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Hello Paul Great numbers, we really admire a lot what you're doing at YC but not all companies want to join an accelerator or relocate and not all companies ar

by jber 13y ago

Hello Paul Great numbers, we really admire a lot what you're doing at YC but not all companies want to join an accelerator or relocate and not all companies are accepted by YC ;-) We see Kima15 as a different offer for different founders all over the world who want to raise funding quickly and when they need it.

skrebbel 13y ago
Wow, cool that you also read Hacker News. If you don't mind me asking, given that you claim to fund 2 startups every week, how much access would a startup have to either yourself or Xavier? One reason why Kima appeals to me surely is the fact that you two are heading it. Would you actively sit on a board? If so, do you ever sleep?
- jber 13y ago
  Ah ah ;-) I love HN. I'm not sleeping enough and have 10 children ;-) All our startups are discussing with me by email all day. Not sure will be able to answer to everyone when we will have 800 startups but for the moment, that's ok because working exclusively by email. We are not board member but are here to help all the time not only during boards ;-)
randall 13y ago
How do you think your program stacks up when compared to YC directly? Do you think an Airbnb or Dropbox would choose your program vs YC primarily because of the lower friction to money in the bank? Also, if a company already has a v1 of the product, are you planning to do the same deal? (YC often accepts people who are post seed pre series a.)
- jber 13y ago
  AirBnb & Dropbox were very risky projects like any other projects in this planet. There are many hidden awesome companies on this planet and we are targetting this one. I'm sure we will invest in a future AirBnb or Dropbox. We just need a little time ;-)
- jber 13y ago
  Oups, for your second question. Kima15 is not dedicated to fund prototype only. Some companies with V1 are also great targets for it. All the projects we received since the launch 3 hours ago are all startups with a real product. If the startup is at a later stage, we will be happy to check it through Kima Ventures. It can take just a little longer.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
pg 13y ago
A startup has to be in the same place as its investors if they want to talk face to face, and empirically we've found this to be a necessity when talking about the subtle and complicated problems startups face. Email and Skype are such poor substitutes that they're a qualitatively different thing. Which means if a startup wants advice from its investors as well as money, they either have to raise money from local investors or one of them has to go to where the other is, at least temporarily.
- arbuge 13y ago
  Ideally investors can give advice too besides money - it's nice to get two things instead of one. But there is some value to investors who can only provide money, as well as some value to investors who can provide money + advice-distorted-through-skype.
  - hnriot 13y ago
    Agreed, most of the investors I've worked with provided zero benefit through advice. Often investors are out of touch with trends, they have their heads in the financial clouds and can rarely get past their infatuation with hockey sticks. Obviously some investors have a clue about the technology, but not in my experience - won't name names for obvious reasons.
- jber 13y ago
  Agree with you, it's certainly better to be at the same place, but there are hundreds of counterexamples of huge successes with VCs not living near the companies. In Europe, Israel, Russia, we have plenty of them. We are also investing with a lot of local investors and they are sometimes managing the local relationship (or mostly making things worse :-() Last but not least, many of our companies are targeting a local market (China, India, Pakistan, Switzerland, France, Argentina, UK, Germany...). They have nothing to do in the Silicon Valley. The YC model is awesome. No doubt on that. but there is room for many other models. (and thanks God, we invested in Rapportive before they went to YC ;-)). Check also what my partner is building : 1000Startups, the biggest incubator in the world in the center of Paris http://1000startups.fr/en/ http://1000startups.fr/en/

by jber 13y ago

skrebbel 13y ago

Wow, cool that you also read Hacker News. If you don't mind me asking, given that you claim to fund 2 startups every week, how much access would a startup have to either yourself or Xavier? One reason why Kima appeals to me surely is the fact that you two are heading it. Would you actively sit on a board? If so, do you ever sleep?

jber 13y ago
Ah ah ;-) I love HN. I'm not sleeping enough and have 10 children ;-) All our startups are discussing with me by email all day. Not sure will be able to answer to everyone when we will have 800 startups but for the moment, that's ok because working exclusively by email. We are not board member but are here to help all the time not only during boards ;-)

randall 13y ago

How do you think your program stacks up when compared to YC directly? Do you think an Airbnb or Dropbox would choose your program vs YC primarily because of the lower friction to money in the bank? Also, if a company already has a v1 of the product, are you planning to do the same deal? (YC often accepts people who are post seed pre series a.)

jber 13y ago
AirBnb & Dropbox were very risky projects like any other projects in this planet. There are many hidden awesome companies on this planet and we are targetting this one. I'm sure we will invest in a future AirBnb or Dropbox. We just need a little time ;-)
jber 13y ago
Oups, for your second question. Kima15 is not dedicated to fund prototype only. Some companies with V1 are also great targets for it. All the projects we received since the launch 3 hours ago are all startups with a real product. If the startup is at a later stage, we will be happy to check it through Kima Ventures. It can take just a little longer.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

pg 13y ago

A startup has to be in the same place as its investors if they want to talk face to face, and empirically we've found this to be a necessity when talking about the subtle and complicated problems startups face. Email and Skype are such poor substitutes that they're a qualitatively different thing. Which means if a startup wants advice from its investors as well as money, they either have to raise money from local investors or one of them has to go to where the other is, at least temporarily.

arbuge 13y ago
Ideally investors can give advice too besides money - it's nice to get two things instead of one. But there is some value to investors who can only provide money, as well as some value to investors who can provide money + advice-distorted-through-skype.
- hnriot 13y ago
  Agreed, most of the investors I've worked with provided zero benefit through advice. Often investors are out of touch with trends, they have their heads in the financial clouds and can rarely get past their infatuation with hockey sticks. Obviously some investors have a clue about the technology, but not in my experience - won't name names for obvious reasons.
jber 13y ago
Agree with you, it's certainly better to be at the same place, but there are hundreds of counterexamples of huge successes with VCs not living near the companies. In Europe, Israel, Russia, we have plenty of them. We are also investing with a lot of local investors and they are sometimes managing the local relationship (or mostly making things worse :-() Last but not least, many of our companies are targeting a local market (China, India, Pakistan, Switzerland, France, Argentina, UK, Germany...). They have nothing to do in the Silicon Valley. The YC model is awesome. No doubt on that. but there is room for many other models. (and thanks God, we invested in Rapportive before they went to YC ;-)). Check also what my partner is building : 1000Startups, the biggest incubator in the world in the center of Paris http://1000startups.fr/en/ http://1000startups.fr/en/