AppDirect Developer Incubator
info.appdirect.com
info.appdirect.com
My understanding of the deal:
"If you're qualified, come work for us for 2.5 years. After that, you have a chance to impress us with your idea. If you impress our panel, we'll give you 6 months of partial salary + support to work on your idea, after which point we'll arrange a meeting with VCs"
Or boiled down even further:
"Defer your startup idea for 2.5 years and take a job in return for a chance for ~6 months of partial salary, some help, and a warm intro to VCs"
The only thing I can think of is that they're hiring lesser qualified people in which case they could consider it a 2.5 year paid training program. But aside from that, AppDirect isn't exactly pushing the envelope of technology and it's substantially the same as when I started working with it almost a year ago. I can't imagine working for them is much different than any other startup in the area.
Even if we put aside the "defer your startup idea" and call it "take whichever idea you have in your head in 2.5 years and we'll see if we can help you make a go of it", it still just seems like it's a one sided deal. Is the post 2.5 year stuff they are offering really worth it? It seems like startup incubators would be the much better option there.