

Ignite 100, The UK YC? - thehodge
http://ignite100.com/

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jgrahamc
It seems to me that what the UK is crying out for is not a "UK YC" but
actually YC. I see lots of activity here in London and I'm guessing that if
there were an outpost of YC there'd be a ton of people applying.

Also, whenever I see these programs with a ton of mentors
(<http://ignite100.com/view/mentors/>) I think "quantity over quality". Look
at YC: a tiny team of people. You don't need 50 mentors, you need three good
ones. Also, Ignite 100 looks like it is a rebranding/relaunching of a previous
program called The Difference Engine. I'd like to see some successes from that
before judging this program.

And there are quality VCs in London (e.g. Accel has a major office here).

~~~
pwaring
Agree on the quality/quantity point - I haven't even heard of most of the
companies these mentors work for and I'm always a bit dubious when someone
describes themselves as a 'serial entrepreneur'.

However, the fact that there are quality VCs in London doesn't help much if
you're 'up North' (yes, there is life beyond Watford). It's good to see
something like this outside of the South East region.

~~~
jgrahamc
The problem with geographical dispersion is exactly what YC worries about too.
Initially YC was Boston + Silicon Valley and then became Silicon Valley only.
If you were going to do a non-Silicon Valley YC then you'd need to put it
somewhere where there was high connectivity between entrepreneurs, VCs,
engineers, etc. etc. You really need the ecosystem.

In Europe there are probably only two places like that: London and Berlin. And
I'd argue that Berlin is far behind London. You could include Tel Aviv as well
at a pinch.

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jdbradford
Hi guys. Lots of very interesting points.

ignite100 is essentially a private sector spin-out of the Difference Engine.

One of the key issues accelerator models have struggled with is what happens
post programme. The additional funding allows teams to maintain momentum after
the programme and create a runway to the next funding round.

Happy to take any questions here, or you can get me at jon at ignite100 dot
com

~~~
chegra
How about a Accelerator that caters for single founders? I wrote a post about
it here: [http://chestergrant.posterous.com/proposal-for-a-single-
foun...](http://chestergrant.posterous.com/proposal-for-a-single-founder-seed-
fund)

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highace
From the about page: "The founders move to Newcastle..."

 _Closes tab_

~~~
swombat
I wouldn't downvote this. England is not like the US, where there are many
"hub cities" which are all the centre of something. England has effectively
got just one centre: London. And living in London is very, very different from
living in any other place in England. For one, there are far fewer British
people in London. It's a cosmopolitan, international metropolis, with all the
benefits that brings.

Asking people to move to Newcastle would be a bit like asking people to move
to, picking a random one, "Tulsa, Oklahoma". Sure, it's a city, and there are
people there and all that, but... why the hell would you move your startup
there?

~~~
amirmc
You're not really 'moving' your startup. The founders are just spending 3
months there. Where they end up after that is up to them.

I don't see any harm in spending time in a place that (potentially) has fewer
distractions so you can actually build stuff. Besides, I think you're doing
Newcastle a disservice. Sure, it's not London but it's still a pretty big
city.

~~~
bpp198
The size of the city isn't an issue. Jupiter is a pretty big planet but I
wouldn't want to live there.

Newcastle is a weird choice, it's not the first place most people would choose
to spend time in and it's miles away from what is becoming a decent tech
ecosystem in East London. Why not do it there?

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HelenUK
I have to agree that the location won't help Ignite100. Though Ignite100 may
help the North East.

If I had to choose between moving to the North East to be part of an incubator
or moving to London and going it on my own, I'd still choose London, The
probability of chance opportunities, networking and connections are far higher
in London and these things make the difference. Even YC was moved to Silicon
Valley because the cultural pull meant businesses would benefit from being
there.

As someone who has recently been part of a UK incubator scheme outside of
London and "up north" the mentoring side of it had neither quantity or quality
and it was a compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding. The best parts
of the scheme were interacting with other startups and the support from the
staff administrating the scheme.

The fact that YC accepts global applications gives me great hope. When I think
of YC, I think of founders/mentors that champion, encourage and problem solve
with the teams, Super smart, dedicated applicants willing to travel around the
world for a 10min interview.

I wonder how many applicants to Ignite will come from afar?

