

Ask HN: Incubator offers $150,000 for 40% equity - websirnik

There is a new incubator launching in Moscow, Russia. It is called Farminers (farminers.ru). It offers $150,000 for 40% equity, office space for 6 months, Macbook and iPad. After 6 months there is a Demoday. During 6-month you can get help from several mentors(11 guys), who are only known locally in Russia.<p>What do you think about this type of Incubator model? They are stating that $150,000 are for building the prototype. What kind of prototype you could built for $150,000???
I can't say anything of what kind of mentorship you could get there, but the mentor list is not looking very impressive at the moment. Biggest names are the guys from Mail.ru Group(IPOed in London in early 2011).<p>$150,000 sounds really sweet for the startups. The question is will this type of Incubator help to develop startup eco-system in Russia? ... It should, right?
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wisty
How many people do they expect you to employee? What pay would you typically
get in Russia? How much would they let you pay yourself?

40% seems a bit steep, but if you are also getting an OK (below market, but
not terrible) salary for working on the project, then it sounds great (unless
there are some legal traps). If they want you to hire dozens of staff, and
everyone lives off ramen and the hope that some VP will be interested in
funding the next step (for a huge chunk of the remaining equity), then it's
not so great.

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petervandijck
Yesterday, at the NYC YC meetup, pg said that a big difference between them
and all the other incubators was that they are a few people that advise
startups 100% of their time. He has like 160 startups under his belt. A lot of
experience. The others just use "advisors" who will spend an hour with a few
startups here and there. That just may not be very valuable.

Apart from the money, what are the other terms? Board seats? Etc?

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joshuahays
The option can sound enticing for startups that are grounded in Russia who
don't have many more options. However, like another user said below... it's
really just paying you to complete the product, like they're contracting you
to build your own product. If they're investing in just you and not a multi-
man team, may be worth considering?

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md1515
Moscow is one of the most expensive cities and living there for 6 months will
take out a hefty chunk. The mentors don't seem of the highest calibur, but are
fine I guess.

I would agree - for Russian based startups, this might be a good option.
Otherwise...no

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ig1
Sounds similar to hackfwd, where the amount they give you is essentially to
pay founder salaries while they build a prototype. They take a big chunk of
the company but in exchange take away the risk for someone leaving a job to
create a company.

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ohashi
I know very little about the russian startup scene but I thought Mail.ru was
one of the most successful online companies there?

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ash
Your link to Farminers is wrong. Should be <http://farminers.com>

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realschool
Moscow is one of, if not the most expensive cities in Europe.

