Right Side Capital is the latest company to announce their seed-phase fund, which will invest in 100-200 start-ups per year.  Their approach is to focus on quantity, not quality.  In their eyes this gives them the best shot at finding the “black swan” start-up that other wise would have been missed because of the vigorous typical funding process.   If you are a technology start-up looking for funding to get started, all you would need to do is submit an online application and wait to hear back.  Not everyone that submits an application will be funded obviously, but your chances are a lot higher with a seed-stage company like Right Side than a traditional VC fund.  In fact, VC money has been in serious short supply lately, just as demand is reaching an all time high.

Right Side Media follows a very similar model of Y Combinator, which started seed funding companies a couple of years ago.  Y Combinator runs a three month program two times a year, exclusively in the Silicon Valley area.  You don’t have to be from Silicon Valley to be funded, but do have to travel and live in the Mountain View area of California for the three months where you will receivve private coaching and be introduced to key contacts and investors.  A typical company that is accepted into the Y Combinator, or Right Side Capital program will receive $10 – $20,000.00 and give up 6%-10% equity of their start-up in return.  Right Side Capital differs from Y Combinator in that start-ups that are funded will also need to put up a little bit of their own money to ensure they have some skin in the game, and founders will not receive as much one-on-one coaching time.

Y Combinator Seed Funding Company Located in the Bay Area

I love the model and have been thinking for a while that there was a lack of small scale seed funding for the companies not ready for VC, but need some start up cash to get on their feet.

Start-Up Guru and Founder of Y Combinaror Paul Graham with a Class of His Start-Ups