

Mayor Bloomberg Unveils New York City Venture Fund (NYC Seed) - fortes
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/mayor-unveils-new-york-city-venture-fund/

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johnrob
One has to wonder, if a government institution gets involved in a fund, what
kind of regulations would be at play? Quotas for race/gender ratios?

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Alex3917
Would-be NYC founders don't need another source of seed funding, they need a
community. What NYC really needs is the equivalent of the Y-Scraper and a nice
space for like-minded folks to hang out and work together and mingle with
potential funders and mentors.

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Frocer
NYC High-Tech Meetups usually have very good turn outs

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fortes
I'm new to NYC -- any meetups in particular that you'd recommend?

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Frocer
<http://newtech.meetup.com/1/>

This is the one run by the Meetup folks. Usually the first Tuesday of every
month. They get 6-7 startup to demo their product. The turnout is usually
great, at least 500+ people will show up.

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fortes
Quick summary:

"Unveiled on Monday evening as part of New York’s Internet Week, NYC Seed will
provide up to $200,000 of investment into New York-based technology start-
ups."

<http://www.nycseed.com/>

"We encourage first-time founders. There is no set formula for why we invest
in a company, but there are some qualities we would like to see. We are
looking for a team with a compelling idea that makes sense today. Your team
should be technically savvy, with members that possess a proven record of
completing complex technology projects. We will ask to review a prototype of
your product. "

Note: Must be in NYC.

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helveticaman
Their specs sound a lot like Ycombinator's.

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nick_a
their application looks suspiciously like the y-comb app ;-)

<http://www.nycseed.com/nycseed%20application.pdf>

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Alex3917
Sort of a cross between YC and the DMV.

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brandonkm
I can only guess this is an attempt to make NYC startup scene more
competitive. I think this is a really cool thing for a city to do, maybe more
cities need to take note?

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j2d2
As a New Yorker, I'm psyched for this. I had a lengthy discussion with a
coworker about how NYC is far less likely to breed the mind of an inventor. I
showed him PG's recent article (<http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html>).

I hope this brings the entrepreneurial spirit to NYC. There's LOTS of creative
people here but many get blinded by the dollar signs of some fairly mundane
industries. I'd love to see some dollars backing innovative ventures too.

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eugenejen
I am also in NYC, but I feel this fund will not work out. The problem is for
East Coast VCs and Government funds, they are too timid to make themselves
like fools. Unfortunately things are just like what PG said in his video that
showed up yesterday in HN. "In technology venture funding, if you are too
careful, you lose." Unfortunately, only few VCs such as Fred Wilson in East
Coast have the courage to make themselves like fool once in a while but reap
big rewards.

Of course, if this fund is run by Fred Wilson, then I will have more
confidence, but it is not.

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j2d2
Hmm... I am curious. I don't have much experience in this regard, but I have a
tendency to think the people of NYC would rather invest in financial
instruments which a) they know very well and b) have astronomical returns
without requiring everything involved in a start-up.

