Shad Khan, Jaguars owner, ends association with One Spark, calls financial ties

[tyrsblade]

One has replied yes. send me a PM and I'll send his details over. The other is checking with his lawyer.

[GoldenEst82]

As one of the people who applied and did not get in, I am very interested to hear about what went down.

I reiterate and agree, this is not an easy place to have a startup in. For a tertiary market, there are some pretty snobby people strutting about the scene. I am not a college degree holder, but I am starting my first business just like they are, and the scene can really come across like a circle jerk for programmers.
(no offense meant personally, its just how some of the networking events come across)

[Jax native]

I'm also waiting to hear from some start ups helped by KYN or Stache Investments outside of KYN, that had their funding stopped immediately.  There has been lots of talks about the many affected but haven't heard from them. It has also said 'there is much more to come" from people who lost funding from Stache Investments but no one has stepped up to talk.  A reporter from T.U., Drew Dixon has been begging to hear from any of these people and no response.  The fact the only two assisted w/ 35K and supposedly $115 K worth of support are from Tampa, FL and Arizona.  All previous releases has been that "Stache Investments" were investing for Jacksonville commerce.  Jacksonville business.  All mentions of Khan's involvement was for Jacksonville Business and commerce.  Why the only two this year which supposedly had cash and assistance of $115 K were NOT related any way to Jacksonville?  If you check the list of creators/entrants these two only gathering a little less than $250. each at festival and were way down the list.  Why these two?  Anyone? 

[TheCat]

On Bloomberg Business:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-09/startup-accelerator-goes-bust-after-jaguars-owner-pulls-funding

[Andy]

I know personally one of the creators from KYN's first class that has spoken nothing but love for the experience. He's still in business and doing fairly well as far as I can tell. But I don't know any true details.

One Spark has always had sort of questionable ways of operating, as far as the festival itself goes. It's very confusing and it seemed to be constantly changing. I took that to be growing pains, and I still WANT to believe that's all that these problems are. But with KYN shuttered and the financials appearing to the layperson to be pretty gruesomely proportioned, even as an ardent supporter I have to worry about One Spark paying the ultimate price. And a worse side-effect; the cynical tone of Jacksonville's creative community becoming louder than it has been since the first One Spark festival hit downtown. I hate that creativity has such an underdog story in this town, and if this ends up being one step forward, two steps back it'll be heartbreaking. I hate listening to people blast one of the best efforts this town has seen in years to forward the goal of a city that's a creative destination. Even though the criticism appears deserved.

I guess I'm emotionally involved, so take it for what it's worth, but this feels like a hell of a blow.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Deservedly or not, it appears the two 'fall guys' in this episode will be both the guy spending the money and the one approving the spending.

Ironically (or not) neither is in the position they were in before all of this broke.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Deservedly or not, it appears the two 'fall guys' in this episode will be both the guy spending the money and the one approving the spending.

Ironically (or not) neither is in the position they were in before all of this broke.

since the problem is how the money was spent, i think, yeah....they ones who handled the money are probably going to be the ones held responsible.

As I said before, I don't think how it was spent or how much of it was spent where.  I'm still of the opinion that if there were 40 companies under their umbrella - no matter HOW they were performing - KYN would still be around. 

The show of effort wasn't there.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

you mean other than the direct statement of the actual person who cancelled the underwriting?

[
As I said before, I don't think how it was spent or how much of it was spent where.  I'm still of the opinion that if there were 40 companies under their umbrella - no matter HOW they were performing - KYN would still be around. 

The show of effort wasn't there.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Cute.

[I-10east]

Roger Williams the owner of the Harbinger Sign Co said that KYN owes his business $15,000 for sign work.

http://members.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-10-13/story/jacksonville-business-owner-says-he-s-still-owed-money-one-spark-related?utm_source=cx

[Steve]

Well this is going well...,

[RattlerGator]

Roger Williams the owner of the Harbinger Sign Co said that KYN owes his business $15,000 for sign work.

http://members.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-10-13/story/jacksonville-business-owner-says-he-s-still-owed-money-one-spark-related?utm_source=cx

Okay, this just clinches it for me. That is outrageous -- you're not paying local businesses for services rendered !?! What !?!

[simms3]

I know personally one of the creators from KYN's first class that has spoken nothing but love for the experience. He's still in business and doing fairly well as far as I can tell. But I don't know any true details.

