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This post may bring out some criticism I but really don’t care. 

We see lots and lots of companies who have tangled with accelerators or other types of “helpers” early in their journey who take equity, get warrants that founders don’t understand and/or end up on the cap table as a low to no value add when we see them.  Yes, at the pre-seed and seed stage there are “helpers” that have preyed upon founders to get their piece, confuse them with terms, or God forbid, actually charge them scarce capital for their services promising mentorship, connections and various forms of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

If you do this, stop. You are doing more damage than good and making yourself feel good along the way.  

Want to be relevant at formation to accelerate a business, write a friggan check. Don’t have a fund but think you are valuable? Ask for 1-2% common shares on a vesting schedule like an actual advisor and earn your ownership on the same ground as the founders by actually delivering.  Don’t create a pooled mentor fund to get a bunch of big names to sign up and not care while using this to attract trusting founders like moths to a streetlight. That is garbage.

There are some good ones out there that write checks, provide connections and serve to truly accelerate companies through method and mentorship like YC or Techstars (where I am a mentor for the Techstars Boulder program). In our region, Oregon Startup Center takes in companies to help and writes checks during the process. Beyond that I am deeply suspect of your intentions or motivations if you are taking without giving cash.

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