
Capital Factory - Austin-based YC Style Incubator - jonmc12
http://capitalfactory.com/
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pxlpshr
I love Austin as a town and people have that southern hospitality charm. The
university and talent pool is great too. However, Austin suffers from the big
fish, small pond syndrome. Things are changing slowly but surely, hopefully
Capital Factory does well and empowers young entrepreneurs. Josh Baer's
OtherInbox is a kick ass product too. But idk, ycom is difficult to reproduce
if your intentions are fiscal bound.

In other big cities, finding mentors is a dime a dozen. In Austin, it's a lot
more difficult to find that type of leadership which is why so many talented
people leave and gravitate toward the coasts I think. The new Mayor seems to
be a lot more progressive, he's got a twitter account even. yay!

<http://twitter.com/bmccracken>

I'd also say that with the economic squeeze taken into account, TX is still
relatively shielded. It's a great place to be doing business, and a relaxed
low cost lifestyle. I've been seeing a lot of out-of-town plates lately, but
we don't spit on you. ;)

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joshuabaer
Our intentions are not financial (see the philosophy page). All of the mentors
in Capital Factory are doing it because we love working with young
entrepreneurs. We've all built and sold companies and even getting a 100x
return on $5k won't change our lives.

Putting up some money and getting some equity is analogous to playing poker
with dollar bills instead of chips. It increases our emotional attachment and
shows that every mentor is really committed.

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pxlpshr
That's an awfully crass analogy to make.

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jksmith
Huh? How so? I think the poker analogy is healthy because it's a refreshing
way for angels to look at deals. An angel telling you that 25k or whatever is
risky, but then turns around and drops that much on a Vegas weekend is
bullshit and represents a much more lucky than smart investor.

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okeumeni
Kudos! I love Austin.

The more these YC style company exist the better chances are good startup will
get exposure. Who knows the ones PG missed can actually become tomorrow’s big
idea.

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quellhorst
Nice. Austin is a really nice place to run a company too.

Good weather, not too expensive, educated population.

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Russpd
This is cool, are there any other programs like this out there except Y
Combinator and Capital Factory? I would have thought that the success of Y
Combinator would launch a lot of copycats

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incomethax
There are a couple, Techstars [<http://www.techstars.com>] in Seattle is one
that comes to mind. Another is iVentures10 in Chicago
[<http://www.iventures10.com>]

However, YC still has the brand and the experience with this format.

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okeumeni
What do you mean by "YC still has the brand"?

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ardell
One of the big advantages of YC is the notoriety associated with being a YC
company. Easier introductions to press, investors, and partners. Notice how
much coverage YC companies got on TechCrunch this last round? There's a
reason, it's because YC does a great job pre-selecting good companies to
showcase to press/investors and they've built up a good reputation on that.

~~~
okeumeni
Do you think YC get good coverage from TechCrunch because YC companies are
better than anyone else?

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ardell
I'd wager that YC companies are statistically more fund-able or exit-able than
other similar stage startups out there. They've been through a round of
screening, chosen and mentored by successful entrepreneurs who do it for a
living--it's certainly a leg up.

~~~
okeumeni
"They've been through a round of screening, chosen and mentored by successful
entrepreneurs who do it for a living", so do TechStars companies and others.

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ardell
Correct. I think we're comparing two different things. I was talking about YC-
style seed-stage funding vs other startups. You were talking about YC vs
TechStars. Apples and oranges. No disrespect to TechStars, that's just not
what I was talking about.

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okeumeni
“You were talking about YC vs TechStars. Apples and oranges.” Ah, That is
disrespectful to TechStars they are in the same business and it is exactly
what we have been talking about, read the thread again.

I’m one founder who has great admiration for YC, but I just don’t think they
have the key to startup success. I think this should be clear in all HN
readers mind despite the hype around here. Ultimately it will serve the
startup world very well that YC get competitors, because no matter their
commitment they will not spot all future success.

~~~
anamax
> I just don’t think they have the key to startup success.

Nobody said that YC had "the key".

They said that YC involvement (1) correlates with startup success and (2)
recognized as such.

YC is too small a factor in the market to say that lack of YC involvement has
any meaning and no one has said that it does.

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wavesplash
May be a great group and a terrific location, but what an awful name.

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natrius
I like the name. It's in Austin, so lots of stuff around there is called
Capital something or other. This takes that trend and makes it punny.

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zhyder
It seems like a well-designed program, but why are they targeting only 3
selections? Seems like a lot of work for just 3.

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joshuabaer
We're just doing 3 companies this year because it's the first year and we want
to start simple and make sure each company gets lots of attention. We'd like
to see it grow to 10 companies in future years.

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sachinag
This is much better than third-rate wannabe programs like iVentures10 and
whatnot - all the free services are explicit and from top-tier firms. This is
a serious option for people considering YC and TechStars. I'd venture to say
that this is superior to LaunchBox, as well.

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lliiffee
This is obviously trivial, but why have a "* - required" thing on the
application form when _every element_ is required?

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owkaye
The fields are not all required, but the web page itself is certainly bad --
it's black with gray text that has so little contract to the background that I
have to "Select All" just to be able to read it. They may be capable of doing
great things but I am so turned off by their failure to provide a comfortably
readable web page that I question whether or not they can handle the bigger
issues.

~~~
joshuabaer
Thanks for the feedback Owkaye - the current website is just a Typepad blog
that we threw up for the launch, but we have a designer doing a custom
template for us that should be up there soon. We'll focus on making the text
more readable.

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khangtoh
yea, Austin has quite a tech scene going, affordable city to live in and it's
actually quite nice city to live in too. Don't forget Texas BBQ all year
round!

