How Facebook's fbFund rejects wantrepreneurs
Facebook and its two main backers, the Founders Fund's Peter Thiel and Accel's Jim Breyer, set up the fbFund in September, promising to dole out some $10 million in checks sized $25,000 to $250,000, made out to Facebook-app startups. The wantrepreneurs flooded Facebook. Facebook told them it reserved the right to rip off their idea, and mass-deleted their submissions. And still they came back for more. Now, at last, these sad-sack developers are starting to get their rejection letters, AllFacebook reports. Here's your copy.
Hi XXX,
Thanks much for coming to present to the fbFund advisory board two weeks ago. We really appreciated your flexibility and dedication. Unfortunately, your application wasn't deemed an immediate fit with the focus for fbFund at the moment.
I want to stress that this doesn't mean that we don't believe in your application nor that it can't be successful. As your application evolves, we encourage you to reapply for a grant - there is no limit on how many times you can apply for a grant, and each funding cycle represents a new opportunity to receive a grant.
The advisory committee had some feedback on your application which you might find helpful, some of which we covered during the presentation itself. They suggested that:
* XXXXXX
* XXXXXXI hope this feedback is useful to you as you continue to build your application. Of course (as our lawyers asked us to make clear), all feedback is provided on an "as is" basis, and your incorporation of feedback doesn't in any way guarantee that your application will receive a grant from fbFund in the future.
We're planning on posting more information on fbFund and the funding process shortly, and I'll let you know when those resources are posted.
I wish you the best of luck as you build your business, and hope to hear from you again in the future.
Cheers, and thanks again,
Ami Vora
In response to the letter, one rejectee told AllFacebook.:
While I do believe that many applications could have had stronger business plan than us, I think that the way they handled the entire grant offer reflects poorly on Facebook and how they treat dev community.
Which brings up my idea for a new Facebook application: A tool that lets you rate your engineer friends' overweening sense of entitlement. I'll call it fbTrustfund.