
Calling all student founders: $20K, office, and mentorship from Highland Capital - yodac
http://summer.hcp.com/
======
glesica
The alumni page reads as such: Harvard, Harvard, MIT, Harvard, Harvard,
CalTech. So, question, is there any point in applying to something like this
if you didn't go to Harvard, MIT, or another similarly high-profile school? Is
the alumni makeup simply the result of who applies, or is it who is chosen
(perhaps some kind of signaling used by the gatekeepers), or something else?

~~~
littletimmy
One of my biggest complaints against the tech industry is its rampant
credentialism. Limiting capital to just the top few schools in the country is
plain terrible business strategy because there is absolutely no evidence that
going to a top 10 school vs a top 50 school leads to greater enterpreneurial
success. I mean, who cares about Steve Jobs (Reed) and Michael Dell (UT
Austin), right? We should fund Mark Pincus (Harvard) instead.

~~~
cma
Or Gates (Harvard), Sergey/Brin (Stanford), Wozniak (Berkeley), Zuckerberg
(Harvard), ...

Why do you propose top 50 as a cutoff, why not give the same funding to
someone in a school barely making the top 500? If not, isn't that just
credentialism?

Credentialism also leans on alumni preference--if someone in your family is a
big donor at Harvard and got you in in spite of lousy scores, they might also
make your company succeed through favorable loans, connections, etc., in spite
of your lousy contribution, etc.

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jsprogrammer
> In an effort to use a standard and straightforward structure, we provide
> this capital via an uncapped convertible instrument modeled after the Simple
> Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) financing documents. In addition,
> Highland will have the option to invest up to $250k in the first $1M you
> raise in excess of the aforementioned $20k note.

1) The word "note" only appears one time on the page, so what does
"aforementioned" mean? Is this a debt instrument?

2) The "Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE)" appears to be unavailable,
or atleast is not linked anywhere in the document linked by HN
(summer.hcp.com).

~~~
SeoxyS
The SAFE refers to a YC standard financing document loosely modeled after
convertible debt:
[https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/](https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/)

~~~
jsprogrammer
HC doesn't claim to use any of those documents, only one "modeled" after them.

The fact that they don't link to, or even describe (except in the most obtuse
terms), the documents they refer to should be a huge red flag to anyone
considering this offer.

Also, how can something that has no less than five versions [including a
"primer"] of 6+ pages of dense wording which refer to federal laws from the
1930's be described as "simple"?

------
porter
Wonder why the most successful YC founders are there and not at YC?

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GottaCUDA
Is there something like this for people who aren't students but are still in
that age group(18-24)?

~~~
throwaway2215
Ageism is easier to pull off when you pretend it's something else.

I suspect they'd be fine with someone 18-24 who isn't a student being in the
program - after all, they almost certainly expect you to drop out and focus on
your startup fulltime if it gets traction.

If you're not comfortable with lying on the application, just enroll in online
classes somewhere - voila, you're now a student! (Of course you still need to
be an otherwise impressive candidate.)

On a related note, I'm toying with a new investment thesis: "old"
entrepreneurs (above, say, 35) strike me as an interesting arbitrage
opportunity. They seem wildly undervalued by silicon valley. Anyone want to
start a syndicate with me to explore this idea?

~~~
engendered
_They seem wildly undervalued by silicon valley_

Many "older" entrepreneurs are simply building businesses and quietly earning
success. Let's be real -- $20K is significantly lower than unsecured credit
lines many established adults have. This is pitched to students for the same
reason that a paper route is pitched to elementary school kids: because it's
so meager of a benefit that, from a relative perspective, it only appeals to
them.

~~~
graycat
As in

[http://cbinsights.us1.list-
manage.com/track/click?u=0c60818e...](http://cbinsights.us1.list-
manage.com/track/click?u=0c60818e26ecdbe423a10ad2f&id=b994dad9fd&e=bdd739d322)

"73% of tech exits were not VC-backed".

So, maybe that 73% consists of the _quiet_ ones being successful.

If you want a mentor to guide you to start a US Main Street business, say,
auto body repair, grass mowing, landscaping, a pizza shop, etc., then there is
no shortage of good sources.

But where did the founders of Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Google, Facebook,
Twitter, etc. find comparable _mentors_ , that is, people who had already done
something quite similar and could provide good advice? Yes, there was advice,
but nothing nearly so accurate as what could get for, say, a pizza shop.

Net, if are building one of the companies VCs really need, then there isn't
any mentoring that is very close to the need. So, net, for building a $1+
billion or, now, $10+ billion company in information technology, largely just
f'get about mentoring.

~~~
dyarosla
Where in the article do you see 73% were not VC-backed? It doesn't have that
number anywhere.

~~~
graycat
Apparently they changed the content of the link.

I got the link from e-mail of

Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:16:42 +0000

from CBInsights.

In that e-mail is

"73% of tech exits were not VC-backed

If you grabbed our 2014 Tech Exits Report

[http://cbinsights.us1.list-
manage.com/track/click?u=0c60818e...](http://cbinsights.us1.list-
manage.com/track/click?u=0c60818e26ecdbe423a10ad2f&id=b994dad9fd&e=bdd739d322)

, this stat might have jumped out at you."

The 73% figure did show in the link when I made my post -- checked to be sure.

Apparently now to get their 73% figure, have to use the page at the link to
request their report.

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rememberlenny
Whats the secret code?

~~~
jsprogrammer
I think it's, "we provide this capital via an uncapped convertible instrument"
[which we won't link to or provide you with until some time in the future].

~~~
jonathantm
but but but... $20,000! Wow! ...
[http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2354](http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2354)

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joshu
Spent some time with the Highland guys recently. I like them a lot.

