That's a really valid point. One thing to note is that most of the clones are started by VCs or people with strong VC connections. In my book that's a pretty notable difference. Entrepreneurs and VCs seem to often look at businesses very differently, and this, in some ways, seems to be a way to just get a stupidly cheap slice out of a big pool of startups.
One thing to remember when looking at all of these things:
The value they give is not in the money. $10-20k is laughable in investment terms. In my opinion YC is more like a ready-made board of advisors than a seed investor. The question really boils down to, for all of these accelerators, "Are they good enough advisors to give up 5-ish percent of your equity for?"
I think YC's proven itself there. I'd be interested to see what some TechStars alums have to say.
Comments
That's a really valid point. One thing to note is that most of the clones are started by VCs or people with strong VC connections. In my book that's a pretty notable difference. Entrepreneurs and VCs seem to often look at businesses very differently, and this, in some ways, seems to be a way to just get a stupidly cheap slice out of a big pool of startups.
One thing to remember when looking at all of these things:
The value they give is not in the money. $10-20k is laughable in investment terms. In my opinion YC is more like a ready-made board of advisors than a seed investor. The question really boils down to, for all of these accelerators, "Are they good enough advisors to give up 5-ish percent of your equity for?"
I think YC's proven itself there. I'd be interested to see what some TechStars alums have to say.