I've become very wary of accelerators that make bold promises, although my experience is nowhere near as bad this story.
Having been approached by 3 different accelerators, the story is always the same:
1. They offer a very nice chunk of funding
2. Declare how fantastic their team of mentors and legal connections are
3. They say they have some very low equity requirements
... fast forward ... about to sign an agreement ...
4. Funding is suddenly limited, or is now a range, with the upper figure as what they originaly offered... but with additional caveats
5. The equity requirements are now greater, since they 'forgot' to mention that additional equity is required at the end of the program
6. There is also suddenly an 'entry fee' to cover various expences that they also conveniently 'forgot' to mention
7. Many of their so called mentors/connections have not even agreed to be part of the program
There are certainly many good accelerators out there, but there are many more two-bit players out there willing to screw over early stage startups just to get themselves some funding (and equity, on the off-chance one of the startups actually become successful despite their 'help').
Having been approached by 3 different accelerators, the story is always the same:
1. They offer a very nice chunk of funding
2. Declare how fantastic their team of mentors and legal connections are
3. They say they have some very low equity requirements
... fast forward ... about to sign an agreement ...
4. Funding is suddenly limited, or is now a range, with the upper figure as what they originaly offered... but with additional caveats
5. The equity requirements are now greater, since they 'forgot' to mention that additional equity is required at the end of the program
6. There is also suddenly an 'entry fee' to cover various expences that they also conveniently 'forgot' to mention
7. Many of their so called mentors/connections have not even agreed to be part of the program
There are certainly many good accelerators out there, but there are many more two-bit players out there willing to screw over early stage startups just to get themselves some funding (and equity, on the off-chance one of the startups actually become successful despite their 'help').