Advise.me is a newly launched startup accelerator and incubator with locations in the San Francisco and New York areas. However, through its “Global Startup Initiative,” the group is encouraging companies to apply no matter where in the world they are located. Advise.me says it will structure things appropriately to work where the startup is based, or it will help the company to relocate to one of its local areas instead.
As with most startup accelerators, Advise.me is offering a variety of support services, including help with advisement and execution, marketing, product design, development and infrastructure, business strategy, business development, operational structure, security, accounting, funding and M&A.
The initial funding the program offers is independently determined by its investment partners based upon their own criteria, and may not be available to everyone in the program. Startups may receive $6,000-$7,000 per founder or up to $25,000 in total. Says Advise.me, it believes that this is enough funding to allow founders to develop a working prototype or in some cases, to help get them to the next initial stage for receiving larger funding options.
In addition to the funding and advisement, startups will receive the following:
- $2,000 per month for 12 months of MediaTemple or RackSpace hosting
- Advisement and operational support of a team of 2-7 individuals
- 3 months of office space, rent and utility free
- Access to high-level contacts
- VIP invites to Advise.me events and meetups for networking purposes
- A chance to demo to strategic investors, partners and media
Although, as noted above, location is not a factor in determining which companies will be accepted into the program, Advise.me says that having a strong and experienced team will help improve its chances. It’s also looking for “compelling offerings that are market disruptive,” and it prefers companies that are past the idea stage and already have a working prototype.
Advise.me was co-founded by Solomon Engel (Founder and CEO), Aaron Anderson (Co-founder and User Interface Designer), Drew Wilson (Co-founder and Principle Designer) and Michel Triana (Co-founder and CTO). It includes an impressive team of advisors, with folks from Google, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, EA, Sencha, Xero, Sega, Apple, Playdom, Yahoo, Nokia, AOL and several other big-name companies on board as advisors.
Besides the team members listed on the Advise.me site now, the company is adding the following new team members today: Indy Guha, VC at Bain Capital Ventures, Rogelio Choy, COO at Formspring, Luca Prasso, Global Character Technical Director at DreamWorks Animation, Eva Diaz-Santana, Senior Cocoa Architect at Apple and Tyler Galpin, User Interface Designer at Advise.me.
The accelerator launched at last week’s TechCrunch Disrupt, and is now accepting applications from interested startups.