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YCombinator vs. Techstars

YCombinator has been around longer, but these 2 are considered the best incubators. From what I heard, YCombinator really lets you do things on your own while providing you an awesome mentor network to help you with your startup. Also, YCombinator only seem to have only 2 big hits (Dropbox and AirBnB). Techstars focuses on the lean methodology with the first month doing customer development, the 2nd month doing product development, and the 3rd doing practicing pitching to investors.

Regardless of the stats of who has more companes, who's companies raised more, etc.

1. Which one has the better curriculum?
2. Which one gives you a better experience?
3. What's good about each, and bad about each? 
4. Which one is easier to get into
5. Is it worth it to join one of these incubators?

Asked 2013-02-22 09:38:32 UTC by James Lee

Tags: incubators ycombinator techstars
1 Replies

You are right. TBH, I've have a few friends who's gone to both.

Techstars goes through a 3 month program where the first month is focused on customer development. the 2nd month focused on building, and the 3rd month focused on polishing the pitch for investors. 

 

YC is slightly different, but both parties are good in the way that they offer a great collection of mentors. They let you go through mentor dating, and it's kind of up to you to find the mentors that are good matches to your startup.

 

Other than that, the most important part is the reputation of the incubator. It's kind of like of like a batch of recognition. Some startups say that's the most important part, since startups who join one of these incubators have a high possibility of success.

Replied 2013-02-25 15:14:18 UTC by Edward Liu

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