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Ask HN: Are accelerators worth it anymore?

4 points by ben-gy ↗ HN
I’ve seen accelerators grow from an energetic space filled with smart people solving hard problems (~8 years ago) to massive scale transactional factories that churn out anyone that can sell anything, and in some cases, even if it’s vapourware.

The controversy with YC investing in that ridiculous MMORPG game has partly led me thinking this, but also I think I’m seeing this trend of accelerators creating lower mean value per startup in a cohort across the board.

Any thoughts on this?

5 comments

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PaulHoule
Does it have to do with this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendency_of_the_rate_of_profit...

zeeshanqureshi
To a lay person like me, this does seem like a plausible explanation. But I'm sure there could be more to it.
ben-gy
That’s pretty interesting.

It also begs the question, if it is easier and cheaper to create and run a business (in theory, more profitable per time unit), it makes sense that more businesses would exist, making the landscape more competitive, placing more impetus on competitive pricing as a “differentiator” (race to the bottom).

byoung2
I think it was inevitable...when I first created my HN account in 2009, accelerators were a novel concept, and each new cohort produced exciting new startups that I was eager to watch and wanted to emulate. After a few years it felt like all the cohorts started to blend into each other, and demo days weren't interesting anymore, and there weren't any startups I cared to follow. It's similar to what happened with crypto...with Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum, it was an interesting sector to follow. But with millions of coins and tokens floating around, it's hard to follow.
ben-gy
This resonates with me completely