
Capital Factory Demo Day: Five Startups on Display - tomh
http://austinist.com/2009/09/10/capital_factory_demo_day_five_start.php
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fnid
I'm not impressed by any of these ideas. It's hard to believe out of 200+
business plans submitted, these were the best 5. It's also hard to believe
that they are just _ideas_. Any of these ideas, except maybe Famingo (I'm not
sure how complicated that thing will be), could have a prototype or even a
fully functional version up and running in no time.

Where is the innovation? Where are the _hard_ problems being solved? These are
me too ideas. Maybe I'm being overly critical, but I just don't see the value
and I don't see any competitive advantage to an idea that could be a side
project for anyone more capable. Imagine a pet store throwing money at the pet
health idea or ebay or craigslist going after shared storage or an iPhone app
on the networked games.

I personally would never invest in any of these ideas.

~~~
jdrock
I feel this is problem systemic to any company funded by a seed incubator.
Solving really hard problems or developing truly breakthrough technology
typically requires significant funding, which seed incubators don't have.
Companies solving these problems are better served by going to traditional VCs
- not only for money, but also for more direct expertise.

Edit: Not that seed incubators are a bad thing.. they just serve a funding
need for a different type of company. It's no surprise that most seed
incubated companies are web companies.

~~~
arohner
Some of the other seed stage groups, esp YC, assume their program is just the
first step on the way to more funding.

Capital Factory doesn't seem to have this mindset, so they're aiming lower.

I agree with the GP, I wasn't impressed by their choices either. (disclosure:
they didn't pick me)

