[HelenUK]

I have to agree that the location won't help Ignite100. Though Ignite100 may help the North East.

If I had to choose between moving to the North East to be part of an incubator or moving to London and going it on my own, I'd still choose London, The probability of chance opportunities, networking and connections are far higher in London and these things make the difference. Even YC was moved to Silicon Valley because the cultural pull meant businesses would benefit from being there.

As someone who has recently been part of a UK incubator scheme outside of London and "up north" the mentoring side of it had neither quantity or quality and it was a compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding. The best parts of the scheme were interacting with other startups and the support from the staff administrating the scheme.

The fact that YC accepts global applications gives me great hope. When I think of YC, I think of founders/mentors that champion, encourage and problem solve with the teams, Super smart, dedicated applicants willing to travel around the world for a 10min interview.

I wonder how many applicants to Ignite will come from afar?

I still have my sights set on YC, Though I'm still looking for the right co-founder.

[jgrahamc]

   compulsory expense, paid for out of our funding

Compulsory and paid from your funding? WTH?

[helen842000]

Yeah, we were told our funding amounts and then advised that around £1200 (which in my case was about 15%) of this had already been allocated to cover training, office space (which I never used) and mentor meetings.

Some of the other businesses only got a small amount of funding to start with which left them with very little after subtracting this expense.

However, just to have had a place or any funding at all in the UK in my opinion is a great thing.

I think YC have it spot on, their funding is the right amount to allow a team to concentrate on their idea yet not so much that they can be complacent about running costs.

I still had a full time job whilst part of my incubator. The funding couldn't be used for living expenses.

I wonder how much further along I would be now if that wasn't the case.

I think great things happen when afforded the time to focus on that one thing.