Comment by r25WCvaR | Hacker News Reader

Comment by r25WCvaR | Hacker News Reader

I don't care that the founder is spamming social media to get this bumped up. I care about them taking an equity stake in your company.

I would give a warning to anybody who reads this thread in the future and is seriously considering giving these guys shares. In a word: don't.

Their team has no history of successful exits and no members with technical talent that can be taken seriously; they are not going to help you build a company. Their "connections" are limited to the B-list of Silicon Valley. It's not clear that their founder can even write code.

Contrast this with the team at Y-Combinator.

Quality of accelerators are a power law that skews so far in the direction of YC that even attending the incubator in second place is a signal that you didn't get YC; Peter Thiel mentioned this in one of his lectures. It's not to say that you won't be successful if you don't do YC, it's to say that it's difficult to the value added by their "Accelerator" is greater than what you give up in exchange.

Once again, make your own decision by talking to them. They may change in the future, but you may also find them equally unimpressive.

Hi r25,

Greg from AngelHack here. The equity stake we take is 2%. This allows us to be sustainable and continue building this program. This accelerator (should be called a pre-accelerator), is designed to get people connected to the Valley from around the world and get them pre-pared for entering legit programs like Y-Combinator. We'll never be better than them, nor are we trying to be. We're only trying to assist you get to the glory land.

If you can get ready for these programs without our help, then you're on the right track. Most of the companies that come out from our hackathons are 2-3 days old and need A LOT of guidance. Technically they're very strong, but they need support with legal issues, founder issues, idea validation, product/market fit, viral engagement loops, guerrilla warfare marketing tactics, networking and pitch help, and help raising funding. We help them get through all that.

The founder of AngelHack can't code. Technical founders should avoid AngelHack on this basis alone.

Hi SCC!

You are correct, I can't code (yet!). But all my best friends are coders and I think on the same wave-length. Starting this year we'll be building out a network of code schools, which I hope to participate in. In the meantime, I'm happy adding value to your community wherever I can.

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