Hatch – DigitalOcean's new incubator program

I was disappointed to read that line. I figured DO would be doing their own filtering and therefore creating another avenue for getting access to (the equivalent of) capital. Nope.

It sort of highlights how the business model for these VPS hosts is basically to tap an IV into the bloodstream of sweet sweet startup cash from VCs.

They have little interest in helping out bootstrapped startups, because why hook into a thin vein when theres a nice fat one available?

I echo the other sentiments here.

It would be awesome for them to recognise someone who is bootstrapping their tech stack. Give them enough leeway to start turning a profit to pay for their stack.

I agree! It would be great to see these programs opened up to normal 'bootstrapped' startups!

The only 'cloud' platform that I know of that has a similar program open to 'bootstrapped' startups is Redhats OpenShift- https://www.openshift.com/startups/index.html

They don't give many details, but it appears the amount of credit given is customized for each participant. They also don't really say what their evaluation criteria are.

Hi! I'm one of the co-founders of DigitalOcean. Our plan is to open the Hatch program up to bootstrapped startups around the world.

We've launched the Hatch program in beta to pilot the program to a small group of startups over the next month. While in beta, we're going to be working to refine the offering and eligibility criteria for bootstrapped startups to apply.

For now, we've included a call to action on the Hatch landing page for those bootstrapped startups who are interested in joining the Hatch program once we open it up to a larger group of startups.