CrunchBase Description:
Y Combinator is a venture fund which focuses on seed investments to startup companies. It offers financing as well as business consulting along with other opportunities to 2-4 person companies looking to take an idea to a product. Y Combinator looks for companies with “good” ideas over companies with experience and a business model.
Y Combinator selects companies to finance and consult with twice a year. They are located in Mountain View, CA Summer and Winter sessions. Companies that they decide to fund generally receive $5,000 plus an additional $5,000 per founder and are required to relocate to Y Combinator’s destination for the following three months. In return, Y Combinator asks for 2-10% ownership, generally considered fairly steep considering the small investment. However, Y Combinator argues that this seed money and mentorship is crucial to for the success of small startups.
Successful exits by Y Combinator funded companies include Reddit and Zenter. Other successful companies that went through Y Combinator include Loopt, Justin.tv, and Scribd.
Near the end of each session, companies pitch their products on “Demo Day” to investors in hopes of receiving further funding.
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CrunchBase Description:
With the motto “the geeks shall inherit the earth”, TechStars is truly motivated to getting good ideas off the ground. TechStars is a seed fund similar to Y Combinator. It offers $6,000 per founder to companies that make its list for up to 3 founders. In return, TechStars takes 6% equity in the company in common/founders stock. Company founders spend their whole summer in Boulder, Colorado working in a common space and collaborating when appropriate. TechStars mentors everyone accepted into their program with business and other advice. Many times over the summer guest entrepreneurs will speak to TechStars’ newest investees, and at the end of the summer every company will be given an opportunity to pitch themselves to angel investors and venture funds.There has been much more interest in smaller investments as of late. With the success of Y Combinator, many other firms such as Charles River Ventures have set up their own seed or small investment funds.
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CrunchBase Description:
LaunchBox Digital is a Washington, D.C. based startup incubator that launched in early 2008. It has a similar model to Y Combinator – they invest at the earliest stages of an idea, and take a very small piece of equity.
LaunchBoxDigital invests $15-$30k per startup, in exchange for a 4%-8% equity stake. They will invest in 6-10 startups per year.
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CrunchBase Description:
Bootup Labs is a startup accelerator in Vancouver, BC that helps founders and companies go “from zero to fundable.” Bootup Labs recruits promising entrepreneurs and provides mentorship, ongoing support and office space to help define their business and secure venture financing.
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CrunchBase Description:
DreamIt Ventures is a Philadelphia based pre-seed stage venture firm that provides aspiring entrepreneurs with funding, services from leading law firms and accounting firms, mentoring from seasoned entrepreneurs, access to capital, and a creative, rigorous environment to bring innovative business ideas to market.
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CrunchBase Description:
Seedcamp is a week long event in London, September 3-7, 2007 for twenty young entrepreneurs to showcase their early-stage strategies and product concepts. The idea is similar to the early stage startup programs TechStars and Y Combinator. At the end of the week, Seedcamp will invest 50K Pounds for a 10% stake in each of final five teams and provide ongoing mentorship and support for three months in preparation for the companies’ formal rounds of financing.
Applications are due August 12th, 2007.
The idea for Seedcamp came from Saul Klein in a post earlier this year looking to energize the European startup community. Participating VCs and advisors include Index Ventures, Atomico Investments, Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, TAG, Forsyth Group and Brown Rudnick.
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CrunchBase Description:
Shotput Ventures is an Atlanta-based startup accelerator. Shotput Ventures gives seed funding and conception-phase mentoring to capital-light startups in the Atlanta area.
The program is an intensive coordinated effort to help launch companies and products. Participating teams will form new companies and build a new product over a 3 month period while being mentored by a group of experienced web entrepreneurs and successful business leaders
*Descriptions courtesy of www.crunchbase.com
