Why We Made a European Alternative to Hacker School (opens in new tab)

Yup, we know...boy do we know. :) Rationally, and per our FAQ, we considered ditching it because the economics are marginal or worse. But neither Jose nor I could let the idea die. We hope the latest version hits the right combination of OK economics, and strong benefits for everyone involved.

We do it because we want it to exist. Getting past troubles in programming is much easier if you have people around, go for lunch, etc... who are pretty advanced. You are right that it's challenging to make it sustainable as a business. We are putting in serious hours (I'm fulltime on it since Nov 2013, and Kai is ramping up since he joined; he has his own clean energy startup to take care of too!). We do want Hacker Retreat to make meaningful money so it compensates the time invested, if anything. But this is no aim-for-the-moon startup.

They profit in changing lives.

Thanks! Short answer is, it depends. If we get really strong interest and commitment (like 20 people who will definitely be there), we'll do another batch in the Fall/Winter. Someway or somehow, space will be conjured up again and we'll make it happen. :)

One idea your question brought to mind is a form/list of people who really want to come and do it, just at a later date. Will set that up...

Depends which page you're referring to.

The article/link above makes the price clear, and also why we charge - we keep things simple and don't do the recruiting model.

The homepage doesn't mention price nor mentors; we wanted to keep it short. We'll likely add the price there.

Both the price and prior mentors (some are very likely to return) are clear on the offer landing page: http://hackerretreat.com/batch-next/ The exact lineup of mentors is TBD because we want to be sure to bring in people that participants want/need. You can judge from our past mentors, and our posts, what the caliber of mentors generally is.

Yep, they target a different audience. They're more for beginners who want an apprenticeship in coding. Whereas Hacker Retreat is for intermediate and advanced coders who have their own projects, and want to learn and apply advanced techniques.

I'd not stop you, but once your are here, I'm pretty sure you'll be sorry that you can stay only one month... apply though.

No. There's no product showroom there, just a cafe on the ground floor. Hacker Retreat is happening in the space above, where MSV's incubated startups usually are. They agreed to let us use the space in between their startup rounds.

It's a great working space. I spent some time working there as a Seedcamp startup. There's no OTT Microsoft influence, and the ground floor is really just a cafe (tad pricey) with lots of MS products on display.

I'm dead interested in this (just applied) and I'm definitely not financially settled - actually the opposite, finished a postdoc and am currently bootstrapping a startup. But the value of this looks amazing, so if I can put the funds together, I'm sure it'll be well worth it.

Short answer: There's a mix of people, and a few are students (college or graduate school). Some are remote coders. Some are doing startups. And some quit their jobs to come to Berlin. :)