

Thoughts from a startup on getting accepted into new incubator from TheFunded - jedwhite
http://blog.jedwhite.com/2009/05/scribetribe-accepted-to-hot-new.html

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ciscoriordan
I'm not sure "incubator" is the best word to describe TheFunded Founder
Institute. Founders aren't even expected to work full-time.

Instead of providing funding, founders actually have to pay $450, which makes
having "TheFunded" in the title pretty ironic.

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AdeoRessi
The Institute charges a course fee of $450 to help cover operating, catering,
broadcasting, materials, and location costs. This amounts to $27 per session,
by the way.

In terms of investment, the Institute does not buy equity at a discounted or
at below market rates. Instead, it works with professional investors to secure
the best possible rates and terms for the Founders, and then the Institute has
the option to invest alongside the others if it makes sense for everyone.

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AdeoRessi
As the Founder of the Institute, it genuinely sucks to have to say 'no' to
smart people with a a passion to build great companies. This is already an
apparent flaw in the model. After the inaugural Semester is finished, I will
dedicate a couple months to the study of scaling.

The vision of the institute is simple: help great Founders build great
companies by learning lessons from their experienced peers, by getting amazing
deals from world-class vendors, and by closing financing from top-rated
investors.

The Institute has had to do everything differently because nobody has backed
the Founder in a long, long time. All of that is about to change. ;-)

\- Adeo

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rjurney
Let there be a covenant among us that we will ruthlessly down-mod anyone that
comes in here and plays the 'YC is better' broken record.

Hadn't heard of this, very happy to see more incubators :)

~~~
jedwhite
Oh, that's going to happen :)

YC has at least one awesome team I know in it this round.

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eande
I feel similar like these guys. Today I got the news that I am accepted to the
program and can’t express how thrilled I am. I think the program has a lot to
offer.

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darwinw
Wow. congrats. unfortunately I'm one of the hundreds that were rejected :)

But the best part for me is I get to meet Adeo in person, and I know I
shouldn't be judgemental but he's impressed me as a darn good person that is
passionate about helping out start ups as well.

I hope everything goes well with your venture, and please do share your
experience with us

~~~
jedwhite
Adeo is a genuinely great guy. I don't care if it sounds like sucking up. I
met him at an event in Boston that he got me a free ticket to, and I was flat
out broke after getting there on a shoestring and he bought me a beer and
introduced me around. I think he knows how tough it can be trying to get
something started, and he really believes in what he says.

~~~
AdeoRessi
Thanks, and sorry about that Darwin. Ping me offline if I can help in any way.
Just give me until after the first session to get some more time on my
hands... ;-)

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hpvic03
It's certainly an interesting model. Maybe even brilliant.

The institute doesn't actually have to invest any money at all to get to watch
and know these startups and founders. And if any of them start taking off,
they will be in the perfect position to invest.

Will less risk across more companies yield greater returns than the YC model?

~~~
jedwhite
I think it is a radically different model. Part of its founder friendly focus
is precisely that it doesn't make people give up other work and move somewhere
full-time. The use of warrants rather than (fairly or unfairly) articulating
valuation by providing tiny seed funding as part of a stock deal avoids the
question of pre-seed valuation, and it encourages the best eventual valuation
possible. It has some very interesting ideas.

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vaksel
Should have spoken more about the application/interview process. As it stands
right now, it seems more like a suckup post.

~~~
wheels
I'm going to second that. After reading the post all that I came away with is,
"Some startup got in. They're excited. They think incubators are neat."

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but this seems more like a proclaiment of
excitement than something substantive.

Edit: Adding constructive criticism: This should say what they're doing, what
they like about the program, what the process was like and perhaps contrast it
with some of the other stuff that's out there.

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jedwhite
This startup <http://scribetribe.us> got accepted last night. Anyone else have
any thoughts on TheFunded's Founder Institute compared to the other incubators
and accelerators out there?

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dandelany
Congrats, Jed! Glad to hear it... Can't wait to hear how things go.

~~~
jedwhite
Thanks Dan. Very excited about it.

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tomaitch
Great work Jed, hope it all goes well. It'll be interesting to see how it
compares to YC and others.

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SilkCharm
Awesome news :) I'm thrilled you got in - you and @medimum deserve it! ;)

~~~
jedwhite
Hey Laurel it's pretty cool. They've got some great mentors and the program
looks awesome.

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rms
What were the tests like?

