I've been a bit curious on how serious the "stay in Pennsylvania" part is. Are they heavily enforcing it, hasn't really been an issue, etc?
I'm guessing for the HN crowd here, not being able to head West after something like this might be a downer.
Pittsburgh is a nice place around the CMU/Pitt/etc. area. Can't really speak for the rest of the city as I didn't really get around much while at school there.
Funding
Innovation Works will invest $25,000 in each AlphaLab company in
return for 3% of the common stock of the company. This funding
should support company operations during the AlphaLab program. As
Innovation Works utilizes funds from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, each company receiving funding is expected to
maintain a significant presence in Pennsylvania after the
program.
14) Do we have to stay in Pittsburgh after the program ends?
Companies are expected to remain in Pittsburgh after the end of the
AlphaLab program. Our goal is to help you build a successful
technology company and to add to the critical mass of flourishing tech
companies in the Pittsburgh region. We believe that Pittsburgh is a
great place to build a company and after your experience at AlphaLab
we are confident that you will agree.
As I understand it, the state money imposes the condition that companies stay in PA. It's been a long time since I looked at our contract/agreement, but I think the technical details for this round were (roughly) that companies must maintain a "significant presence" in PA for at least 5 years after receiving the money. If a company fails to maintain this "significant presence" they must return the $25,000 invested, but IW retains their 3% equity in the company. So, I'd say they're pretty serious, but if it were essential for your company to cut ties with PA at some point it wouldn't be the end of the world.
I don't get around that much myself, but can add: The AlphaLab office space is on the South Side, which is the big "night life" area, with a bunch of bars, clubs, restaurants, and for some reason a tattoo parlor on every other block (maybe drunk people are more likely to spontaneously get tattoos?). Overall Pittsburgh kind of reminds of Portland, OR, since it's green, cheap, and has a big river (two actually) running through the downtown. It's also supposed to rain a lot like Portland, but that hasn't started yet ...
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* each team gets a one-on-one meeting with the AlphaLab team every week, and when something urgent comes up they can usually make time for another meeting or discuss it on the spot.
* between the AlphaLab program advisors and Innovation Works (the parent company) there are a bunch of experienced business people and entrepreneurs to get advice from and network with.
Together these people have helped us with all sorts of stuff, from developing business documents like executive summaries and seeking further investment to setting up focus groups to test and discuss our product.
I don't have experience with YC's program first hand, but anecdotally AlphaLab blows YC away in terms of amount hands on business help you get. Makes sense when the program only includes six start ups and is backed by a mature investment firm. For teams like ours with a lot of technical experience but very little business experience this seems pretty important.
