[korzun]

> things offered by TechStars are game changers

List them. If you are going to use words such as 'game changers', you should explain what the perks are.

> Benefits like web hosting / services credits allow all that financial hassle to get out of the way

For most early stage startups, hosting costs represent extremely low % of expenses. Let's just call this what it is.. cheap way to lock start-ups in your infrastructure.

Same as investing.. give them a year worth of 'funding' and hope they become a massive paying customer.

[hootener]

> List them.

They're linked in the parent to my original reply.

> Let's just call this what it is.. cheap way to lock start-ups in your infrastructure

Whose infrastructure? Perks come from Amazon, Microsoft, Softlayer, Rackspace, Digital Ocean, and others. That's a pretty wide swath of hosting providers, but I guess if you want to run your business from a couple of boxes under your desk, you're on your own.

> For most early stage startups, hosting costs represent extremely low % of expenses.

Cost is relative. $5k/mo for a year (citing the BizSpark Plus credit directly here) can make a big difference early on when you're pre-revenue. In the case of TechStars, this is particularly true if you decide not to take the convertible note.

[korzun]

> They're linked in the parent to my original reply.

Okay how are they a game changers? How did they impact you?

> That's a pretty wide swath of hosting providers

They are still trying to do the same thing I described. It's a marketing play.

> If you want to run your business from a couple of boxes under your desk.

Been there, done that. Things were different ten years ago. Now you can get a VPS for a price of coffee.

> Cost is relative. $5k/mo for a year (citing the BizSpark Plus credit directly here)

It's $5K a month for a reason. They either have no traction or most start ups will never hit that limit or even come close to that price tag within the first year.

Sure there are exceptions, but if you are really pushing $5K /month on BizSpark at an early stage you should step back and figure out where you are now and where you want to be in a year after that credit runs out.

[hootener]

> It's a marketing play.

I hope there's no one in this thread naive enough to think otherwise. Of course it's a marketing play. That doesn't mean it can't benefit you.

Your initial point concerned vendor lock in and how this was a cheap way for companies to impose it. My response to that was "lock in to whom?" due to the diverse hosting providers on offer. Granted no mom and pop VPS provider is amongst the perk list (to my knowledge), but you have a several serious options to choose from.

In terms of my company the perks provided did anything but impose vendor lock in. I put parts of my infrastructure where it made the most sense for our business. This actually ended up being multiple providers amongst the list of those offering perks. If anything the benefits on offer from TechStars (and YES other accelerators that join these incentive programs) led to a more diverse and robust infrastructure setup which I hope will benefit us more in the long run.

But yes, fine, I acknowledged in another response lower down on this page that I should have qualified my original statement. The perks on offer were a game changer for my business because it gave us the freedom to choose providers and technologies that made the most sense for the product. For us this was crucial at an early stage and benefitted us immensely. I would assume our company was not necessarily unique in this regard, but perhaps I'm wrong.

In either case, who cares? You either were or weren't going to join TechStars or some other accelerator because the accelerator's terms made sense for your business when weighed against the benefits. Perks are just that...perks. Not fundamental lynchpins upon which you hope to run your business. My only initial argument was these perks are substantive and helpful, and shouldn't be dismissed outright. Apologies if that initial argument was not well-formed enough to get that point across to you effectively.

[kordless]

> if you want to run your business from a couple of boxes under your desk

Now there's an idea.