New York City is pretty well saturated with incubators and accelerators and the like, such that when West coast stalwart 500 Startups decided to move into Silicon Alley, it opted to launch a coworking space, rather than further clutter an Read More
Shai Goldman, a venture partner at 500 Startups, recently announced another sign of the seed stage fund’s growing interest in New York City–besides poaching a Silicon Alley stalwart like Mr. Goldman, of course. This February, the firm plans on opening a coworking office at 28th Street and Park Avenue in the Flatiron, not far from General Assembly.
500 Startups is known for its global focus. The only physical space the firm had up until New York was a corporate office in Mountain View, “which is where we run our accelerator throughout the year,” Mr. Goldman told Betabeat by phone. But 500 Startups opted for a different route here. Read More
In the world of startup accelerators, TechStars and Y Combinator are arguably top dogs. Each receives thousands of eager applicants every year, and only accepts an elite percentage of companies into their inner circles. But of course, with the success of the TechStars/Y Combinator models comes a slew of copycat accelerators that may lack the credentials and experience to actually help their applicants. Read More
Yesterday we wrote that the tech accelerator epidemic had hit New Jersey. The truth may be closer to: The tech accelerator epidemic has hit everywhere. Tech accelerators are so in vogue that Forbes added an accelerator ranking to its “Midas List” coverage, which includes a list of the top 100 venture capitalists.
Incubators have become so popular that about one accelerator launches every day, David Cohen, the founder and CEO of TechStars, told Forbes. He’s said it before; he was echoing his own earlier line from a panel about accelerators at SXSW. “It’s become a new college for entrepreneurs,” he added.
Forbes has rated Y Combinator, TechStars and DreamIt Ventures as the top three accelerators in the country. We’re all for accelerators, but one a day seems excessive. Echoes of ’99?
There is nothing Betabeat likes better than squeezing into a tightly packed mob of investors and watching a cattle call of young start-ups strut their stuff on stage (more metaphors, please! –ed). The tweets are flying fast and furious while handshakes and checks are being exchanged. At least that was the scene at our first rodeo, when we attended TechStars NY Demo Day at Webster Hall. Today Philly-based DreamIt Ventures will unveil their first class of New York start-ups.
New York has plenty of accelerators–TechStars! DreamIt! Entrepreneurs Roundtable! TechStars, again! But incubators have gotten so selective that companies need to be more and more mature in order to get in. Enter the pre-accelerator.
Founder Labs is a five-week mentoring program for (preferably) female entrepreneurs looking to do something with mobile. It was developed by Women 2.0 and is now being spun off as a standalone entity, and expanding to New York. Read More
