We are searching for the strongest global incubators and would love help understanding what programs you love – and what makes you love them.
We’ve been looking at some of the big players namely Y Combinator or Impact Hub. Any and all feedback, thoughts and recommendations are very much appreciated.
YC, 500 startups, techstars. Or equity free ones, like Microsoft Accelerator. (ah, and HAX if you want to do a kickstarter) Others are mostly useless. Important note. DO NOT apply online ! That's not how it works. I have been through 500 startups, and 25 companies our of 30 in our batch came here through very warm intro. Same applies to YC. If you apply online, you'll get rejected for sure. Supposedly techstars is different, but I have no proof of that.
A note on 500 startups. Only apply if your startup have reach 100k ARR with 20% MoM growth. They don't care so much about your product and vision, but your traction is paramount. Also, they don't care about your gender, nationality, age or whatnot, and that's cool :-)
We had $0 revenue when I got in. Just a cool prototype and a big vision.
Ow really ? That's cool :-) Which batch ? I was in B13 and they all had great traction there. Maybe they changed their policy at some point...
All
Companies in our batch recently had high are and some funding. Some had/reached a million arr -2016 batch
<p>I'll also add AngelPad into that mix as worthy accelerators. Huge network for post session, strong social proof and really good alumni track record.</p>
<p>I've been accepted to both Techstars and AngelPad with online applications. In both cases, I also backed up with personal recommendations from mutual connections.</p>
Experience. They don't care if you succeed.
Seriously, do you think the next Steve Jobs is at Y Combinator? Do you think the next Elon Musk is competing with 499 other startups? They are out their winning and failing on their own because they know these accelerators and incubators don't care about your success. All hype, no teeth. If you want to win, read as much as you can, get out of your comfort zone and do it on your own.
Airbnb did YC...
dsdss