I still have my sights set on YC, Though I'm still looking for the right co-
founder.

~~~
jgrahamc

       compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding
    

Compulsory and paid from your funding? WTH?

~~~
helen842000
Yeah, we were told our funding amounts and then advised that around £1200
(which in my case was about 15%) of this had already been allocated to cover
training, office space (which I never used) and mentor meetings.

Some of the other businesses only got a small amount of funding to start with
which left them with very little after subtracting this expense.

However, just to have had a place or any funding at all in the UK in my
opinion is a great thing.

I think YC have it spot on, their funding is the right amount to allow a team
to concentrate on their idea yet not so much that they can be complacent about
running costs.

I still had a full time job whilst part of my incubator. The funding couldn't
be used for living expenses.

I wonder how much further along I would be now if that wasn't the case.

I think great things happen when afforded the time to focus on that one thing.

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thehodge
From the Site -

It’s a straightforward deal. Each team will receive £5,000 per founder (to a
maximum of £15,000) for which we will accept 8% of founder shares per start-up
(not per founder). We do not have any strange terms and conditions and we
align ourselves entirely with the other founders of the business – effectively
becoming a co-founder of the business. In addition, we provide you with office
space and other services from various partners including hosting, legal and
professional services etc. Subject to the teams achieving pre-agreed
milestones, the balance of the £100,000 will be released in the form of a
convertible loan with a discount of 20% against the next funding round. Teams
are not obliged to accept the loan note at the end of the programme.

~~~
mattmanser
_Subject to the teams achieving pre-agreed milestones_

Wonder what they are. Doesn't sounds so simple to me.

~~~
tropikai
i guess pre-agreed means that both sides decides what milestones can be
achieved during the programme

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AwesomeTogether
isn't 8% a lot of equity for less money compared to other incubators?

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fernandose
anyone know the relationship between this and springboard? Seems to contain a
lot of the same people, even some of the pages looks similar to the sb site?

~~~
amirmc
Same guy running it (jdbradford). It'll be the 4th accelerator cycle he's run
(3rd in the north-east).

~~~
dmitri1981
Makes me wonder why there are so many iterations. Also, have there been any
interesting success stories to come out of his accelerators?

~~~
tjmoon
Three I know of:

[http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/01/27/screenreach-
raises-50000...](http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/01/27/screenreach-
raises-500000-for-its-screach-app-and-platform-for-smartphones/)

[http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/23/loveyourlarder-wants-
to-...](http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/23/loveyourlarder-wants-to-be-an-
etsy-for-foodies/)

<http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/23/curated-by/>

Not sure about Springboard, the programme is still going on.

~~~
jessinblue
Yep, first cycle of Springboard will finish end of July, so let's see what
happens from there!

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cynusx
seems like the signup form is broken.

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jfhollingworth
what's broken? seems to work for me

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cynusx
Well, I signed up with an email address and a password with special characters
in. I got "invalid email/password combination" When I retried with a different
password it complained that an other user already registered with that email
address.

I then retried with a different email address and dead simple password and got
the same.

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ignifero
Why do we keep hearing about London-based incubators, but then all the great
European companies are born elsewhere?

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thisisfmu
What explains the proliferation of UK incubators, given the rather modest
success achieved here with similar programs?

~~~
jgrahamc
My take is that it seems like easy money for the people who create these
incubators. They don't risk much cash and they hope that they'll find the next
Zuck and make a packet. Given the strong FS sector in the UK it's not
surprising that there's money chasing ideas.

If you look at the list of mentors etc. involved in these incubators they tend
to be second-rate. I got invited to be a mentor in one of these programs and
the participation required from me was really minimal yet my name would be all
over the thing. I wasn't able to take part because of other commitments, but
it strikes me that there's a real quantity over quality problem.

My (jaded) view is that it's a version of new adage: "those that can do, those
that can't incubate". That may be unfair to these specific folks, but until we
see some success from these incubators. Compare, for example, all the effort
in branding/marketing these programs to the effort YC spends on the same. You
do not need a slick web site and list of mentors to make this stuff work.
Hello, you can even use HTML tables for layout and still get people who do
cutting edge web work in your program. What you need are quality principals.

I'd be happy to work for a real YC-like in London (actually, it would probably
have to be YC itself) because you'd be working in a really small team of
really smart people. Not in some massive team of 'mentors' who aren't
providing a great deal of value.

