New Technology Incubator On The Search For ‘Rising Stars’ - WSJ(blogs.wsj.com)
blogs.wsj.com
New Technology Incubator On The Search For ‘Rising Stars’ - WSJ
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/08/14/new-tech-incubator-looking-for-rising-stars/?mod=rss_WSJBlog
6 comments
Here is the site linked to in the wsj. http://sfcube.com I don't have much nice to say about this site so I will just post a link and keep quite...
Needs a little work.
I actually filled out the form for more info (http://sfcube.com/apply.php)...the terms and conditions link didn't go anywhere and after 10 attempts to get the captcha right I gave up. When I got the captcha wrong it posted back and deleted the entire form which only the back button fixed. Get a clue guys! After browsing the site some more though I was glad they didn't get a hold of my info.
PG should most definitely add that spinning cube to the front page of YCombinator.com . :-P
This just looks so...wrong. The website is pretty bad, and really unclear. I can't find anything about actual seed funding, rather it only seems to be a hackerspace with IP help and mentorship "available", and man is that web design god awful.
There is a blurb about the program the WSJ mentions on the website under services on the "Accelerator" tab. I can't actually link to the tab... To be fair the space does look OK and they seem to have a justin.tv feed at http://www.justin.tv/dylanrosario
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I smell patent troll-ish-ness:
"Protecting your ideas is the cornerstone of building a technology company. With our in house patent and intellectual property attorneys, we enable you to address the IP hurdles early so you are secure as you go to market." - from their blog, which is five days old.
and then there's this:
"The cube is home to a number of nascent startups a.k.a. “disruptive rebels” or “DRs” as they are known in the cube..."
"Protecting your ideas is the cornerstone of building a technology company. With our in house patent and intellectual property attorneys, we enable you to address the IP hurdles early so you are secure as you go to market." - from their blog, which is five days old.
and then there's this:
"The cube is home to a number of nascent startups a.k.a. “disruptive rebels” or “DRs” as they are known in the cube..."
First of all, the design of the page is hideous. Very CPU intensive as well. The text blurbs at the bottom are very poorly written.
Secondly, the main goal seems to be selling the O1-3 service to entrepreneurs, not funding them.
Further, if you look on the investors section, they have copied and pasted PGs essay on starting a company in a recession verbatim, though they do credit him.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the red flags telling me the company is not legit.
I am amazed the WSJ fell for this. I suppose next week we will be hearing about all the free iPods waiting to be won, and how people can make millions just by posting a link on Google.