Comment by marcamillion | Hacker News Reader

Comment by marcamillion | Hacker News Reader

So, I read the title and it looks AWESOME. Perfect! I thought. Just what I needed. A platform that obviates the need for me to seek funding.

Just to be taken through the application to be told on the last screen that they will be prioritizing startups that have gone through incubator programs.

That's very annoying and misleading.

Had I known that, I wouldn't have spent the time it took to fill out the 4 pages of application.

You guys should have been more upfront with that.

Other than that, this looks very promising - but you need to clearly articulate who you are looking for. Is it 'premium accelerated' startups? Or TRULY bootstrapped startups?

Not to poo poo on anyone's parade, but if you go through a startup accelerator that can be hardly considered 'bootstrapping'.

Edit: Also, do you guys pair up people? For instance, I am a single founder and I can do all the development - but I am not a designer. Can you guys supply a designer for me to work with?

Edit 2: Kudos on not adding (YC class number) to the title. I prolly wouldn't have clicked it, to be honest.

100% agree about them clarifying who the program is for. They say bootstrappers, but then prioritize for those in incubators which I generally don't call bootstrappers.

Thanks for the feedback marcamillion!

The wording on the last page of the wizard is old and should be changed. We are focused on accepting talented startup teams and knowing a team went through an incubator program does help vet them. We're not only accepting startups who are funded by an incubator program.

Our target market startup is one who was a finalist in a distinguished incubator program (top 50 or so). They've built a good product as a team, didn't quite make it in, but now need some bootstrapping cash to keep them going before raising a round of funding (if they choose to do so).

Oh, and our vision of the product is to allow team building within the site. A project is posted and they want 2 developers and 1 designer. If you're a developer, you could fill a developer slot and invite another dev/designer in your network or have us recommend one.

Wow, this could be pretty awesome as a way for potential cofounders to find each other and work on a project together to see if they jive with each other.

Totally. It could even turn into a startup pre-incubator where your team can be vetted by working on a couple short-term gigs together (all while making money).

Why would a non-accepted start-up still be given a preference over one that never applied?

Is there something magic about applying for an incubator that makes teams that do so better at their game?

An 'unknown' losing to a 'failed' may cut off the lows but it also cuts off the highs!

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