5 ms·

First 5 MVPs greenlighted

106 points by benologist 14y ago

jacquesm 14y ago
see also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037694 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037694 and later: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039241 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039241
dougk16 14y ago
You should apply for the upcoming YC batch with this project...that would be so meta.
- Eduardo3rd 14y ago
  Kickstarter's terms of use explicitly say you can't Kickstart a Kickstarter competitor on Kickstarter. I wonder if YC would accelerate another accelerator?
  - alanctgardner2 14y ago
    It sounds like some preposterous way to break the speed of light; we'll just accelerate the accelerator, and it's turtles all the way down. On the one hand, it reduces YC's risk even further, by giving them a miniscule stake in a wide range of companies. But I don't think they would be content with helping the meta-accelerator; they'd want to be hands-on with every node on the tree. That's a lot of time investment with little capital investment, which is not really their bag. The proposition generally seems less like an accelerator, and more like a small-scale VC fund. Less intensive, less structured, just a way to invest money in startups.
    - jacquesm 14y ago
      They'd have a front row seat when the companies in 'tier 2' eventually apply. After all YC is a lot more than just cash.
      - bwilliams18 14y ago
        Yeah. They could use this sort of thing as a bye or something. It can help them see who is already doing good and interesting work.
  - dmoney 14y ago
    It probably wouldn't be in their interest to accelerate a web startup accelerator. Maybe an accelerator for some other field. It would be interesting to watch this artificial organism reproduce.
  - sajithw 14y ago
    http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html 30. Startups for startups. The increasing number of startups is itself an opportunity for startups. We're one; TechCrunch is another. What other new things can you do?
sharkweek 14y ago
Impressive -- I'm excited to watch this progress in the coming months; would love some form of regular updates.
guycook 14y ago
whilst I'm usually loathe to see comments such as this, I was interested in reading this and must say: The post is completely unreadable on opera mobile, whether I send through desktop or mobile UA, and on default 2.3 browser. Guess I'll give it a read at work tomorrow.
- StavrosK 14y ago
  I can confirm this, although this is Blogspot, so the author probably won't be able to do much about it. Also, you are "loath", rather than "loathe".
- malyk 14y ago
  It's also fatally broken in landscape mode on mobile safari.
therealarmen 14y ago
This is awesome. There is, no doubt, going to be a lot of haters complaining about how hmexx is taking advantage of techies/the terms are unfair/don't do it/etc. But the reality is he/she is putting money where his/her mouth is, and making it happen. To come up with something completely new like this takes guts, and even moreso to follow through. The fact that ~300 proposals were submitted is evidence that demand exists for such a program. Also interesting is the fact that 4 out of the 5 participants selected are located outside of the United States. We'll see if geographic distance becomes an issue. I've long thought YC is missing out on a lot of talented developers who may not have the freedom to drop everything and move to Mountain View. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the results!
- 31reasons 14y ago
  Where did you find 300 proposal number? didn't see that in the blog.
  - therealarmen 14y ago
    http://hnproposition.blogspot.nl/2013/01/0-unread-emails_23.html http://hnproposition.blogspot.nl/2013/01/0-unread-emails_23....
ricardobeat 14y ago
What's the reason for so much secrecy? Besides having no idea who is behind it, we now have no info about the selected companies :)
- martinced 14y ago
  I'm not sure it's secrecy: it's investment on a smaller level and investing in smaller teams (4 out of the 5 are solo-founder). Maybe that nobody got the time to do something "more professional" at the moment. What counts at the moment is that these solo founder got some recognition and a little boost thanks to the money. That part seems to be doing fine. We'll see what comes next.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    I'm not sure what you're talking about; what I mean is we don't know who hmexx or any of the founders is, not even a first name, location, or anything. I'm not that paranoid, but if this was a completely imaginary enterprise, we wouldn't be able to tell.
JimWillTri 14y ago
It would be nice to see the HN members step forward and substantiate this - no need to give away your idea.

106 points by benologist 14y ago

see also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037694 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037694 and later: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039241 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5039241

dougk16 14y ago

You should apply for the upcoming YC batch with this project...that would be so meta.

Eduardo3rd 14y ago
Kickstarter's terms of use explicitly say you can't Kickstart a Kickstarter competitor on Kickstarter. I wonder if YC would accelerate another accelerator?
- alanctgardner2 14y ago
  It sounds like some preposterous way to break the speed of light; we'll just accelerate the accelerator, and it's turtles all the way down. On the one hand, it reduces YC's risk even further, by giving them a miniscule stake in a wide range of companies. But I don't think they would be content with helping the meta-accelerator; they'd want to be hands-on with every node on the tree. That's a lot of time investment with little capital investment, which is not really their bag. The proposition generally seems less like an accelerator, and more like a small-scale VC fund. Less intensive, less structured, just a way to invest money in startups.
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    They'd have a front row seat when the companies in 'tier 2' eventually apply. After all YC is a lot more than just cash.
    - bwilliams18 14y ago
      Yeah. They could use this sort of thing as a bye or something. It can help them see who is already doing good and interesting work.
- dmoney 14y ago
  It probably wouldn't be in their interest to accelerate a web startup accelerator. Maybe an accelerator for some other field. It would be interesting to watch this artificial organism reproduce.
- sajithw 14y ago
  http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html 30. Startups for startups. The increasing number of startups is itself an opportunity for startups. We're one; TechCrunch is another. What other new things can you do?

sharkweek 14y ago

Impressive -- I'm excited to watch this progress in the coming months; would love some form of regular updates.

guycook 14y ago

whilst I'm usually loathe to see comments such as this, I was interested in reading this and must say: The post is completely unreadable on opera mobile, whether I send through desktop or mobile UA, and on default 2.3 browser. Guess I'll give it a read at work tomorrow.

StavrosK 14y ago
I can confirm this, although this is Blogspot, so the author probably won't be able to do much about it. Also, you are "loath", rather than "loathe".
malyk 14y ago
It's also fatally broken in landscape mode on mobile safari.

therealarmen 14y ago

This is awesome. There is, no doubt, going to be a lot of haters complaining about how hmexx is taking advantage of techies/the terms are unfair/don't do it/etc. But the reality is he/she is putting money where his/her mouth is, and making it happen. To come up with something completely new like this takes guts, and even moreso to follow through. The fact that ~300 proposals were submitted is evidence that demand exists for such a program. Also interesting is the fact that 4 out of the 5 participants selected are located outside of the United States. We'll see if geographic distance becomes an issue. I've long thought YC is missing out on a lot of talented developers who may not have the freedom to drop everything and move to Mountain View. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the results!

31reasons 14y ago
Where did you find 300 proposal number? didn't see that in the blog.
- therealarmen 14y ago
  http://hnproposition.blogspot.nl/2013/01/0-unread-emails_23.html http://hnproposition.blogspot.nl/2013/01/0-unread-emails_23....

ricardobeat 14y ago

What's the reason for so much secrecy? Besides having no idea who is behind it, we now have no info about the selected companies :)

martinced 14y ago
I'm not sure it's secrecy: it's investment on a smaller level and investing in smaller teams (4 out of the 5 are solo-founder). Maybe that nobody got the time to do something "more professional" at the moment. What counts at the moment is that these solo founder got some recognition and a little boost thanks to the money. That part seems to be doing fine. We'll see what comes next.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  I'm not sure what you're talking about; what I mean is we don't know who hmexx or any of the founders is, not even a first name, location, or anything. I'm not that paranoid, but if this was a completely imaginary enterprise, we wouldn't be able to tell.

JimWillTri 14y ago

It would be nice to see the HN members step forward and substantiate this - no need to give away your idea.