

Ask HN: Does the UK need a YC clone? - jlees

Barely a week seems to go by without another mini-incubator springing up somewhere in the US, taking the YC model and trying to make it a success in $CITY. However, so far this seems fairly geographically limited.<p>At a business event last night I was chatting with some UK-based investors who would love to see the UK get more businesses off the ground, particularly Scotland. Yet there are very few schemes that do what YC does - fill the gap between idea and launch.<p>(Seedcamp isn't YC. I'm talking earlier than that.)<p>Does the UK need a YC? Something to give people cash and help while they realise their idea? Or are the existing schemes such as Dragon's Den, Seedcamp, Prince's Trust, university entrepreneurship clubs and other, harder-to-find governmental initiatives enough to cater for the very-very-early-stagers?<p>(If so, are they publicised enough? I'm on a YC-like scheme, only it runs for a year, called EPIS. Nobody seems to have heard of it, though. We're trying to fix that.)
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barry-cotter
Good god yes. Never mind the UK, Europe needs a proper YC clone, and if one
gets significant traction anywhere in the EU/EFTA it'll have the same kind of
advantage in that space as YC does in the US, i.e. first pick.

A good YC clone would be fantastic but (as the sainted pg says, pbuh) angels
are the limiting factor. YC Edinburgh would be fantastic and given time might
be sufficient to build a proper startup hub, but if some entity ponies up the
cash for the "buy a Silicon Valley" plan, you're crushed. Even aside from that
a substantial portion of any Scottish clone's rounds would end up in London.

Dragon's Den Pro- They decide very quickly. Con- The expertise is not there,
so they will say yes seldom. Seedcamp They're later stage than YC. Good and
all but you need a _let a thousand flowers bloom_ thing. Prince's
Trust/Government grants Pro- Lots of money Con- The anti-angel. Not an
entrepreneurial bone in their bodies, must fill out forms and justify why the
money went to this company rather than that one.

Can you imagine an agent with more perfectly misaligned incentives? They have
no upside if their investment decision goes right, and probably no downside
either. People in those kind of jobs very rarely get fired.

Coda: Yeurope appears to be moribund, so the spot is open again. Their website
hasn't been updated in ages and has advanced linkrot.

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davidw
> governmental initiatives

As people keep repeating, the thing that makes YC special is not the money -
you could get a few K from a lot of people. It's the connections - as a simple
example, where else could you meet all the people that Paul has as speakers at
their dinners?

~~~
pg
I _hope_ the most valuable thing isn't the connections. I hope it's that we
give good advice.

~~~
rms
Sure, that's probably true, but if I'm explaining the value of YC to one of
those people complaining about how your valuations are a ripoff, Demo Day
sounds pretty impressive. Where else do you get to present to every angel
investor in Silicon Valley?

~~~
dbul
If they've already drawn the conclusion without asking questions, then perhaps
it isn't worth the attempt at explaining it to them. At least not today. Maybe
tomorrow.

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Major_Grooves
Undoubtedly the UK needs some YC-like schemes.

The YC FAQ does say “There already is a Y Combinator in your town: Y
Combinator. The seed funding business is national, not regional.” and we know
that in fact it is international as UK teams have taken part. In fact as far
as I know, all the YC-like schemes will consider international applicants.

However, as jlees says, that does not benefit the UK. I believe that a lot of
it is to do with national culture differences - the US just has a much
stronger ethos of innovation and investment. People are just more likely to be
entrepreneurial in the US. Entrepreneurs built America and it’s been part of
their culture since colonists first settled there.

Meanwhile, in the UK, most individuals with large amounts of money (enough for
angel investing) are either “old money” or have gained their money through
conventional high-paying jobs (lawyers, investment bankers) where
entrepreneurship is not part of the job per se. Those that do try angel
investing, just don’t quite “get it”. Technology is completely alien to some
farmer with 100,000 acres who happens to have a spare £100,000, meanwhile
biotech investments (my current sector) will scare the bejesus out of most
sane angels.

I would love to start a UK YC equivalent, but I would not want to do it
without having experienced considerable success through starting and exiting
some companies, or through gaining significant experience through VC work
(which is closer to my current job). If anything, these experiences are needed
just to build the network which we know is more important than the money in
these programmes.

As has been mentioned, there are some schemes around in the UK, but there is
nothing that /really/ fills YC’s concept-PoC niche. There will be eventually
though - once I have got a spare £100 M from successfully selling a few
companies I will gladly start one!

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danhon
Yes, it does.

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pclark
YC _is_ international.

~~~
jlees
Sure, it's open to international applications, but it's still _physically_ in
the USA. The UK Government &c want companies to start up here, not seek exotic
shores for support as we currently have to do if we want to get all the
benefits of YC.

~~~
pclark
the brief discussions I've had with our RDA in Cambridge I got the feeling
they didn't want _our kind_ here.

