

Ask HN: Accelerator advice - throwawayn3847

My cofounder and I have applied to a few accelerators for product that has a two-sided market. In terms of BFS, one in particular seems to like our team but not really our product. They are offering us 25k for &lt;8% equity + AWS credits etc.<p>They want us to make some significant changes, that we don&#x27;t agree with but are otherwise willing to let us join. We are both broke college students and the cash and support would be super helpful but I&#x27;m concerned they don&#x27;t seem to really understand our product. Can anyone offer us some advice?
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redtexture
You could interpret the requested changes as a "no", they don't want to fund
you, and that they don't have confidence in either you or your idea, or both.
Some venture people will fund people they like, because they have confidence
in whatever they will do and figure out. You may be near that category for
this funder.

Or, perhaps time to continue looking for other support and funding. You are in
the market for support and funding, and have not found your funding market.
Keep going. But take note that they liked you.

Consider the possibility that this requested change is the first of many, and
that you perhaps may not agree with the next requested change. Is this the
kind of advice you want? Are these the advisors you want? Do you trust them?
Do they have something you need, besides money? Are these the fellow company
owners you want?

Perhaps it is the kind of advice you want or need. Get a better understanding
of how the potential funder is correct and why you are wrong about your idea
(or why you are still right).

Even better, try to get a utterly ugly and bare-bones minimum-viable-product
example running, so you can start testing your idea on your real market, the
people who will purchase your product, and get feedback from those users to
improve your idea and its functionality. Flickr.com, for example, started out
as an online game, with a photo-uploading capability. They following the user
interest to develop their idea and product.

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gregcohn
Make your decision based on the quality of the program, mentorship, and
imprimatur. You're most likely going to pivot around anyway at some point in
your life.

25K isn't really very much money, but if you can get paid to have an awesome
learning experience, deeply engaged guidance, and a significantly increased
chance of getting some angel funding after the program, that seems like a
pretty good deal and might be worth being flexible on your idea.

On the other hand, if you're super-passionate about your idea and really know
it's what you want to do, you should stick to your guns. The accelerator may
be impressed enough to let you in anyway, but you should obviously be ready to
go it alone.

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JSeymourATL
Successful start-ups existed before Accelerators/Incubators became the thing.
Find creative ways to hack your personal accelerator, including funding.
Nothing beats good, regular dialog with potential users/buyers.

