

My Previous Startup Accelerator Is Bullying Me and Threatening Me - ramigb
http://palestinianstartup.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-previous-startup-accelerator-is.html

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razzaj
As a tech entrepreneur your most valuable resource, and your only real
currency at the beginning, is time. As you interact with more people with
different background you will experience more or less frictions, this is
normal. You have to focus your energy and time towards your end-goal. If your
end goal is to become an Accelerator curator, then by all means continue
blogging about incidents like these, and get testimonies from other
entrepreneurs.

If on the other hand, your end-goal is to get your product up and running, and
change the world, put aside that bad experience (which in retrospect, sometime
down the line will look ridiculous) in your life and focus on building your
startup. Tech entrepreneurship is a long unbeaten path for most, filled with
rewards, setbacks, victories, nay-sayers, supportive people, and assholes.
Save your energy for the trip.

There is nothing more draining than fighting with people ready to do things
you are not willing to do. If it is any consolation (it really should not
matter though), if they are half as bad as what you are describing, they will
implode spontaneously sooner than later.

now, switch from that blogspot window to Sublime and carry on hacking.

~~~
beambot
Sometimes writing about it (publicly or not) can hone your thinking and get
the thoughts out of the front of your mind. It can be therapeutic if done in
moderation.

~~~
ramigb
Very true, when i write about my bad or good experience i can reflect easily
by reading what i wrote and learn faster, i also can know if i am
"bullshitting" or saying the truth, if i keep the post and feel that yes i
didn't change my mind after a couple of hours i publish it, or i delete it
before publishing it.

~~~
razzaj
There is no disagreement regarding blogging v/s not blogging. Your approach is
sound. I made my point because i sensed that this issue will tend to eat at
your time. And as an external, detached, party i said what i hope someone will
say to me if i am ever in a similar situation as the one you described. It can
be condensed to "don't mind the people being assholes, record your lessons,
and move on".

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textphone
The rise in the Accelerator trend has created a ton of badly behaving
accelerators around the world.

Many insisting that they need to apply their own "local flavor" of business
dealings, instead of directly applying the American models, in order to make
it work in their country. Turns out that this usually means acting in
extractive ways instead of value-adding ways. No care for their reputation and
actively seeking out entrepreneurs that they can extract the most from.

Too bad that there's really no purely founder-oriented resource out there.
Every major community online is really slanted towards the benefit of
investors, or freelancers, which have different needs than startup founders. I
started to make one a while ago, whenever I'm not so broke I'll someday launch
it.

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dhm
"Listen to me, get out of here and move forward. This never happened. It will
shock you how much it never happened." -Don Draper, Mad Men, Season 2 Episode
5.

~~~
bhouston
What is the context?

~~~
swamp40
He says it to Peggy, who is distraught and in the hospital, after just giving
birth to a son and immediately giving him up for adoption.

I had to look it up too. You are right, the quote doesn't exactly explain
itself.

------
amasad
>we felt like students not like entrepreneurs

Alas, this is the case with many arab incubators. They fund the entrepreneurs,
they take the majority of the stake in the company, they de-risk the whole
venture and treat people like employees. What ends up happening is a lot of
founders stop caring about "their" startup and leave. It has a lot to do with
the culture. You need to be able to trust people to run this kind of business.

~~~
nedalz
Hi, we are really not like other accelerators, our deal is standard, 20K for
8%. We do our part for the 8% he has to do his for the 92%! anyway, here is
our statement in response. hope.ly/1BLIuRz

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dublinclontarf
Most founders tend to keep mum about bad experiences with Accelerators and
investors (both Angels and VC's) out of fear that they will get blackballed.

If you publicly complain, it highlights you as a trouble maker and someone to
avoid for investments.

edit: I forgot to mention the same can be said about complaining about co-
founders in either failed startups or ones you have left. Investors take that
as a bad sign as well.

~~~
valarauca1
Luckily industry black listing was a major issue we already dealt within the
late 1800's when it was common practice for local factories to share a black
list of "trouble causing" employees so they literally could not work anywhere
in town if they caused problems for a single companies, because that could
potentially hurt anyone's bottom line. </sarcasm>

I love how an industry that claims to be so enlightened and educated barely
cracks a history book when money gets involved.

