AngelHack Launches A Startup Accelerator, Bringing Its Hackathon To 30+ Cities

I don't care that the founder is spamming social media to get this bumped up. I care about them taking an equity stake in your company.<p>I would give a warning to anybody who reads this thread in the future and is seriously considering giving these guys shares. In a word: don't.<p>Their team has no history of successful exits and no members with technical talent that can be taken seriously; they are not going to help you build a company. Their "connections" are limited to the B-list of Silicon Valley. It's not clear that their founder can even write code.<p>Contrast this with the team at Y-Combinator.<p>Quality of accelerators are a power law that skews so far in the direction of YC that even attending the incubator in second place is a signal that you didn't get YC; Peter Thiel mentioned this in one of his lectures. It's not to say that you won't be successful if you don't do YC, it's to say that it's difficult to the value added by their "Accelerator" is greater than what you give up in exchange.<p>Once again, make your own decision by talking to them. They may change in the future, but you may also find them equally unimpressive.

I participated in AngelHack 2012, placing in the top two in my city, and competing in SF. Although it wasn't terrible, and I did have a lot of fun (turns out I love SF!), I found the competition to be disorganized and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I won't be competing again. A few things that stick out:<p>* Inconsistent WiFi for duration of competition (in our home city)<p>* Aggressive event staff (also in our home city)<p>* No write-ups about our team, or mention of us anywhere at all, even though we were finalists -- remember that this competition is for us too guys! We wanted some recognition.<p>* Slowness in getting paid back for plane tickets (required reminders)<p>* A "mentor" who forgot about meetings (completely stood us up), and was difficult to set up meetings with in the first place<p>* The overall feeling that we were being taken advantage of...just a feeling mind you, but if I felt this way in a contest, I wouldn't be surprised to feel that way if I took their money<p>Take it with a grain of salt. One man's experience. They could be great for all I know.

I haven't really looked into AngelHack and they may have nothing to do with this, but all these shill accounts really casts them in a negative light.

Not to be the pessimist out of this batch of comments, but the accelerator sounds less promising than I would have expected from AngelHack. I have to imagine they have enough money to at least provide housing and living expenses for the teams they choose so the teams can be in one centralized location. The mentorship will probably have less value when the teams cannot meet in person and there is of course the lost networking aspect as well.<p>Although they do provide a chance for the startups to pitch in the final two weeks in SF, it seems that this accelerator, even if not formed with this intention, will be more of a feeder to the bigger and more established ones like YC, TechStars, 500 Startups, etc.

AngelHack is the right thing to do and the tasty way to do it!<p>A+++ Accelerator, would accelerate again!<p>AngelHack is a totally legit thing and would never stoop to astroturfing Hacker News!

I went to the AngelHack 2012 London and it was good fun.<p>Contrary to other people's experiences, the logistics were pretty awesome - for example, despite the fact there were more people at a hackathon than I'd ever seen before, the WiFi held up.<p>It's worth commenting that I'm not a startup/business guy - I went along to play with cool technology and we ended up building an augmented reality app. Out of 50+ teams, we got an honorable mention (after the 3 top teams).<p>Probably due to the startup focus, it generally felt as though the teams were more looking at solving business problems with creative uses of existing technology than building new technology.<p>The only disappointing part of the weekend for me was that the presentations went on WAY too long. There was supposed to be a 2 minute limit, but some people spoke for 10+! Multiply that by 50+ teams and I was almost falling asleep by the end (having not slept the rest of the weekend).<p>But I'd definitely recommend it, and will go again.

I've participated in many hackathons, AngelHack has been one of the better ones, that said don't be surprised if there is disorganization and confusion. They have been getting better and providing better food.<p>Primary reason to attend, working with sponsors. In the past AngleHack has been good at bringing good sponsors/api vendors so its a good opportunity to engage with SAAS, PAAS and APIs.<p>Its about hacking in a short period of time, so overall a fun environment. Also a good opportunity to connect with others, but don't expect to build a team for your idea, bring a team with developers if you expect to get something done.<p>Too early to say about their just launched accelerator.<p>(Their "Upvote us..." is lame, and not in the spirit of quality comments)

I participated in AngelHack 2012 DC. It was at the Microsoft building. It was a fun time. The projects were mostly complete crap, but it was fun.<p>Here is hoping they are not lying about giving free tickets to the first 200 upvotes.

I was one of the 4 finalists from AngelHack Silicon Valley in fall 2012 and I just gotta say, it was awesome! The AngelHack hackathon had a great focus on building (not as much biz/dev/designer)<p>It's an opportunity that keeps giving. I don't think I would have been able to get a tour at Facebook and network with a lot of people had it not been for winning/attending AngelHack.<p>Being from the bay area it's easy to forget how much opportunities there are here in respect to other cities. I can't really think of many opportunities that enable builders from around the world to come to the bay area and pitch their ideas to VCs and see what life is like here (they get flown out here for free if they win their city hackathon).<p>AngelHack++

I did 2nd on AngelHack Paris on last december, really great and inspirational event! The best hackathon for sure.

Angelhacks events are often better-organized than most.

AngelHack London Nov 2012 was so inspirational that even if it hadn't produced two WW Finals Winners (Osper &#38; Testlio)it would still have been the most important hackathon in London last year

I participated last year on AngelHack in Silicon Valley and it was just a great experience. There were crazy and amazing ideas, and the startup energy during the whole event is just inspiring.

AngelHack is in such a great position to do this. Can't wait to see the startups that they churn out!

AngelHack was one of the best tech events of the year! Looking forward to the next one :)

Very excited about this .... AngelHack is awesome :-)<p>Greg and everyone on his team are great people<p>Ash

Go angelhack team!

we worked with greg + team on the la version of angelhack and greatly support his new endeavor! really impressive team whos bound to do great things in the startup space.

Anyone know the promo code for the free ticket to NYC?

Attended Angel Hack last year and had a great time!

Incredibly awesome. I have been waiting for this!

Great concept. Keep up the good work.

Great job

Awesome, can't wait for it!

Really Nice!

looking forward to it!

go go

Protip to whoever is making these sock-puppet accounts and posting on this thread: the username appears green for 'newbie' accounts.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419344" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419344</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419584" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419584</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419949" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419949</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419882" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419882</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419948" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5419948</a>