

The Difference Between Rocket Internet and Y Combinator - Golumring
http://www.geektime.com/2014/08/28/the-difference-between-rocket-internet-and-y-combinator/

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aleem
I wish there were more incubators with global reach. I am a Microsoft alum who
moved to Pakistan for personal reasons and had to start out with zero funding,
which is a painful exercise.

I first about Rocket Internet through a local company that was making great
strides in marketing localised copies of the same products highlighted in the
article (Zalando and Lazada). I never bothered to look up the company until
just now and realise it's an incubator which owns the products. When the
localised versions of these products launched, I was quite envious of the fact
that they were flush with capital and managed to corner the market very easily
using that capital.

It seems like an easy win for Rocket Internet or other similar VCs with a
global mindset, especially since Pakistan doesn't post much competition for
these companies due to the local of local VCs (some exist but only in
namesake) or entrepreneurs in software. OLX is another company that has
recently (less than 1 year) entered the market and shaken up decades old
newspaper classifieds (my startup services one of the largest local
newspapers).

I have always felt YC was out of reach.

