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Comment by knes | Hacker News Reader

This is great that they are starting to look outside of the US for startups. However, in this batch there not one startup that bring some big innovation or that I look particularly forward to use...

I mean ICONFINDER?! Do they really needs to be incubate / raise money?

Tealet? A subscription based business on tea? Wow...

The list goes on...

really disappointed in this batch of 500 Startups.

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Yes, we get a lot out of an incubator. We're funded by a Danish VC and our HQ is in Copenhagen, Denmark. By joining 500 Startups, we'll get a chance to build a network in Silicon Valley and meet mentors like Andrew Chen, Hiten Shah and of course Dave McClure. And just like the rest of the batch, it gives us a four month period of intense focus on product development.

These companies seem to solve very specific issues. It's possible they plan on building a sustainable business model before growing to tackle bigger challenges. Was Google a "big innovation" when it launched, or just another search engine? The world is 500 startups richer and there's nothing to be disappointed about.

Edit: A better example.. Amazon was just an online book store. Now I can't launch a website without getting them involved.

Edit2: I looked up Tealet and it seems like a well executed vision. Writing them off as a disappointment is a dick move. Where are your mind-blowing innovations?

In general you shouldn't write off any of the startups in incubators after one month - especially not in 500 startups and YC where there are many talented teams applying and good screening processes.

Amazon might not be a good example in this context. They had a huge challenge from the outset - selling millions of books online (as compared to the ~100,000 in a typical large B&N).

Obviously I do agree that they're much bigger than even that now.

Actually, tea can be a profitable business with the right niche.

I know several people that spend serious money on that (over here, Argentinean Ines Berton blends are the most sought after - http://www.tealosophy.com/eng/eng.html ).

Edit: It won't be Facebook-sized, but if the customer validation works (and they really know their stuff - much like with wine, premium tea drinkers can be picky), they might be on to something.

Personally, I worry about them losing the "experience" factor that one gets from going tea shopping.

I'm not saying it is a bad business. Actually I just launched a subscription based business on my own around fine food for the Belgium market ( http://foodsterbox.com ).

It is just that I though 500 Startups were looking for more innovative startups.

It won't be Facebook-sized - if I recall correctly, thefacebook page with my profile and relationship status didn't look "Facebook-sized" when they first released either.

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