

Virtual Incubator to All - rrbrambley
http://pandodaily.com/2012/07/27/virtual-incubator-to-all-nreduce-adds-mentors-and-demo-days-is-it-the-pre-angellist/

======
coopdog
I really wanted to like nreduce, but the whole experience just came off as
buggy for me. They said we'd get info about the meet ups but it never came
which resulted in me blowing off a few appointments on tuesday nights twice to
be there ready for the details, only to twiddle my thumbs. Sent tweet to
prompt even but no reply at all. Finally the system for choosing other
startups to group with arrived and I'm thinking there we go now we're in
business, except clicked the invite button did nothing at all.

A bit later my account went into some strange mode that I can only guess is
being locked out. I figured they were moving back into physical space and left
them to it, which is why I was surprised to read about the online focus in the
article.

Maybe after it's had some time to iron out the bugs I'll give it another shot,
but the lack of communication overall was pretty frustrating

~~~
dclaysmith
There were certainly teething problems but every week it got better and
tighter. The nReduce guys have been a participant in the program as well as
guides. If you were willing to put up with some rough areas in week one you
were rewarded as they improved and refined the system in later weeks.

It's by no means perfect. There are startups at all levels so sometimes you
feel like other groups are slacking when really they are just in a different
place (or are actually slacking).

There is no penalty for failure. (penalty is the wrong word but you wouldn't
want to wash out of YC--pg has anyone?) groups would just fall off.

I tweeted the other day that the monthly demo day was too frequent and I think
that is true. I think they should have 2-3 a year. In the end, inclusion into
'physical' incubators/funding/press will be the measure of nReduce's success
and TOO much exposure may be a bad thing.

The ui is crude but improving. Angel list was a mailing list at first wasn't
it? Hard to criticize nReduce for the ui when their model is still being
flushed out.

Anyway, it's been helpful for loads of groups and I see a place for it in a:
nReduce -> physical incubator / angel list sort of place. HN is the same thing
--a community of like minded folks who tend to help each other. nReduce is
just trying to organize the process a bit...

~~~
neurotech1
I know of one company that "did not complete" the YC program, but that was a
while ago. One of the co-founders had a family situation that was a factor.

------
dclaysmith
Right now the biggest value nReduce has provided my startup has been
motivation--7 weeks in a row I've shipped new features or improvements to my
startup (<http://Thetaboard.com>).

Coming up fast (and soon to eclipse) in importance is the virtual
feedback/community the program provides. The weekly advice on specific items
and general conversations about direction/business model/strategy is awesome.

I'm in Ireland but booking a ticket tomorrow to visit the nReduce team and my
nReduce group members in Manchester next month. Anyway, the program is
evolving and I think may end up being a real bonus for young/aspiring
startups.

~~~
Smudge
Hey! Your product looks really cool! (Playing around with the demo.)

A bit of unsolicited feedback -- the very first thing I did when I landed on
your homepage was groan at the Lobster typeface.

(<http://www.mishes.com/articles/lobster-font-abuse>)

Don't get me wrong - Lobster's a great font, but because it is so overused I
don't think it's a great choice for any real branding.

~~~
dclaysmith
Haha. Yeah, I actually had never heard of the font til I read that article but
liked it so went with it! (my gf says its cliched and I should change so I
may).

Glad you are liking ThetaBoard. It's gonna be good. Email me at
support@thetaboard.com and I'll upgrade you to a premium account for free.

------
DanielKehoe
nReduce is remarkable. I've participated every week for the last seven weeks,
out of curiosity mostly. Several things have surprised me:

* The sheer number of teams who joined up (300+ worldwide and 100+ in SF): There are a lot of people who are eager to participate in a startup incubator.

* The motivation, ability, and intelligence of the people I've met: These are the smartest and hardest-working people I've encountered in years.

* The power of self-inflicted group pressure to drive productivity: I consider myself highly self-motivated and productive but I stepped up my game knowing my peers were reviewing my performance via the nReduce weekly video check-in tool.

nReduce is a work-in-progress and I think we all realize Joe Mellin and Josh
Schwartzman are making it up as they go along. I heard someone grumble that
they didn't get pizza and beer at every weekly meeting. They missed the big
picture. nReduce is a social experiment that is taking flight because there's
a need and desire for startup aspirants to join together for mutual aid. It
styles itself an incubator, it's a big meetup, it's an online social network.
I see it as something more, though, as a unique form of social organization
for smart people who are helping each other create businesses that deliver
value.

------
mindcrime
Love the idea behind nReduce. We (Fogbeam Labs) will probably look to
participate in the future. The initial opening was really bad timing for us,
but down the road should be an option.

No, it's not the same thing as YC, but that's OK. Support is support and
everything counts in it's own way. The one thing I realize more and more with
every passing day is that this is _hard_. After the 10th time that somebody
declines to return your email, or answer your phone call, after someone blows
off a planned appointment with you for the 4th time (after 3 previous
reschedules), when you get off work at the $DAYJOB and trudge home on sore
feet to crawl upstairs and hack for another 4, 5, 6 hours, when you wake up on
< 8 hours of sleep day after day after day, and when you fly from Chicago to
RDU for the 4th time in a month so you can be home to meet your cofounders to
hack a few hours.... you realize that this is no joke. Making a startup go
takes some fucking serious hard work and sacrifice.

