Startup fund/incubator TechStars is now accepting applications for its 2008 intake (see our coverage of them a year ago).
TechStars offers up to $15,000 in seed funding ($5,000 per founder, max $15,000) to broke entrepreneurs with a good startup idea. Ten winners will be selected, and winners will need to spend most of their time in Boulder over the Northern summer building out their ideas. In return, TechStars takes 5% of the equity in each startup. Winners have full use of TechStar’s offices, access to legal advice, and are able to tap into a strong list of startup mentors to help them build their idea (list here). Non-US companies can apply, although must be able to legally spend most of summer in Colorado.
Of last year’s winners 8 of the 10 companies are now angel or venture backed, are profitable, and/or have had acquisition offers, and 6 of the 10 winners heard about the opportunity on TechCrunch (according to TechStats).
The Techstar’s program is similar to YCombinator, and both are solid ideas, giving wannabe startups a helping hand in turning their dreams into reality. The associated support is first rate and particularly for those not well connected in the Valley would be difficult to replicate; ultimately the $15,000 may be the headline figure but the related support makes it much more valuable.
Applications close 31 March 2008.
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I think you nailed it on the last paragraph. $15k doesn’t do much (if anything), and it’s not an amount hard to get if that’s all you need. But if you’re getting out of the home nest, don’t know anybody, good support and connections are priceless.
BTW you don’t have to be well connected “in the Valley”, as if you must know people “in the Valley” to succeed and connections “out of the Valley” are of little value. I think “the Valley” is overrated, and lately it’s showing some signs of mediocrity IMHO.
The knee jerk reaction to this, for me, would be to say it’s a lousy deal for the startup. That’s from looking at the relatively small sum of money. However, I’ve learned, time and again, that’s really not money that matters, it’s connections. So if this network can get a promising startup in with interested parties (when they might not have been able to), that’s worth it right there.
In that vein, it’s a good deal for both. Obviously for TechStars: say they take 10 startups. Say all ten take $15k. That’s $150k. Say just one of those startups gets sold for a minor sum…like $10m. That’s $500k from that one startup alone. Now granted, it’s still a risk, and I’m not counting mentoring time, or lawyers’ time as an expense, but still… It really comes down to the connections that can be made, more than the money. If the connections are there, it’s a good deal for a young entrepreneur.
I think what’s difficult to swallow is that applicants ‘need to spend most of their time in Boulder over the Northern summer building out their ideas.’ the cost of moving out will already consume much of the $15K if you can get $15K?
RBA
what I meant by that is simply that you wouldn’t get the opportunity to tap into a lot of the ppl on the mentors list if you weren’t well connected, unfortunately a lot of what goes on (in the Valley) favors who you know, not what you know. I think this helps level the playing field a little.
Anyone that falls for this program is a dupe.
$5,000 per founder, to spend the summer in Colorado? Thats $1,666 per month on expenses. I don’t know the cost of living in Colorado, but I sincerely doubt thats enough money to survive on
Seems like a cheap knock off of Y Combinator. I can’t think of any good companies from Techstars. Y Combinator has far more experience and better results, and its not in Colorado.
Just wondering, can two 16 year-olds apply for this deal? Just taking a long shot here
This is a very very bad deal for anyone to even consider. Almost predatory.
Duncan, I agree, yes. I wasn’t poking at your statement, but rather expanding on it, as I think that, although deep down the “valley ecosystem” still seems healthy, we’re also seeing a lot happening outside of it, and what’s most important, not depending on it.
What connections are in Colorado? Has anyone ever even heard of any of those TS companies?
I’d say CRV Quick Start or Y Combinator are the ones to care about.
@Kevin X - I believe that anyone, any age can apply.
This is a wonderful opportunity.
Maybe YCombinator is “better”, but this is more practical for me right now.
I have had an idea for an internet startup for more than a year, and I think it would be incredibly useful and popular, but I have NO money, NO connections, NO design skills or anything of the like.
It’s worth a shot, right?
I will apply for the program, I think its great. If your an entrepreneur and understand about the web, you know that you can build an online application anywhere in the world, but once your startup takes off if your not connected to something it could just be a failure. Its not about the 15,000 its about allowing yourself and your team to gather together and work 110% on the project and meet many people that you may have never been introduced with. Its all about who you know! If you already know everyone then don’t apply lol
Has TS had any real successes to point to yet? It is extreme early stage venture capital at its riskiest…anyone out there with concrete example(s) of success?
@Don: Yeah, IntenseDebate is a success story.
This is a wonderful opportunity.
Maybe YCombinator is “better”, but this is more practical for me right now.
I have had an idea for an internet startup for more than a year, and I think it would be incredibly useful and popular, but I have NO money, NO connections, NO design skills or anything of the like.
It’s worth a shot, right?
Why did #13 and #17 post the exact same thing but different names and websites? Suuuuuuspiiiiiicious…….
I think they just need to put more than this. At the moment $5,000 doesn’t look like anyway near adequate.
So I guess I’m the first TechStars alum to post on this comment thread, but I just have to say, this is an absolutely amazing opportunity for anyone that has the chance.
Everyone saying that the $15k is too little money, it’s not about the money at all. The money is enough to bootstrap three people for three months in Colorado. It can be easily done, my co-founders and I did it, and so did 9 other companies. None of us were hurting by the end of the summer by any means.
As for the mentoring, it’s absolutely top notch. We get some of the amazing successes from Colorado, companies like NewsGator and Photobucket, as well as lots of other great mentors that come in for the program…folks like Dick Costolo of Feedburner and Todd Sampson and Eric Marcoulier of MyBlogLog.
We spent an entire summer building our products and learning from the best in the industry about the ins and outs…what to do and what not to do.
Some of you have said that Y Combinator has much more notable startups come out of it…I’d also like to point out that Y Combinator has been around for quite a while longer, but yet, doesn’t include anywhere near the mentoring help that we got. Some success stories definitely exist out of TechStars thus far. I would for sure say that IntenseDebate is one of them, as well as J Squared Media, which is a Facebook App company, but currently still command one of the most popular apps on Facebook. My company has also had a lot of great recognition, and we definitely would have had a MUCH harder time without TechStars.
Between the network, the mentoring, constant help and bootstrap cash, TechStars is an incredible opportunity, and anyone that has a good idea and a few great co-founders, I highly recommend submitting an app!
@KevinX… I posted the original one… I have no idea who the second guy is. Weirds me out too.
What connections are in Colorado? Has anyone ever even heard of any of those TS companies?
@kevinx and @Jake Bouma
its blog spam.
the bot is copy/pasting the last entry ,
Here I come, TechStar?
http://simongeorgeinc.googlepages.com
@IndaSoft Companies: NewsGator, Photobucket, DoubleClick, Me.dium, Lijit, StartupWeekend (the company behind it), Kerpoof (one of the TechCrunch40 companies), IntenseDebate, MadKast (those last two being TechStars companies), Fuser (maker of the popular Facebook application that effectively replaces MySpace), and there’s quite a few more, though some are in “Stealth Mode”.
You’ve also got great minds like Brad Feld, who is one of the best investors in the industry (Feedburner, Postini, Danger, Harmonix).
Check out http://ColoradoStartups.com/ for more stuff about Colorado
Why would anyone want to make a deal with a company named Unfair?