
What would you do? Acceptance decision by April 16th to Techstars or wait for YComb decision and risk losing the given opportunity? - ginn

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ginn
Reading the forum, I noticed a lot of you are applying to Techstars and Y. If
you were accepted to Techstars, you will have to give an acceptance decision
by April 16th. However, lets say you were given an interview to Y but
acceptance is not offered until April 29th. So what would you do?

Take a leap of faith and wait for Y, knowing that you just given up a sure
opportunity to be mentored or go for Techstars?

Of course both are great programs

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pg
We tell people finally on the 22nd, not the 29th. Which is still after the
16th, but only 6 days after.

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pg
I'm sure techstars would take anyone who made it to the interview stage at YC,
regardless of deadlines.

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ced
I don't get it. If you (YC) choose not to fund a startup after the interview,
it's because you think that you will not make money out of it. Why would
TechStar fund them? They already tacitly acknowledge that they cannot do any
better than you.

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pg
The seed business is national. Almost everyone who applies to Techstars will
apply to YC as well. Since I honestly can't see any reason anyone would prefer
them to us, that means their destiny is to fund people we reject. The best
startups we reject are the ones that make it to the interview stage.

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python_kiss
About 300+ teams have applied to TechStars so far. I am guessing for YC the
number is at least 500. From this large pool, only about 13 teams will be
selected by Y Combinator. So I am sure there will be some good startups even
within the ones that are rejected by Y Combinator.

TechStars could also judge their applicants on a criteria different from Y
Combinator and catch good startups where YC might not.

The word on the street is that most startups, however, wouldn't choose
TechStars over Y Combinator. First, the initial investment is lower. Second,
they aren't original nor do they have the reputation that Paul does. In the
end, though, it all comes down to which program maximizes success for
startups. For that, David had this to say in an e-mail "Our investors have
funded several hundred companies over the years, far more than Y Combinator
has done. Y Combinator has Reddit to point out. Our founders point at
Newsgator, Technorati, Feedburner, Dogster, and tons more as examples of our
past experience."

I don't think anyone hates TechStars, but startup's would have had more
respect for them if they had at least taken Paul's permission for rewording
and copy-pasting the questions :)

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pg
We don't only accept 13 startups. There just happen to be 13 in the current
batch. Our policy is, and always has been, to accept as many as we think are
good enough.

And incidentally, that claim about funding hundreds of companies is
characteristically bogus. That number must come from all the investments made
by VC funds during the time Brad Feld et al worked for them. That's like
claiming that because you worked for Microsoft for a while, you wrote millions
of lines of code.

And even so the big winners they "point at" are not much more valuable than
the companies YC has funded, despite the fact we're only 2 years old.

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python_kiss
The only reality that counts is what's already in the prospect's mind. Coca-
Cola came before Pepsi, so even a century later, it continues to dominate the
market. Aside from being displeased, YC shouldn't feel threatened by
TechStars; Y Combinator is ahead of its competition by leaps and bounds
especially since it was first in their prospect's minds. For startup founders
and bloggers, TechStars will always come off as the "clone".

There is understandably some heat between us and the replicant. Wouldn't it be
a good idea to just send David an email (David[@]coloradostartups.com) to
reach some common ground? This might just be an opportunity to expand Y
Combinator beyond Boston or Mountain View.

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semigeek
Every market is going to have multiple players (Pepsi vs Coke, Microsoft vs
Apple, Goldman Sachs vs Fidelity, Google vs Yahoo); competition is healthy and
usually indicative of a solid market. While there may be some heat between YC
and TechStars because of the Application Form, they're both great additions to
the Venture Capital Field.

Both teams have great members and mentors; PG being at the top of the list for
YC, Brad Feld being up there for TS. An aspiring serial entrepreneur will do
well to learn and be accepted by either company, of that I'm sure.

~~~
Leonidas
I'd have to say that currently Y is considered a "brand" now with Mike
constantly mentioning the companies on his blog, Y with a strong community,
and PG was the first to introduce this concept.

However,if an entrepreneur had the honor of being accepted into either
Techstars or Y Combinator, I'm sure he/she would work their butt off not only
for themselves but to represent the program he/she is in. Multiple players
foster a very healthy competition.

We'll just have to wait and see which program selects the better "animal"
entrepreneurs for this round. The success of a startup involves not only the
people heading it, but a large part depends on the entrepreneur themselves and
the ability to implement or create something useful. How very exciting!

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zaidf
Y acceptance isn't announced till 29th? I thought it was till 22nd?

"# We'll review applications by April 10 and invite the groups that seem most
promising to meet us in Mountain View on the weekend of April 21-22. We'll
reimburse up to $500 per group for travel expenses.

# We'll decide who to fund that weekend, and tell you by phone on Sunday
evening."

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herdrick
Are you kidding? The whole reason to go with YC is all the advice and help
they give you. What kind of advice, connections, and overall support can these
Techstars people give you?

Folks, this is a local Economic Development Committee quasi-government
operation. They are there for the good of Colorado, only secondarily to make
money by funding successful startups. This is bad because their interests are
less aligned with you than the YCs', because they aren't (apparently) putting
much of their own money in this, because it's more important for them to make
Colorado _look_ good than to actually succeed, and because those picked to run
this thing are politically connected first, competent second if at all. One of
the main four people is a _politician_ for Pete's sake:
<http://jaredpolis.com/> . Run don't walk.

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mattculbreth
Aren't these the dudes that plagiarized YC's application (and maybe entire
business model)? Sure you want to do business with them?

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ewheeler
haven't heard of Techstars before. Any alums I'd know of?

~~~
Elfan
This is their first batch.