So yeah, if a group of people from a virtual incubator (or even something like
Startup Guild, or the local Hackers & Founders meetup) do nothing but provide
support, encouragement and the occasional "attaboy", that can be huge.

and now to go listen to _'Til I Collapse_ for the umpteenth time... :-)

 _'Cause sometimes you just feel tired,_

 _Feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up._

 _But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength_

 _And just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up_

 _And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your
face and collapse._

------
davidtyleryork
Super excited to be an nReduce mentor. The "cloud accelerator" idea is
awesome, and the ability to get on-demand mentorship for any field is really
compelling. Cheers to Joe for working his butt off to put this together.

~~~
joemellin
Thanks Tyler! This has really been a team effort! Josh and Team Lizi all make
this possible. Looking forward to meeting up in NY.

------
georgedyjr
Congratulations to the nReduce team and kudos to an exponentially growing
service that's aimed to help people get their startups off the ground. We
could all use a little help and these guys make it interesting. Looking
forward to demo day Joe/Josh. Also kudos to the Lizi team for kicking it off.

~~~
joemellin
Word! Bit ups to Team Lizi!

------
polyfractal
I just learned about nReduce the other day - very interesting model. Two
questions for Joemellen:

\- How are you guys going to make money? I realize the virtual model is very,
very lean...but I imagine you'll have to pay the bills eventually. What's the
business model?

\- How does nReduce feel about smaller side-projects, lifestyle or
micropreneurial projects? Is it only for teams and startups that are looking
to get big?

~~~
joemellin
\- We are going to make money in the future providing services to investors /
service providers. That is all being prototyped and will be shaped in the next
few months. But the main thing is that we will never charge startups / take
equity.

\- We are not a gate keeper. Meaning we don't say which projects get in.

The real filter is whether other teams will want to collaborate with you. If
you have a small project and are not engaged you may have difficulty
connecting with great teams. Or you could also just connect (build a group of
other startups) with other part time people.

So in summary, any project can join. And for the most part if you are working
consistently and help out the other teams in your group, you should have a
great experience.

~~~
polyfractal
Great, thanks for the responses. I'll definitely take a look. I've been
wanting to put together a mastermind of other micropreneurial people for a
while...this might fill the role perfectly.

Best of luck!

------
guywithabike
Why doesn't the article talk to any of the startups in nReduce, let alone
mention them by name? Lazy tech journalism?

~~~
rrbrambley
Too many? Too soon? Part of the agreement that came with joining was that you
wouldn't "expose" other startups as participants, though I have no problem
with talking openly about my experience. If anyone has questions, feel free to
ping me.

~~~
AlexanderZ
Did I miss that rule? I had no idea I can't expose other startups as
participants. Not that I did it, but still I wonder if it's true.

------
jyu
I am currently an nreduce participant.

I see incubators providing three main benefits: 1. Community feel. Startups
can get lonely, frustrating, etc. 2. Easier access to advisors/mentors/funders
get to the next stage. 3. Credibility in the same way graduating from Stanford
makes you seem more credible.

NReduce helps with #1, but #2 and #3 are unknown. It felt really rough
initially, and has improved every week. We'll see what really happens in the
next couple months. When people start getting access to their mentors and
investors, we'll know if there are benefits outside of building a startup
community.

------
justinpeck
As a member of an nReduce company (<http://QONQR.com>) I can say that we've
been very happy with the helpful and constructive feedback we receive from the
other entrepreneurs in our group, and the weekly accountability of demoing
progress to our peers has helped to keep us delivering regularly. nReduce
itself is reporting their own weekly progress (as other commenters have
mentioned) and Joe and Josh are really killing it.

------
chrbaudry
nReduce is great virtual incubator. Joe and Josh have been working really
hard, day after day, to integrate the suggestions of the users. It is still in
progress and there are a few bugs, but the site is fantastic and the level of
energy very high.

I have participated every week since the beginning. Virtually - using the site
- as well as attending the SF Tuesday Beer+Pizza meetings. Both bring a lot in
terms of motivation and feedback.

Kudos to Joe and Josh!

------
ptc
_Playing off the fact that the “Y” clearly didn’t stand for “yes,” ..._

Uhh, no. Y-Combinator is a nod to the fixed point combinator:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-
point_combinator#Y_combin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-
point_combinator#Y_combinator)

~~~
railsjedi
Sure, of course, and the "n" is a nReduce isn't really an n. Stands for "Eta
Reduction". <http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Eta_conversion>

But names are just names. We tried to have a bit of fun with ours.

~~~
StavrosK
Argh! An η (eta) isn't an "n" at all. It's a vowel, with an "ee" sound. Your
thing is pronounced "ee reduce".

~~~
railsjedi
hehe, yeah. it's a bit forced. but who cares right? :)

------
marcamillion
Do you guys find that some of the investors you are talking to are interested
in companies outside of the US?

For instance, there are some famous VCs (A16Z come to mind) that only want
action in US-based companies.

How are you guys tackling this issue?

~~~
joemellin
Great question. We have a variety of investors committed to demo day, most of
which are in the US. It seems to be based on investor preference / education
about how to invest overseas, etc. Our role in this is building the network
and then letting investors select what types of companies they are interested
in funding.

------
stingrae
My experience in nReduce has been totally positive. I like that nReduce,
itself, is a startup in its own incubator. It is accountable to its own
system.

------
marcamillion
I don't have a 'LinkedIn' URL and have no desire to create a profile.

Why are you guys insisting on having a LinkedIn URL?

That's very annoying.

~~~
railsjedi
You can also sign up by email on the login page. We just put the linkedin icon
on the homepage to make things easy on people. It's a work in progress still
:)

Definitely appreciate the feedback!

------
joemellin
Let me know if people have questions!

------
ph0rque
Wouldn't it be awesome if nreduce become a ycombinator company? Too meta for
me...

~~~
joemellin
Love it! If only YC had open enrollment.... :)