One Spark has always had sort of questionable ways of operating, as far as the festival itself goes. It's very confusing and it seemed to be constantly changing. I took that to be growing pains, and I still WANT to believe that's all that these problems are. But with KYN shuttered and the financials appearing to the layperson to be pretty gruesomely proportioned, even as an ardent supporter I have to worry about One Spark paying the ultimate price. And a worse side-effect; the cynical tone of Jacksonville's creative community becoming louder than it has been since the first One Spark festival hit downtown. I hate that creativity has such an underdog story in this town, and if this ends up being one step forward, two steps back it'll be heartbreaking. I hate listening to people blast one of the best efforts this town has seen in years to forward the goal of a city that's a creative destination. Even though the criticism appears deserved.

I guess I'm emotionally involved, so take it for what it's worth, but this feels like a hell of a blow.

Sad post.  Potentially big blow to Jax.

Displeasure with management led Khan to bail from KYN, which invested in six companies, including a wedding planning website and an app that lets motorists pay for parking via their smartphones.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-09/startup-accelerator-goes-bust-after-jaguars-owner-pulls-funding

So was the app for mobile parking payments specific/local to Jax?  The reason I ask is because there are already apps for that (I would imagine the same for wedding planning, but I know nothing of THAT realm).

I don't know anything about app development, but it would seem that rather than re-inventing the wheel or copying already applied solutions and not necessarily taking them any steps further, one could use the existing solutions and apply them specifically to Jax issues or Jax residents?  The amount of people I know who bang out apps in their spare time is ridiculous, and some become hits.  And those are people already gainfully employed either by a startup or a big name tech firm.  Or even people who know applicable code for building an app for fun.  One of my friends in his spare time built an app that talks to the Phillips home lighting system, called "Hue"

http://www2.meethue.com/en-us/what-is-hue/the-system/
http://www.developers.meethue.com/

Like, honestly, that's the competition.  I have another friend whose last name is a big name router company, and who's business partner has a last name of someone who started what was once the #1 PC security system, and the two of them created an app and are shaking hands with Obama and guest lecturing at Cornell.

I'm really hoping there's not too much fallout over this, but honestly, from reading people's comments and reports about One Spark and KYN, it doesn't sound like there was THAT MUCH there to begin with.  Jax needs a couple of heavy hitting success stories before it makes radar screens, I think.

BTW, super interesting read on LA's tech scene:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/08/theres-something-going-on-in-l-a/

[Jax native]

To address simms above, the last two companies KYN funded caused much of an alarm.  One of the mission statements and words from One Spark is Khan was investing to assist with commerce in Jacksonville, FL.  The wedding planner who only had a website is in Tampa and the parking app guys are in Arizona.  these are the two they picked out of the almost 600.  It's very mystifying why? Neither had ties to Jacksonville and did nothing for commerce in Jacksonville.  Again, if you look at the information posted upthread about One Spark, you will see both of these companies way down the list, each earning less than $300..  Why KYN fiercely supported these two in the last year is what many are upset about. 

[codemonkey]

To address simms above, the last two companies KYN funded caused much of an alarm.  One of the mission statements and words from One Spark is Khan was investing to assist with commerce in Jacksonville, FL.  The wedding planner who only had a website is in Tampa and the parking app guys are in Arizona.  these are the two they picked out of the almost 600.  It's very mystifying why? Neither had ties to Jacksonville and did nothing for commerce in Jacksonville.  Again, if you look at the information posted upthread about One Spark, you will see both of these companies way down the list, each earning less than $300..  Why KYN fiercely supported these two in the last year is what many are upset about.

One Spark is a crowdfunding festival.  It's essentially a popularity contest.  Kyn is was an accelerator for new businesses.  The way businesses/creators receive funding in each is completely different.  Just because you received a lot of votes at One Spark and earned the larger chunks of the crowdfunding pie doesn't mean you're going to get backed by private capital from Kyn.  Kyn had their own application process for evaluating which start-ups they chose to fund.  And this makes perfect sense.  Just because an idea is popular at One Spark doesn't mean it's a viable business model/team worthy of substantial investment .  Frankly, if I'm throwing a million dollars into these high risk, high reward investments through Kyn I don't care where the start-ups are from and I want to be in the next Uber, Airbnb or Theranos whether there from Jax, Tuscon or Timbuktu.

I'm not endorsing/criticizing  the the start-ups that were chosen by Kyn, merely pointing out that Kyn and One Spark are two different entities with different selection criteria.  The real issue here is that some of the principals involved in Kyn (and their alleged poor financial management) are also involved in One Spark.