
Excelerate - YC-like program in Chicago, Summer '10 - pchristensen
http://www.exceleratelabs.com/
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sachinag
Mentors are great, but cash is king. Unless they can credibly get real angels
to write first checks, it'll end up limping along, the same as LaunchBox
Digital and DreamIt Ventures. Sam Yagan and Troy Henikoff are the real deal
and both gave me great advice when I was doing my startup in Chicago, but at
the end of the day, I judge accelerators and mentors by their ability to get
startups credible angel flow. YC and TS are the only programs that have solved
this problem.

That said, summer in Chicago is the closest thing to heaven on God's green
earth and $20K is $20K. Nothing stopping you from leaving Chitown after the
program's over.

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malbiniak
It may not be the Palo Alto crew, but the funds represented on the mentor list
are some of Chicago's finest. I don't think there's a lack of money here, just
a lack of good ideas/execution/launches. Why? It's not Palo Alto.

Thankfully, that problem might be getting solved (hey, we even have
earthquakes!).

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malbiniak
I'm really, really excited to see something like this kicking off in Chicago.
I'm going to throw an app at it and would be stoked to get in, but I'll play
all important for a second: I'd like to see more about what the mentor phase
looks like, who the experts are, etc. You know, just a little more
information. But again, it's great to see the VC community pull together and
offer some reasons to keep groups in the midwest.

You listening, Groupon? ;)

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spanktheuser
I wouldn't call the site unpolished. But it is sparse. Chicago's startup scene
is growing perceptibly in the past few years. Groupon is a huge hit, there are
numerous interesting startups surrounding our options exchange, and some
pretty interesting stuff going on in real estate/mortgages. It's a nice change
from the first part of this decade, when it was 37 Signals and then... nobody.

~~~
jjudge
> It's a nice change from the first part of this decade, when it was 37
> Signals and then... nobody.

Not true: Orbitz, Feedburner, TicketsNow, many others

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petercooper
Threadless :-)

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harper
i love those dudes. ;)

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TrevorBurnham
Unpolished site, but the backers are credible.

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chrisduesing
They just released a more polished version, and updated the mentor list as
well. Very impressive on both counts.

~~~
TrevorBurnham
What a difference that redesign makes! The whole thing looks much more
compelling now.

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alexro
Looks like they've got a strong group of mentors. Also David Cohen from
TechStars is there. Seems like a real opportunity for startups.

