A very interesting post by Saul Klein:

Y Europe can seed growth of its new stars

Chatting with some of the guys over there, this isn't the first I've heard about Index considering a yCombinator model so with this much chatter, something might just bite.

It's not going to be a walk in the park; Simon Murdoch and Rikki Tahta did play with the idea on a previous occasion but the UK is a different place than it was then and Index have a huge amount of visibility as well as incredible portfolio and would almost certainly be the right vessel to launch this.

My 2p

It'll be very interesting to see what comes of this. If they do it right I think Index could make a huge difference to what's happening here. I answered Saul's call to comment pretty extensively on the article but in brief, the things which I think could make a huge difference are:

  1. A Decent place to work with other smart people
  2. Enough money to be able to develop the idea full time
  3. *Smart* and complementary support services -software might be cheaper but it's not cheap and developers need designers, designers need developers and everyone needs marketing and PR
  4. Status
  5. Alignment with the goals of the incubator
  6. Trust in the incubator
My approach (which I'll post something on soon) has been to give up on the idea of investment and build a business to build a business. It's what Ryan did and I've got to say it feels great to be building something that people are willing to pay good hard cash for.

Jack Welch once said that anyone can squeeze more and anyone can dream but the real skill is in doing both at the same time. A startup without revenue is a dreaming startup and on very dangerous ground. If you can get to market and get traction you might get a hand up but the very best thing you can do is start squeezing the lemon and sell real product to real people for cold hard cash.

What did I miss?

What do you think, James C, Harjeet, Kulveer, James Holmes, Walid/Sokratis...? You guys are all doing your own thing and I know that we've all faced different challenges. Have I missed anything from the list?