

SproutBox Incubator Provides Services Instead of Cash - moses1400
http://www.centernetworks.com/sproutbox-incubator

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tom
This is an interesting approach. Not sure why the title says "like YC" other
than as link bait. The only similarities are that they are both helping to
start startups.

In any case, this is an interesting approach. They are essentially hired guns
who take 20-40% of your company in exchange for "200-250K" of services to help
you build it and enough money for living not to be a distraction. Can't be
that expensive in Bloomington, IN. Maybe this is the answer to the age old
"I'm an MBA and have this great idea, but I my coding skills start at logging
into my laptop and end at adding cells in Excel" problem.

While not appealing to me, this could churn out some pretty interesting
companies as they are very focused on revenue ... something that many others
just aren't. I'm eager to see what they can do.

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cedsav
Disclaimer: I'm based in Bloomington, IN and met the sproutbox founders a few
times.

In the first dotcom crash, I worked for an incubator that had a similar
approach: providing talents and services to 'idea people' while running our
own project. It was a complete failure and closed in less than a year. Our own
project failed to bring any revenue, and the other projects we started lacked
any sort of commitment from the 'idea people'. We also had a short runway and
an oversized team which prevented us from adapting to changing circumstances.

There are a couple things that makes me much more optimistic about Sproutbox
chances. First, their team is much more talented that ours ever was. They
could (and did) just build their own apps and be very successful.

Secondly, they focus on revenue-generating businesses. They may not start the
next twitter or youtube, but that makes them much more likely to be around
long enough to get your idea off to a good start.

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mileszs
I've met a couple of the SproutBox founders at Indianapolis' Startup Weekend
last year. I can't speak to their business savvy, but they were nice, and
enthusiastic about their business. In my opinion, they would be a lot of fun
with which to work. Indiana University is in Bloomington. IU has a top 20
business school (undergrad and grad, according to BusinessWeek:
<http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/>). SproutBox intend to take
advantage of (in a good way) the dreamers in the business program and the low
cost of living. Indianapolis is only 1 - 1.5 hours to the north.

Incidentally, another top 20 business program resides in northern Indiana at
Notre Dame.

Also worth mentioning, before taking any applications, SproutBox developed a
couple apps for themselves (<http://sproutbox.com/sprouts>).

