Ignite 100, The UK YC?
ignite100.com
ignite100.com
Also, whenever I see these programs with a ton of mentors (http://ignite100.com/view/mentors/) I think "quantity over quality". Look at YC: a tiny team of people. You don't need 50 mentors, you need three good ones. Also, Ignite 100 looks like it is a rebranding/relaunching of a previous program called The Difference Engine. I'd like to see some successes from that before judging this program.
And there are quality VCs in London (e.g. Accel has a major office here).
Edit for your second comment: Meeting the 3 mentors you need is only going to happen if you've had a chance to meet many more. Obviously it wont be the same 3 for everyone. I doubt the YC teams restrict themselves to only getting advice from the YC partners.
However, the fact that there are quality VCs in London doesn't help much if you're 'up North' (yes, there is life beyond Watford). It's good to see something like this outside of the South East region.
In Europe there are probably only two places like that: London and Berlin. And I'd argue that Berlin is far behind London. You could include Tel Aviv as well at a pinch.
I agree, btw. Seedcamp (with all its pros) is not YC. If YC did decide to open an outpost here, they would certainly see a lot of interest - despite the weather.
In fact, YC already funds UK and European startups, so although this is a big step (splitting the nest), it would not be that different from what YC does already. A good smattering of tele-conferencing technologies could even help resolve the "pg is not ubiquitous" issue.
As pg says, the silicon valley area is also great for startups. For the brief few months that I've been here as a part of YCS11, it's been fantastic.
ignite100 is essentially a private sector spin-out of the Difference Engine.
One of the key issues accelerator models have struggled with is what happens post programme. The additional funding allows teams to maintain momentum after the programme and create a runway to the next funding round.
Happy to take any questions here, or you can get me at jon at ignite100 dot com
Closes tab
Asking people to move to Newcastle would be a bit like asking people to move to, picking a random one, "Tulsa, Oklahoma". Sure, it's a city, and there are people there and all that, but... why the hell would you move your startup there?
I don't see any harm in spending time in a place that (potentially) has fewer distractions so you can actually build stuff. Besides, I think you're doing Newcastle a disservice. Sure, it's not London but it's still a pretty big city.
Newcastle is a weird choice, it's not the first place most people would choose to spend time in and it's miles away from what is becoming a decent tech ecosystem in East London. Why not do it there?
Moving your startup to Newcastle means: a) Lower costs in terms of rent and staff (you have to pay people more in London). b) Fewer competitors trying to poach your staff.
Of course you don't get the same international connections as you do in London, but it's not a case of London holding all the trump cards.
If I had to choose between moving to the North East to be part of an incubator or moving to London and going it on my own, I'd still choose London, The probability of chance opportunities, networking and connections are far higher in London and these things make the difference. Even YC was moved to Silicon Valley because the cultural pull meant businesses would benefit from being there.
As someone who has recently been part of a UK incubator scheme outside of London and "up north" the mentoring side of it had neither quantity or quality and it was a compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding. The best parts of the scheme were interacting with other startups and the support from the staff administrating the scheme.
The fact that YC accepts global applications gives me great hope. When I think of YC, I think of founders/mentors that champion, encourage and problem solve with the teams, Super smart, dedicated applicants willing to travel around the world for a 10min interview.
I wonder how many applicants to Ignite will come from afar?
I still have my sights set on YC, Though I'm still looking for the right co-founder.
compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding
Some of the other businesses only got a small amount of funding to start with which left them with very little after subtracting this expense.
However, just to have had a place or any funding at all in the UK in my opinion is a great thing.
I think YC have it spot on, their funding is the right amount to allow a team to concentrate on their idea yet not so much that they can be complacent about running costs.
I still had a full time job whilst part of my incubator. The funding couldn't be used for living expenses.
I wonder how much further along I would be now if that wasn't the case.
I think great things happen when afforded the time to focus on that one thing.
It’s a straightforward deal. Each team will receive £5,000 per founder (to a maximum of £15,000) for which we will accept 8% of founder shares per start-up (not per founder). We do not have any strange terms and conditions and we align ourselves entirely with the other founders of the business – effectively becoming a co-founder of the business. In addition, we provide you with office space and other services from various partners including hosting, legal and professional services etc. Subject to the teams achieving pre-agreed milestones, the balance of the £100,000 will be released in the form of a convertible loan with a discount of 20% against the next funding round. Teams are not obliged to accept the loan note at the end of the programme.
Wonder what they are. Doesn't sounds so simple to me.
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/01/27/screenreach-raises-50000...
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/23/loveyourlarder-wants-to-...
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/23/curated-by/
Not sure about Springboard, the programme is still going on.
Why? Isn't iteration a good sign? The accelerators have only been going for the last couple of years so it's too soon to cite 'success' (unless you count fundraising as newsworthy)
I guess it's easy to get used to YC companies bursting out of the gates and making an impact from the get go that I thought it strange I did not know any companies from those accelerators.
I then retried with a different email address and dead simple password and got the same.
If you look at the list of mentors etc. involved in these incubators they tend to be second-rate. I got invited to be a mentor in one of these programs and the participation required from me was really minimal yet my name would be all over the thing. I wasn't able to take part because of other commitments, but it strikes me that there's a real quantity over quality problem.
My (jaded) view is that it's a version of new adage: "those that can do, those that can't incubate". That may be unfair to these specific folks, but until we see some success from these incubators. Compare, for example, all the effort in branding/marketing these programs to the effort YC spends on the same. You do not need a slick web site and list of mentors to make this stuff work. Hello, you can even use HTML tables for layout and still get people who do cutting edge web work in your program. What you need are quality principals.
I'd be happy to work for a real YC-like in London (actually, it would probably have to be YC itself) because you'd be working in a really small team of really smart people. Not in some massive team of 'mentors' who aren't providing a great deal of value.