NEGATIVES (why you shouldn’t join an accelerator)
Accelerator-hopping
– Perpetual grad student
Puts off risk & real decisions
– Training wheels
– When do you kick the baby out of the nest?
– Does this kind of support attract the best entrepreneurs?
– Miss opportunity to build character, as Aerosmith did on their first, D-I-Y tours.
Overexposure
3 CATEGORIES OF ‘ACCELERATOR’
Founders: These organizations start new companies in-house, from technology or ideas.
Examples:
– Idealab
– Universities
– Venture firms – Flagship Ventures, Kepha Partners, Highland (Entrepreneur Center)
Investors: Structured like venture funds, they take equity in participant companies
Examples:
– Techstars
– Y Combinator
– Vermont Center for Entrepreneurship
Vendors: Provide services in exchange for fees, or use other revenue models (corporate / government / nonprofit sponsorship or affiliation)
Examples:
– Cambridge Innovation Center
– MassChallenge
– DogPatch Labs
– Summer@Highland
SERVICES
Program focus:
– Time to market
– Funding
– Customer acquisition (B2B/B2C)
– Bootstrapping
Modes of delivery:
Peer-to-peer
– Established companies inside an accelerator are an ‘engine’ to pull new companies
– Ad hoc social conversations
– Participation: You can’t sit in a corner and code
– Can an accelerator attract quality peers? If they have attractive terms, yes.
Referral
– Platform for access to industry advisors, mentors
– Speakers
– In Techstars, mentors provide 80 percent of the value – per one participant
Competition
– Business Plan Competitions
– 3 to 4 days
– emphasis on presentations
– 7 out of 10 participants are ‘real businesses’
– ‘Act of preparing’ for competition is helpful
MassChallenge
– Connections
– Lean Startup Challenge
– Competition prize serves as a ‘rallying point’ for team – more than a motivator for individuals
– Deadlines
– Peer pressure
Any program for which entrance is competitive (Techstars, Dogpatch): Can it motivate entrepreneurs through the application process alone?
STAGES OF COMPANY BUILDING: Different programs work at different stages, and some are complementary to, or feeder programs for others.
Idea stage
– Summer@Highland (some momentum behind the business – product dev, team, advisors)
– Universities: Launching entrepreneurship programs to prevent student attrition to startups.
– MIT MediaLab / e-Center
– Harvard Innovation Lab
Established company, with ‘some’ funding: This is where equity-based accelerators like TechStars typically fit in. DogPatch also plays in this area.
– DogPatch: 70 percent ‘established’; 30 % are ‘two guys, a keyboard and a goat.’
RESEARCH
Northeastern University survey for entrepreneurs, studying the impact of accelerators: http://bit.ly/helpafounderout
