Announcing Twilio Fund for 500 Startups | Hacker News Reader

Announcing Twilio Fund for 500 Startups

blog.500startups.com

44 pointsaditya17 comments

This sounds great! I just formed a LLC today and will be launching my Twilio powered business in 2-3 weeks. It's web + iPhone app based app. Will be announcing soon here as well once my iPhone app gets approved.

$10K is not huge money for me, so that's not something which excites me, especially when I've revenue making plans from day 1. It's the network effect, PR effect, building relationships that one can achieve from these kinds of programs, excite me. I'm guessing this will be a great YC competitor, and in turn I hope it will return YC like after results.

I work at Twilio (but was not involved in this fund) but I was working on a Twilio-based startup before I started here a few months ago. I would have totally done this (in fact, I'm a little jealous that I can't participate). 1% for 10K is way better terms than a lot of the friends and family 'rounds' I've done in the past. If you use Twilio in your product or service and you're serious about making a business out of it, you should do this. It can't hurt to have 500 Startups, Dave McClure and Twilio have your back.

This looks great. Great motivation to keep me going. I plan on launching my Twilio powered startup/app on Sunday.

I feel like I should mention, if you don't want to wait until the end of November to start working on that fundraising for your Twilio-powered startup, we have a developer contest running through next Monday night. The winner gets a trip to NYC to have lunch with Fred Wilson (@avc), Albert Wenger, and Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures.

Details: http://contests.twilio.com

We are in. We aren't using Twilio yet, but we sure could be convinced. :)

Looked through the post but couldn't find any information on the price fixing mechanisms they're using for these deals. Normally it would be secret meetings in restaurants but I assume the trend as we go ahead will lean more towards secret skype conversations or secret emails.

It'll be just nine slots if patio11 throws Appointment Reminder into the mix.

I'm not planning on taking investment at this time.

I think this is a really good deal, though. The $10,000 is gravy, and not worth nearly as much as getting to pick Dave McClure's brain regarding distribution. (Metrics, design, product, too, but if you had to pick one of them, distribution is a strong choice.)

It just doesn't mesh well with the trajectory I'm shooting for at the moment. If that changes, I will start working on the first investment pitch delivered in rAnS0m n0tE.

My experiences with YC and TS companies indicate that the most valuable aspect of the programs are the introductions and knowledge sharing amongst classes.

Given that the dilution is minimal, I'd strongly encourage you to apply - you'll get $10K of value by getting accurate quick feedback from the other members of the batch on the question "is there a better way to do [x]?" I don't think the $10K obligates you to go out and get any additional funding, and Twilio will be a net positive in terms of PR and links.

I really hope he does!

I'm probably missing something (fairly tired right now), and will likely end up looking like a muppet, but...

Where does the '500' come from?

This fund is a subset of 500 Startups: http://500startups.com

Ahhh. Thanks :)

And "500 Startups" is a nod to "500 Hats", Dave's personal angel investor brand. Which is a nod to a Dr Seuss book ("The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins")

The js scripts for the actual twilio fund page are 404. I tried to subscribe to the newsletter.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll get someone on it.

Thanks it should now be fixed.

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