It seems to be a trend of Zerply lately to discuss incubators, but this incubator is actually the reason we joined 500startups, and also one of the major factors to the success we’ve had so far in Silicon Valley.

When we moved here a year ago we barely knew anyone in the startup world, we barely even knew what the word startup meant. We had a few contacts but we started mostly by attending as many events as possible, which is where we found out about Hackers and Founders. After attending a few H&F meetups, we met the founders Jonathan and Laura Nelson, they were impressed with Zerply and we were impressed by their kindness and genuine willingness to help. Through them we were able to have ‘office hours’ which basically means getting your product in front of high profile investors to see if anyone would even consider investing in it. We were able to meet with Naval founder of Angellist and Venture Hacks, someone who has inspired us since the very beginning. We’ve read the articles on Venture Hack at least a dozen times.

Laura and Jonathan then asked us if we would like to be a part of a trial run incubator that they just happened to create. It would basically mean getting together with other startups every Monday, eating good food, and talking our way through the ups and downs of running your own thing. We joined, and it’s been two great months of eating fantastic food, provided by BizSpark, hearing horror stories of startups that failed, hearing incredible, inspiring stories of startups that have succeeded and getting to know the teams around us. Now, the end is near and tomorrow the alpha Co-op will be holding a ‘Not a demo-day’ with a Scotch tasting and lots of investors and hackers. You can read all about it at the Hackers and Founders blog. The other startups from the Co-op are: Browserling, Codeeval, Pieceable, Tripping, and VidCaster.

We are so thankful that Hackers and Founders accidentally started an incubator because it has truly been our stepping stone into the large and sometimes overwhelming Silicon  Valley. Thank you Laura, Jonthan, and Matt. It’s been a blast, we’re excited to see the up and coming startups that will come out of all the co-ops to come.