

Triangle Startup Factory Goes Big – Graduates Spring 2012 Class - startupfactory
http://triangletechtalk.com/1/2012/06/triangle-startup-factory-graduates-spring-2012-class/

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rickcecil
As a co-founder to one of the companies (ruzuku) that went through the
Triangle Startup Factory, I can't recommend the program enough.

Chris and Dave are amazing. They have lots of experience working with startups
and they are well connected to the local and national startup scene.

They connected us with a couple of amazing mentors that saw some of the
potential that Abe and I had missed and helped us realize that fairly quickly.
We've now got a new business model and are kicking ass and taking names. :)
And even though the program has ended, our mentors are still involved.

Pitch Day was great. They spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks really
helping us refine our pitch -- ended up with a couple of solid pitches. One
more of a story meant to generate excitement and another rooted more in the
market and financials -- all the details that an investor would be looking
for.

Not sure how many people showed up, but there had to have been 200 or more
people -- at least, that's what it felt like up on the stage giving our pitch.
We're now busy following up with potential investors and executing our new
business plan. Crazy, hectic times. And we get to squat at the American
Tobacco Campus in the TSF digs at least until the new class arrives.

Their application for the Fall class is tomorrow. You don't have to be located
in the Triangle to get in -- at least one of the companies (Berst) was from
Chicago and I know several of us had people living and working from other
places in the country.

Happy to answer any questions about the program for those considering
applying. Also willing to give any advice on how to get in.

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anilchawla
As a founder of one of the companies in this first batch of Triangle Startup
Factory, I would highly recommend the program to startups across the country.
This is a startup accelerator grounded in core lean principles, and it
provides exactly the level of resources (including significant funding and a
great mentor base) critical for an early stage company.

Durham (North Carolina) is not just an incredible area to live from a quality
of life standpoint, but it also a true center of entrepreneurial activity.
Startup Stampede, Smoffice, ExitEvent, LaunchBox Digital (back in 2010), and
Triangle Startup Factory (TSF) are just a few examples of the entrepreneurial
sparks flying in this place.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about TSF. I am happy to
help!

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mindcrime
Anil, what's up? Hope everything is going well for you guys!

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mindcrime
We (Fogbeam Labs)[1] didn't get in last time, but we'll be applying again this
fall. One thing that I like about TSF is that they do actually give you some
feedback on _why_ they didn't pick a given applicant.

In our case, the two reasons they cited were "market too small," and "lack of
expertise in this domain (by TSF)". Unfortunately, there isn't anything we can
do about them feeling they don't have sufficient expertise in enterprise
knowledge management and collaboration software, but the market size thing was
obviously just a communication breakdown on our part, since the market for
this stuff is farking huge. This time, our application will focus a lot more
on the current market opportunity, and hopefully we'll be accepted.

And ultimately we're not even limiting ourselves to _just_ "knowledge
management and collaboration." That's just where we're starting. The goal is
to provide quality Open Source solutions up and down the stack, that A. don't
suck (like most enterprise software), B. have excellent UX, C. are well
integrated (with each other and with external systems), and D. use cutting
edge technology to address the highest-value customer problems.

Once we ship our first couple of products, and get that initial toe-hold /
purchase point and are able to start accelerating, we are going to shake
things up in the enterprise.

[1]: Fogbeam Labs, the up-and-coming Open Source collaboration / knowledge-
management company. <http://www.fogbeam.com> Go there now and sign up for our
newsletter. It's not necessary for you to spend the rest of your day thinking
about how cool Fogbeam Labs are, and how much you want to email all your
friends and tell them about us too. But if you can remember a time when you
were really excited about a company like Fogbeam Labs, then think back to
those feelings and how that made you feel, and do the right thing.

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rickcecil
One of the things we learned a lot about at TSF was a beach-head market. It's
the first market you take on to get traction (however you're measuring
traction). So, I'd suggest talking about "knowledge management and
collaboration" as your beach-head and WHY you've selected that as your beach-
head...and, possibly most importantly, why traction within this beach-head
will allow you to tackle some of the other markets you have on your radar more
easily.

Also talk briefly about the potential market size of your other target
markets. You don't have to have all the answers for your other markets --
after all, they are not your target market, yet -- but you should show some
knowledge about those markets and be able to talk convincingly about how your
product solves a real problem in those markets.

As for market expertise: I think it comes down to two things. How long have
you been working in that industry and how many contacts do you have so that
you're not jumping in cold. If you don't have either of these, it's going to
be a big red flag. I'm guessing you have had some way of validating the
problem, so I am going to focus on the network problem. Find an adviser that
works in the industry that is well-connected and can tell others that your
solution is heads-and-shoulders above what's out there now and is solving
problems in new ways that add 10x more value than current solutions. I use 10x
as you're going to have problems convincing people to switch unless you are
able to provide a ton of value.

Anyway, just my $.02. The other thing you'll learn about, if you get into TSF
or any accelerator: mentor whiplash. You're gonna get a ton of advice and most
of it conflicting. So take these suggestions for what they're worth: one
person's feedback based on your 5 paragraph post. ;)

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mindcrime
_One of the things we learned a lot about at TSF was a beach-head market. It's
the first market you take on to get traction (however you're measuring
traction). So, I'd suggest talking about "knowledge management and
collaboration" as your beach-head and WHY you've selected that as your beach-
head...and, possibly most importantly, why traction within this beach-head
will allow you to tackle some of the other markets you have on your radar more
easily._

Yeah, that's text-book "Crossing the Chasm" stuff. We'll need to narrow down
the "beach head" to something more precise than "the market for companies that
need km and collaboration," of course. And we have some research we've already
done in that regard. Depending on how things shake out, there's a chance we'll
focus on finance related firms first, even though my initial penciled-in list
of possible target markets did _not_ include finance... due mainly to the idea
that finance is highly insular, very regulated, and has a ton of domain
specific vocabulary, and none of us have specific experience in the field.
But, as things have worked out, we've talked to several finance related firms,
and my $dayjob as a consultant actually has me in Chicago now working for a
finance firm. And I'm making new connections here, in this industry, so it's
looking more and more realistic.

That said, I'm still thinking that "old school" industries like manufacturing,
distribution, logistics, retail, etc. might be better for us. But that's the
kind of stuff we're still working on settling.

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wolffnc3
Durham, NC and the Triangle in general are fast becoming a great startup hub.
It's definitely a great place to live and the proximity to the universities
provides a large talent pool for startup founders to draw from.

<http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/>

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hiattp
I can't speak from experience at other accelerators but the connections we
made and mentoring we received was incredible; our TSF advisors are still
engaged every week. And the significant funding lets you do the market testing
you really need to prep for a data-driven go-to-market strategy.

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deepakINdc
great accelerator. smart guys.. connected and one on one mentorship.

And you get almost 2.5x the cash compared to others. gotta love being able to
survive on stuff other than ramen.

