I'm pretty sure I understand the value of YC - I know quite a few people who've been through the programme and I've visited the space and met with Harj who taught me a lot.
We're different though and I think different startups are looking for different things. If you have time, I'd certainly be up for meeting to see if there is a fit. My email is on the site.
To be honest that comes from our experience from Social Innovation Camp. We've watched a lot of people trying to get ideas of the ground struggle if they don't have a team around them. It can be a pretty lonely business.
I've popped links into our alumni page but with the caveat that the first test run was very different.
I guess I understand the concern that I'm just a quango/think tank guy but most of the useful stuff I've learned was as co-founder and CEO of School of Everything (www.schoolofeverything.com). We built a product, were finalists in the first round of Seedcamp, raised seed investment from angels including Esther Dyson and have a whole load of happy customers. We never became Google but the site does ok. I'm the first to admit I made lots of mistakes along the way which I hope I can help our teams avoid making again.
Would definitely welcome advice on how to show we're different.
Links added to the alumni page now - sorry, just slipped my mind to update. Three of the projects are still running.
Bethnal Green is an interesting place. It's got a pretty strong heritage as a place where social reformers have created new things - the Open University for example. It also has some very good pubs.
This is actually the first time we've run the programme properly. We did a test run about 12 months ago but at that stage didn't have the money to invest. Even so the teams got a lot out of it I hope. Good Gym (www.goodgym.org) has probably progressed the most but it was a different set up then - they're a not-for-profit.
The value for teams will definitely come from our network which we're still adding to the site to show who's involved. I think maybe we're underselling ourselves by being a bit British about the whole thing. Any advice gratefully received.