Man, I'm amazed at the bitching here... Someone's trying to help foster startups in europe! The horror! There's no way it can be decent, right? Jesus.....<p>Its not like the idea of doing early stage funding is that new, nor is the idea of havign an application form new. Ok, so the questions may not be original-- but that's flattery, its not like the YC form is a trade secret! <p>Getting startups together for a fixed period in a fixed place is relatively new, and seems to be a YC idea. Ok, so what does it mean when others emulate this? IT means they think its a good idea! How does this hurt YC?<p>YC is evangelizing a different approach to early stage funding. Now others are emulating the idea-- there is no way in hell that this can be a bad thing!<p>This is called success!<p>Do y'all who were rejected by YC hate the fact that there are now other options?<p>Or do you think that these people are going to steal all the "good" startups from YC diminishing their pool?
The problem with this is that I can't see the people involved. Who are the investors? What are their backgrounds? Why are they going to increase my chances of success?<p>Replicating the YC seed funding model is fair game. What I find irritating (and btw I'm very keen to see more European start ups funded so I'm not outright attacking you for the sake of it) is that people replicate the easy parts without putting the effort into the hard parts of YC.<p>Easy parts = Getting money and an application form<p>Hard parts = Getting high profile speakers every week to talk with founders, putting together an investor day with the most high profile investors in the world, providing real mentorship, creating a supportive community.
not a joke - tried to contact pg a few weeks ago already - emailed them again - but running out of time - if we don't get applications now, we can't launch. if pg says anything in that direction, we'll immediately take it down, and ask people to resubmit new forms because we can't use them. the questions pg asks are great, it just didn't feel sensical to try to reformulate them. <p>our differenciation is in how we implement it locally, not how we ask questions - the questions just are the same everywhere in the world.<p>our local hacker club is what we think might make this work - we have a few hundred people sharing knowledge and ideas here. we hope to build up entrepreneurial knowledge and spirit around the metalab, and store it within the collective memory of the people here.
Hello Paul,<p>Your idea is interesting, but frankly, I don't get it. Your resume and your website do not hint at your having the money to sponsor the groups. You do not tell us how giving up a percentage of our companies is going to benefit us. The money is small - I could work on the side and make that money every month.<p>What is not clear is this:<p>1. Do you have the money for this? If so, from where? If a piece of software needed additional funding after 6 months, would you be able to do this (like pg put 50.000 in justin.tv)<p>2. Do you have the marketing reach? Will affiliating myself with you give me greater marketing strength?<p>3. Do you have access to legal information and advice? Can you offer this to your startups?<p>4. Do you have any connections to Venture Capital? Do you _know_ about venture capital, such as to give good or bad advice?
I think it's a great Idea! I've been at Metalab quite a few times now and it's a great place with great people.<p>Last friday they hosted the first "Startup Freitag" (Startup Friday) to bring people interested in startups together. As Paul hasn't talked about YEurope on friday, I guess some opportunities emerged from that first get togehter.<p>I'm eagerly awaiting the next one the 5th of May. I left the last one after a great chat at about 3am (if I remember correctly).<p>While I do understand why people don't like the YEurope copycat from YCombinator, I think the reasons why they did it is obvious: attention and getting the message out fast. Most people interested in startups know about YCombinator and most of them will asume YEurope is doing something similar.
(time might also have played a factor)<p>I personally know Paul and if you have a look at Metalab and on what he (and the others) achieved there, I think it's a good point to have some trust in YEurope.<p>Many will agree that one of the great values of YCombinator are connections and bringing the right people together. That's exactly what the Metalab is trying to do and has done really well so far.<p>(I first wrote that comment on TechCrunch and then copied it over here)
Many people in Europe have been looking at what YCombinator is doing and how they are doing things. There is no less creative and hacking talent in Europe than in the States but certainly a lack of entrepreneurial spirit and the infrastructures and environment favorable to the emergence of top notch startups. Nevertheless it is well worth trying!<p>I tried to contact PG a few months ago on the subject of getting YCombinator to participate one way or another in such a scheme in Europe with no success. The YEurope rip-off does not reflect well indeed on such endeavors but you can be sure that other will emerge and hopefully turn some ventures into successes.
What's wrong with this sentence:<p>"YCombinator Clone in Vienna, Austria launches!"<p>Hint: It's not in the first, second, third or sixth word.<p>You're missing at least 50% of the value of Y Combinator by being outside of a startup center, probably more. Can a successful startup happen outside of the Valley? Sure...but you're definitely hurting the chances of success by a significant degree.
So that I have this straight: You've tried to copy YC's approach and website as closely as possible down to featuring one of their startup's product in the middle of your page and naming your yourself so as to suggest that you're somehow affiliated and you are holding out hope that they're going to be happy (or even just not upset) with this?
Cool. They stole the application too, but I guess they can because doing so didn't hurt Techstars at all. They stole it so badly that I wonder if it's a joke.<p>"If one wanted to buy you three months in (March 2007), what's the lowest offer you'd take?"<p>I wonder how long it will be before we see a clone in India/East Asia.
great news!
as founder of First Tuesday in Vienna in 1999 I was involved in a lot of start up connections.
the angel boerse here i2 might be useful, other contacts are a "similar" space from Frequentis for related companies to have incubator space, it was running in the 4th bez. and then there is Julie Meyer running Ariadne with the desire to build a new europe ...<a href="http://www.ariadnecapital.com/team_julie.htm">http://www.ariadnecapital.com/team_julie.htm</a> and others like <a href="http://www.discoverybeach.co.uk/">http://www.discoverybeach.co.uk/</a>
best regards, nigel
great news!
as founder of First Tuesday in Vienna in 1999 I was involved in a lot of start up connections.
the angel boerse here i2 might be useful, other contacts are a "similar" space from Frequentis for related companies to have incubator space, it was running in the 4th bez. and then there is Julie Meyer running Ariadne with the desire to build a new europe ...<a href="http://www.ariadnecapital.com/team_julie.htm">http://www.ariadnecapital.com/team_julie.htm</a> and others like <a href="http://www.discoverybeach.co.uk/">http://www.discoverybeach.co.uk/</a>
best regards, nigel