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BUT it is all goes around; comes around - Good luck #seedcamp -ers; See you Wednesday!
I saw a line on Twitter today from someone at Seedcamp: "When I first set it up, I was stupid. Then, briefly, I was a genius. Finally, it had been obvious." The same assumptions seem to be in play... in hindsight, Y Combinator fills an obvious need.
But I understand PG has good relationships with the people at fbFund REV... even speaking to them during the program. I don't think that's the case with the others.
great piece of work, thanks. Maybe interesting to make it a living document so every body can see the latest track record of the accelerators.
Happy to help out ;-)
Cheers,
Maurice
I do plan on keeping the list of seed accelerators and the list of the companies they've funded live. If I ever get too busy to keep them live I'll definitely ask for help. :)
Cheers,
Jed
Plus cool, I will follow your blog to stay up to date. Let me know when you need an extra set of hands ;-)
Cheers,
Maurice
Thank you!
The links above are the "living" data. As I hear about new YC (or other) companies launching I've been updating the files. I may have missed some, so if you know of any others please let me know!
Anyway, Jed, I haven't read the whole work, but I would love to hear your opinion about focusing (as you said about FB Apps and B2B software) in a developing country like Argentina. What do you think?
Good job man! I promise to read all of it and give you a better feedback. :)
Juan
If you're looking to copy Y Combinator in Argentina, you can certainly do it. But it's not terribly compelling if that's all it is. The best Argentina startups will look to go to Y Combinator or other program to maximize their chances of success, so you'll generally have a lower quality of startups. While it might be successful depending on your goals, it won't be as good as it could be.
Instead, focus on what you can provide that's interesting and unique. What people do you have as advisors? As potential mentors and investors? What can you focus on that would bring startups from all over the world to Argentina for your program? Perhaps there's something about technology usage in developing countries that can only be learned within one, so any company looking to expand will want to attend.
It's really a matter of what you want from starting southcombinator.
Again, I hope that helps. But I would read the full paper for more detailed advice. :)
I've read it all, and I understand your point about focusing on a determined field, I'll need to research more on that.
Is difficult to understand how, in spite of globalization and the democratization of opportunities we are living, there are still things that depend on location, and that once someone takes the head, is difficult to catch them up.
Anyway, as I've said before, your work is a great source of information for me. Thanks for open it to everybody!
Juan
I have put together a Google map of all the known 'Seed Combinators' that I'm happy to share with you for your continued research: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=...
I am also hoping that my proposed SXSWi Panel on the same subject gets chosen for the conference in March: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4859
I look forward to learning more from you as I plan on watch this blog closely.
Your Google map is a great resource. I used a slightly more restrictive "filter" as to what I considered a seed accelerator for the purposes of my paper, but it's good to see the wider variety of programs available.
If you read my paper, you'll see that I specifically addressed the seed accelerator model that Y Combinator pioneered. Y Combinator seeks out, funds, and supports new businesses from across the world, investing money and time for a stake of the business. If you look at IdeaLab's site, they specifically state: "Idealab is not accepting outside business proposals for review." As it's a completely different model, I didn't address it.
My personal thoughts on IdeaLab is that it is very difficult to get their model correct, and is largely dependent on the people involved. In fact, I'd say it's very rare that that model is consistently successful. But I might be a bit of a pessimist...
Great work, a lot of useful info, but I have a question. I don't understand why, at the financial model part, the accelarator has a diminished shares: from 5%, to 0.5%, 2%, 4%... Why is that?
This is a good question, and has to do with general dilution of ownership stake.
Accelerators all invest in (typically) the very first round of funding for a particular ownership stake, generally about 5-10%. (YC's median is 6%) What's important is that they do no other funding of the company.
Successful companies generally go on to have more and more rounds of funding. Since accelerators don't put any additional money in, their ownership stake is reduced with each new funding round. I assumed that as a company becomes more successful they go through more rounds of funding (which isn't always the case), which means the accelerators have the lowest ownership stakes in the most successful companies.
I hope that makes sense!
I though that, if the company's value increases, the accelarator's share decreases, which didn't make much sense :) But it's all clear now, thanks again.
Even though the accelerator is getting diluted, the value of the company is rising faster than the decline in ownership stake. So a hit company does well for everyone. :)