By all accounts, yes they are a SCAM.

They may have good intentions, not sure. I talked to them, then talked to a "graduate" I happened to know. They will teach you basic stuff about raising a round, not about building a business or something people love. So they are after people who are desperate to raise money. They lure you in with "investors" but there aren't really any.

I say stay far away.

Just got this e-mail in my inbox. Just replaced my company name.

Subject: What's Beta's post-COVID plan?

Hey Tima,

Looked into Beta today--pretty cool what you're doing.

As a remote accelerator, we've had a spike in applications recently from startups forced to go remote because of the quarantine, and much of our investor network is still investing.

We’re interested in what you’re building, and since many companies are gearing up for the post-pandemic economy I thought Beta would be a good fit for our accelerator.

Just to give you a quick run down:

-We run several cohorts per year for startups in the Pre-Seed, Seed, & Series A stages, investing up to $250k into the top companies. -We've helped companies raise over $150m+ in funding. -We help companies with marketing, fundraising, growth-hacking, and even exit plans in our curriculum and 1-on-1 advising. -Our program includes free resources like Foundersuite, AWS credits, Microsoft Azure, etc. -We've always been a remote accelerator well before recent events--our entire program is designed around connecting founders with mentors and investors remotely.

If you’re interested, you can read more about the program and apply here: https://launch.newchip.com/apply-now

-Ryan

P.S. We’ve been working 24/7 reviewing investments for our cohort companies from our demo day, but feel free to message me if you have any questions (might take me a day or two to respond but I will!)