I'm a participant in this same program in Memphis, TN (look for my "Show HN" post in the near future). The focus has been on strong mentorship and an intense schedule of customer discovery and product development.
I'm proud of my hometown for creating this program. For areas such as Memphis that have struggled, I strongly believe the economic development focus needs to shift more to tech and software. There is talent here, but very little infrastructure to develop it. Programs like Seed Hatchery and LaunchMemphis are working to change that.
I'm also a participant and have gone the self-funded startup route in the past. The experience has been genuine and the account described in this article is an excellent summary of that first 30 days. Startup accelerators are not for the faint of heart--but if you thrive on the pressure, excitement, and can take (sometimes harsh but always well-meant) criticism constructively, it's a rush and an experience you will never forget--and will never stop drawing from. You can't buy this kind of education.
I wrote the post above. I appreciate you thinking highly enough of it to re-post on HN.
Whether or not the job is getting done really remains to be seen. We're a little more than a month deep now and demo day is looming. What happens then and afterward will be the true judge of our success.
I will say this. There's been a lot of conversation on HN and elsewhere lately about accelerators that aren't called YC or TechStars and whether they will be as successful. Again, the answer to that question remains to be seen, but I can say with certainty that the benefit of programs like Seed Hatchery, Jumpstart Foundry in Nashville, and others is that the entire community is involved. There is a tremendous amount of pride in Memphis for the Seed Hatchery program, and our advisors and mentors have really taken all of the cohort companies under their proverbial wings and helped us along. I didn't expect that, to be honest, but I truly believe now that it is the great strength of our program here in Memphis.
No doubt YC is still the NY Giants. They've got access to amazing entrepreneurs and advisors and clearly attract the cream of the crop when it comes to talent, but we're okay with being the Green Bay Packers. There's so much pride in what we're doing here that we can still fill a stadium.
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[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 22.3 ms ] threadI'm proud of my hometown for creating this program. For areas such as Memphis that have struggled, I strongly believe the economic development focus needs to shift more to tech and software. There is talent here, but very little infrastructure to develop it. Programs like Seed Hatchery and LaunchMemphis are working to change that.
Whether or not the job is getting done really remains to be seen. We're a little more than a month deep now and demo day is looming. What happens then and afterward will be the true judge of our success.
I will say this. There's been a lot of conversation on HN and elsewhere lately about accelerators that aren't called YC or TechStars and whether they will be as successful. Again, the answer to that question remains to be seen, but I can say with certainty that the benefit of programs like Seed Hatchery, Jumpstart Foundry in Nashville, and others is that the entire community is involved. There is a tremendous amount of pride in Memphis for the Seed Hatchery program, and our advisors and mentors have really taken all of the cohort companies under their proverbial wings and helped us along. I didn't expect that, to be honest, but I truly believe now that it is the great strength of our program here in Memphis.
No doubt YC is still the NY Giants. They've got access to amazing entrepreneurs and advisors and clearly attract the cream of the crop when it comes to talent, but we're okay with being the Green Bay Packers. There's so much pride in what we're doing here that we can still fill a stadium.