Having been through both Techstars and YC, this article is painfully accurate.
Being part of both networks has been an interesting experience in culture.
YC culture fosters an extremely strong network of founders, even outside the bay area. In London we're constantly pinging each other for advice - it really helps.
Techstars does not have this and makes little effort to do this. I remember speaking to some Techstars people in London trying to see if they might Foster more of the community here, but they had no interest in it unfortunately.
It's a real shame because some Techstars programs with the right MDs had YC quality (Shoutout to Connor), it's just the quality wasn't distributed or cultivated uniformly. It's heavily dependent on the MD of the program.
Comments
Having been through both Techstars and YC, this article is painfully accurate.
Being part of both networks has been an interesting experience in culture.
YC culture fosters an extremely strong network of founders, even outside the bay area. In London we're constantly pinging each other for advice - it really helps.
Techstars does not have this and makes little effort to do this. I remember speaking to some Techstars people in London trying to see if they might Foster more of the community here, but they had no interest in it unfortunately.
It's a real shame because some Techstars programs with the right MDs had YC quality (Shoutout to Connor), it's just the quality wasn't distributed or cultivated uniformly. It's heavily dependent on the MD of the program.