

Betaspring - ghoti
http://www.betaspring.com/
What do you think of YC clones/rip-offs? This one for example asks for 1% investment for limited legal advice and access to online incorporation papers. Do you think it's worth it?<p>Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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pg
Odd. I hadn't heard of this one. It looks like it was supposed to happen this
summer, but it doesn't seem to have.

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tsondermann
We're rolling. (I'm the program director). Started out small this summer with
7 companies with plans to increase to a dozen in our next round.

Of course I'm biased, but I'm not sure I'd call us a rip-off. We make no bones
about the fact that we are attempting to replicate a model that has been shown
to be extremely successful in other cities.

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gruseom
Just out of curiosity, _has_ the model been shown to be extremely successful
in other cities? Is there evidence that anyone has succeeded with it to the
degree that YC has? (My gut feeling is that it's a lot harder to replicate YC
than the "model" makes it seem.)

Good luck anyway. The more opportunities for founders to create something
valuable, instead of being stifled in corporate environments, the better.

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tsondermann
I agree that it is incredibly hard and decidedly non-trivial to try to
replicate the model.

I suppose it depends on what you define as success. For us success will hinge
on the number of companies we launch in Providence. We know that many will
fail, but our hope is that by launching 20 (or so) companies a year we'll be
able to accelerate what is already a small but thriving startup scene.

One could argue that Techstars has been invaluable in placing Boulder on the
startup map. And I think we're just starting to see the same thing come out of
Bootup Labs in Vancouver.

Success (for us) is just as much tied to our love of Providence as it is to
decent returns for our investors.

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projectileboy
They seem to be trying pretty hard to be Y Combinator, which is fine of
course, except that it causes silly behavior, like linking to every startup
resource on the web _except_ Paul Graham's essays on startups.

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jacquesm
Why a rip-off ? Isn't the incubator a very old model ?

