social capital to building your angel list profile once and use it over and over again.
  - friendstock 14y ago
    Yes, good point! And it will be useful when you fundraise later on.
    - salimmadjd 14y ago
      precisely! However, it seems like I didn't do the best job conveying that in my blog post.

11 points by salimmadjd 14y ago

I think it says a lot here that I read that whole thing and still have no idea what you do or why you're touting it about like this.

tomasien 14y ago

OP: consider re-writing to have less of a "this is why my startup is awesome and well-connected" and more of a "this is what Angel-list is actually going to be important". Here's a hint: it's about data. (Also, your landing page made me want really sad. Confidence is great, but being a douche is, well, being a douche) I realize this was a negative post and HN is too full of those these days, but this was needed

tomasien 14y ago
Second hint: 500 is using Angellist not to make things easier for startups to apply to theirs and other incubators, but to use the most accurate data available to quickly eliminate 95% of startups from consideration. They're not worried about losing a few in the process, they're concerned about efficiency and missing things hidden in plain site. You can quote me on that. Extrapolate from there.
- salimmadjd 14y ago
  I agree...but the end result is the same that other incubators will follow the same process and at the end it's all good.
salimmadjd 14y ago
I'm all about candid feedback. So it's well taken and much appreciated. We were playing around with different wording and we were afraid if it was too duchy for average consumer or not.

barry-cotter 14y ago

That was interesting. In a post that took less than 5 minutes to read I learned the author has undergraduateresearch experience, was admitted to an MD/PhD programme and is an inveterate namedropper. There was alsp something about some startup he's involved in, how tons of people wanted in and he (and possibly existent but never mentioned cofounders) have only hired engineers. That's at least three overt uses of social proof; too overt, like an MBA who does not inderstand that his attitude will cause many, many nerds to think he's probably not bearable company. There was also something about some incubator's application process in there somewhere.

salimmadjd 14y ago
All fair points! BTW, the intention was not to name drop but to show how much referral capital I had to spend just for one incubator. MD/PhD reference was to show the solution of referral capital goes back a long time ago. We were going to do another post about co-founders and our company.

majormajor 14y ago

FYI, selekt.com is going to a parked domain page for Domains Made Easy. The logo in the top left of the page goes to "blog." so I stripped that prefix off to check out the main page, and was very surprised.

salimmadjd 14y ago
The change should be going through DNS now...

pg 14y ago

"The smaller the program the more attention you get." There's a math mistake here. The amount of attention you get depends not on the number of startups but on the ratio of full-time advisors to startups.

salimmadjd 14y ago
WOW from PG himself! I agree and this was not a jab at YC. But you guys now are taking like 80 companies and I'm not sure how much of your personal time is allotted to each company. I'm sure you guys have a ton of great mentors and we probably apply to you if AngelPad fall through. But you have to appreciate the perception. You are the face of YC and Thomas is the face of AP and as an founder you think to yourself how much time I can get from PG vs. Thomas?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 14y ago
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friendstock 14y ago

Just because 500 Startups is using AngelList doesn't mean that you won't need to use social capital to get their attention.

salimmadjd 14y ago
The point is you apply your social capital to building your angel list profile once and use it over and over again.
- friendstock 14y ago
  Yes, good point! And it will be useful when you fundraise later on.
  - salimmadjd 14y ago
    precisely! However, it seems like I didn't do the best job conveying that in my blog post.