Tough to compare unless you've been close to both. A friend of mine was in a TechStars startup. Just got funded (in this economy!). http://foodzie.com/

The advice & support he got was really helpful. Lots of successful people's brains to pick, and enough cash & supplies to build a basic v1.0. I'm not sure what else to tell you...

Could you kindly elaborate as to the details of being "funded" in this situation? I am very interested in real numbers. (Obviously you may not be able to provide specifics, but even meta info would be nice, considering the product and the economic climate etc.)

They got $1 million: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/an-online-farmers-m... . Always nice to see another vertically-focused online marketplace get funded.

(Interesting note: we started getting a lot more interest once we stopped talking about ourselves as a platform technology that just happened to start off in video games and gear and just kept it simple in calling ourselves a marketplace for video games, systems, and accessories with no upfront mention of the platform. Lesson: tell potential investors the same thing you tell your customers; you can answer follow up questions however you want.)

If you're interested in the numbers: http://www.scribd.com/doc/9932346/Incubator-RoundUp-SeptDec-...