General Assembly Get Funding From Yuri Milner and Jeff Bezos | Hacker News Reader

General Assembly Get Funding From Yuri Milner and Jeff Bezos

betabeat.com

35 pointsAtaub249 comments

When I saw the headline I wasn't sure if it meant that Yuri Milner and Jeff Bezos were keeping the California legislature (which is called the General Assembly) afloat, or if this was a clever name for a startup. It appears to be a clever name for a startup.

Except that it isn't. Don't call your startup "Congress." Or "General Assembly." Or "The White House." You're just asking for trouble.

No joke. I've attended a few events at GA, the first time I went I had a very difficult time finding it because whenever I looked up 'General Assembly' on Google Maps it sent me to the UN building.

Interestingly, now that I try it, it's no longer the case. Huge cheers to GA, incidentally. It's a fantastic space- one day I intend to be there in a more permanent capacity than weekend hackathons...

I wonder if startups accepted into GA will have a standing offer for funding like YC folks?

This seems to be about education, so perhaps the dealflow is implicit via goodwill from the funding.

As GA co-founder Brad Hargreaves wrote, " When we launched our first certification program—Front-end Web Development—a few weeks ago, we received over 100 applications for only fifteen available spots. Demand for this kind of education has clearly outstripped supply. And we want to answer the call."

Our startup is in GA, and I would say no. There is little vetting of business model to get in GA. In fact, I would not even consider GA an incubator. They don't take equity, nor do they offer advising. It's more like super cool startup friendly paid office space.

The value we've gotten has been being around really smart startups working on cool projects, and being able to share ideas.

So there was no discussion with the startups at GA about the funding?

nope none at at...

I can second this -- it's not an incubator or EIR at all.

Does anyone know whether GA accepts single hackers as part of their space? I'd like to find a desk away from home, and GA seems like the perfect place.

Yep, they certainly do.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com