He estado participando en diversos programas de aceleracion, como solicitante, y he podido aprender muchos de los criterios que estos tienen a la hora de aceptar proyectos para invertir en ellos, suelen tener unos bastante comunes, pero en particular para los innovadores tecnologicos suelen coincidir con los de la plataforma que pongo como ejemplo, la cual de forma muy amable me los ha enumerado, sirva como ejemplo para otros, es dificil conseguir apoyo en fases anteriores al prototipo y es dificil hacer un prototipo de algo innovador sin apoyos, yo no es que no los haya tenido, pero creo que son insuficientes para los criterios de esta gente.
A continuación os cuento lo que me han contado:
-We did not pick your project this time.
There could be many reasons so I listed below the most common ones:
(1) Something is missing
Of course our assessment is very subjective but we look at:
TEAM (do you have all the skills you need - lone founders in particular are at a big disadvantage),
MARKET (is the potential market big enough in our eyes, do you have any indication that a significant demand exists at the right price beyond some fluffy analyst projection of a $10B market?),
PROTOTYPE (you generally need at least a work-like prototype to be considered) and
HARD THING (what tech / barrier of entry / defensibility). We live in China and know a thing or two about copycats and "Xiaomization". Things get commoditized real fast.
(2) It's too late
Some projects were targeting markets we feel are already crowded.
For example, it is really difficult to do something 10 times better or really different in smart watches, activity trackers, drones or FDM-type 3D printers unless you have significant new tech, like proprietary sensors, algorithms or AI.
(3) I t's too early
Of course startups have to be early, but if you're TOO early you have years of struggle ahead, unless you figure out a difficult pivot. Sometimes we still pick such project, sometimes we don't.
(4) Too much the same
If we just invested in an identical startup, or if an older one is succeeding with a similar solution,
chances are we won't invest in yours right away.
(5) You're late stage
That happens. That's why we now have the HAX Boost program opening in San Francisco.
It is focused on sales, marketing and distribution.
As a final note, we are always glad to consider
repeat applications:
Projects evolve, prototypes get better, teams can bring in new members or even get early customers. We don't discriminate against repeaters, quite the contrary!
If you do apply again, feel free to mention it and highlight your progress!
What we recommend:
- customer discovery: talk to many potential users about the problem you identified, learn about their existing solutions and what's wrong with them
- solution discovery: do you have the right solution? At the right price? Are people ready to pay you for it? How much? How much value or savings do you bring them (money, t ime, etc.)?
- clarify the value proposition: what's your 10x / key differentiator? Generally only ONE clear feature is better than a flurry.
- build. If you don't have a working prototype, well, proof is in the prototype.
Some resources you might find useful:
www.medium.com/@benjaminjoffe
We also have a few videos of talks we gave in conferences and columns we wrote on techcrunch
Techcrunch Columns on Lean Hardware:
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Publicado en Blog Efren: http://efrenblog.blogspot.com/ Noticias compartidas en: http://www.google.es/reader/shared/05298015753246805793 ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
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