~~~
zo1
One man's sarcastic dismissal of a concept is another man's brilliant
opportunity at filling a need.

~~~
valarauca1
Very true, except when laws of the land prohibit that practice the
_brilliance_ of the opportunity is questionable.

~~~
zo1
What laws of the land might you be referring to? I'm curious, as I'm at a loss
of search-terms.

~~~
uiri
I think most US residents on HN live in a state where blacklisting is illegal.
Washington state and New York have labour laws against blacklisting while
California has a law against employers preventing previous employees from
finding work. I wouldn't be surprised if most states had laws like New York,
Washington or California.

California Labor Code 1050-1053 may apply to blacklisting:
[http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=lab&gr...](http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=01001-02000&file=1050-1057)

Revised Code of Washington, 49.44.010 explicitly lists blacklisting as a
prohibited labor practice.
[http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=49.44.010](http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=49.44.010)

NY Labor Law Section 704 lists blacklisting as an unfair labor practice.
[http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAW...](http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAWS+&QUERYDATA=$$LAB704$$@TXLAB0704+&LIST=LAW+&BROWSER=BROWSER+&TOKEN=53369305+&TARGET=VIEW)

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bhouston
I think that what you have experienced is fairly normal at these small and new
accelerators. My belief is that you have to make your own success, and take
what benefits you can from the accelerator or another helping organizations
and try to insulate yourself from any negative aspects -- which there likely
always are.

Remember that these organizations are trying to make themselves look good to
get more money to help more startups. So it is always a bit of a dog and pony
show -- you are the people they are showing off. Maybe figure out a way to
manage this so it doesn't cut into your time?

It is normal for those running an accelerator to be missing experience in your
industry. It is your job to figure out what advice you should take and what
you should ignore.

It is likely their grading system is not oriented towards your future success
but rather fairly arbitrary. It is unfortunate and I don't know what to do
about that. Maybe suggest changes and focus on that?

I'd try to not burn bridges with them. Burning bridges may seem like it is
worthwhile in the moment, but it is best to just walk away or smile and nod.
The world is small here in Canada (I keep running into people I dealt with 10
years ago in a different part of the country), I suspect the world is even
smaller in a place like Palestine given its size.

I'd recommend finding a way to find a solution, making war with an accelerator
is both draining and a distraction and hurts everyone involved. It is good to
be passionate about your business, but you need to not burn bridges in this
fashion, and really it is just a few month program.

The money delay is crappy, but investments are often delayed and cancelled in
the real world (I've had clients promise they will paid the $10,000 they owe
me repeatedly and then they stop responding, it turns out they went out of
business and "forgot" to tell me) so you have to live with it, even if it does
have real impacts on your business. Sometimes I think running a business is
like being Muhammad Ali on the ropes where he dodges and weaves the punches
people throw at you whether they are meaning to throw those punches or not.

~~~
nedalz
I urge you to read our response to his claims. hope.ly/1BLIuRz

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vinayp10
Yea man I have been in a few different accelerators, a couple of small ones
and now I am in AngelPad and I can tell you the difference is mind blowing.

I don't believe I got any value (except some money) out of the smaller ones I
went into, where as AngelPad the value is HUGE. Stick to the big accelerators,
there are a log of cowboy shops springing up and their value is limited at
best.

~~~
noobermin
I speak from ignorance, but I'm not sure the OP has another choice, being
located in Palestine and all.

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ramigb
Thank you for all your responses, this post got a really good attention which
shows the power of hackernews and the community in here, which i follow on
daily basis like most of you guys do, this has been a very tiring day and a
very tiring week, this time could've been spent on a productive things from
both parties, but sometimes foolish reactions and actions make people lose
track of the most valuable yet illusional asset which is time.

I've updated my blog post to include a link to leaders response, i wish them
no harm and i have no "beef" with them, i absolutely want nothing financial or
logistic from them, the relation that we once had could never be mended sadly,
but that doesn't mean i want anything bad to happen to them, i hope my next
post on hackernews would be about something useful i've done, it's 12:27 am in
Palestine so good morning to you guys and goo night to me.

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nedalz
This is a statement by the accelerator regarding the unfounded allegations
made in this post. We appreciate you taking the time to read the other side of
the story. hope.ly/1BLIuRz

