Nashville startup Populr.me gets tough love in Silicon Valley
December 31, 2013 / Share:
Nashville startup Populr.me gets tough love in Silicon Valley
Q&A: Nicholas Holland
Nashville startup Populr.me was selected this year to join 500 Startups, a nationally recognized accelerator program based in Silicon Valley.
The program provides early-stage companies with funding, workspace and access to mentors from around the world. Founded by entrepreneur and investor Dave McClure, it includes a batch of 30 startups that Populr.me founders Nicholas Holland, Jared Scheel and Daniel Nelson have been involved with since Oct. 1.
Holland, CEO of Populr.me, shared his experiences at 500 Startups with The Tennessean before heading back to Palo Alto, Calif., where he and his co-founders will live through Feb. 15.
What has the 500 Startups experience been like?
I spend $3,200 a month on a 580-square-foot apartment. I sleep on the floor with two other men — one sleeps in the bedroom on the floor and another one on the bed. We are middle-age men used to sleeping in beds and having homes, basically crashed out in a terrible apartment.
What’s really funny is it’s been abnormally cold in Silicon Valley. Our heater is either too hot or too cold. We bike to work, four miles to work and four miles home, and I just crash in whatever I wore to work and cover up so I don’t freeze to death.