Unique and mature businesses will continue to evaluate various opportunities, transitioning into influential entrepreneurs with vital market solutions while preparing to penetrate new markets or disrupt oversaturated markets with innovative initiatives and futuristic brands. The crucial development includes streamlining the core business process and functional capabilities. When developing a concept or articulating the hypotheses, many will wonder how to build a solid foundation, how to move an idea forward, and where to obtain the necessary capital. Collectively, many variables are considered relevant to risk, opportunity, and required credentials to ensure success.
Does a question become whether to incubate or accelerate?
There is considerable overlap between the two methods as many inquiries continue to seek the applied benefits. The underlying objectives require proactively identifying risks, materializing a strategy, and managing the probabilities to ensure a specific outcome. Critical elements address the ability to move the concept into the market, creating a niche or first-to-market condition that stimulates a competitive advantage and initiates traction assurance. The idea generated by the startup mandates continuous support and a process of intense, rapid, and immersive education to condense years of learning-by-doing into merely a few months.
When considering the difference in the value offered, consider the following incentives and expectations.
Time commitment
The ability to work with like-minded people with similar interests and goals
Associated cost
Cyclical to the business cycle
Venture stage of capturing investors
The approach of applying education
Enabling a partnership through mentorship
Over the years, two major premier “accelerator programs” continue to flourish. The most popular include Y Combinator, launched as the first “seed” accelerator program. TechStars has two locations, (1) Boulder, Colorado, and (2) Seattle, Washington, providing services across the global landscape. Much of the growth of accelerators began in 2008, collectively with venture investments becoming broadly interested in various markets with a notable increase averaging 50% each year – between 2008 and 2014. More importantly, accelerators invested in more than 5,000 U.S. startups while raising $20 billion in funding with an expectation of increasing accelerator programs. A few companies have used accelerators, such as Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe, among several others.
Today's Success of Accelerators
The data presented by SEEd-DB is appropriate to Accelerators, and their portfolio of companies continues to impress with accomplishments. Seed-DB is worth mentioning, taking into consideration the aggregate amount of dollars. In my opinion, the top-ten accelerators would be the following:
Y Combinator - $5B
Techstars - $1B
AngelPad - $493M
DreamIT Ventures - $397M
fbFund - $359M
LaunchpadLA - $185M
SeedCamp - $137M
NYC SeedStart - $130M
Amplify.LA - $57M
Wayra - $44M
Why Accelerators?
(1) Why have accelerators taken hold in recent years?
(2) What makes them different from other early-stage programs?
Accelerators provide vital support for a challenging startup, from knowledgeable business owners and academic professionals to the program’s founders. The program continues to grow from instituting an experience distinguishable from other early-stage programs. Furthermore, the versatility of various resources contributes to new ventures beginning with several modular stages that infuse an immersive educational element to boost the acceleration of weak startups while demonstrating a unique method. Brad Feld, the co-founder of TechStars, said, “The focus is to learn at a rapid pace while learning-by-doing is vital when scaling ventures.” Their long-term success is notable by compressing years of experience to create a readiness to launch in a complex market
The benefits relevant to an Accelerator Program;
(1) When enrolling in an accelerator program, participants seek a rapid timeline to develop, merge into the market, and have the knowledge to remain successful. The program offers feedback, meetings with mentors, social activities, and other interactive events that directly apply to the startup.
(2) Investor access for startups is readily available from direct connections to local bankers, Angel Funding, Venture Capital, and Private Equity opportunities. Investor conversation is conducted on behalf of the entrepreneur to develop the startup further while illustrating the potential for return.
(3) An accelerator program furnishes a considerable amount of information from “years of experience and skills” that each mentor or board member has acquired. Such concentration of knowledge and expertise enables startups and early-stage companies to speed up their development with confidence. Instead of reinventing the wheel using predetermined templates, participants can leverage their years of accumulated wisdom to launch a startup in a more calculated, strategic method, suggesting an increase in success rates.
(4) In many cases, an accelerator program focuses on instruction, curriculum, and expanding knowledge and skills essential to operating a business and strengthening sustainability. Specific education points include sales and marketing to unlock new opportunities to grow revenue streams and engage new companies. The baseline of education focuses on developing necessary skills appropriate to market strategies, finance, and technical skills and sustaining a solid pulse relevant to key performance indicators, business objectives, and meeting critical milestones.
(5) Risk remains at the forefront for many, as the current failure rate of 50% remains for startups reaching five years. The risk is compounding when preparing to penetrate new markets, increase product offerings, and sell concepts. Extensive planning is the answer for the success of startups, collectively with various functions applicable to product development, price modeling, marketing strategies, ensuring an effective and efficient operation, and auditing finance capabilities, all of which directly impact the venture’s performance. Startups are finding it is safe to innovate through the process of development, exploring new possibilities, and implementing a different approach while capitalizing on a unique mindset that embodies a diverse experience, perspectives, and multiple resources.
(6) It can seemingly be overwhelming for various startups and early-stage businesses and impossible to visualize where the company may be in six months or even a year. However, it’s essential to imagine a long-term vision to forge critical objectives when evaluating the big picture. Mentors are motivated to assist in the complexity and guide the entrepreneur in the right direction. Their expertise enables the vital questions requiring critical thinking to assembling essential tools and practical tactics when navigating through the journey.
(7) The characterization of the accelerator model fosters growth in all phases of development. BAM nourishes a unique platform for startups, early-stage, and growth-driven businesses. The venue solves problems, emerges a concept, develops market strategies, uncovers detailed objectives, implements critical goals, and creates a plan to confirm current and future market share. The environment encourages a partnership between mentors and entrepreneurs to guide development through phases of the platform. Many have used the accelerator for the expertise to launch a more diversified venture or expand into new markets. Accelerators are known for solving problems, cultivating innovative methodologies to empower growth, and facilitating the necessary resources to maintain market success.
(8) The collective and collaborative environment motivates entrepreneurs to develop a product/service-market fit that aligns with early adopters. Interaction with other business owners, founders, and professionals is an inspirational reinforcement. It resonates when you hear their personal challenges, self-doubts, and extraordinary accomplishments. Moreover, their testimony reminds us that it is possible to overcome uncertainty while working together to remove the obstacles.
(9) The Accelerator Program does not end after launch or when entering a perspective market. A long-term relationship remains available throughout the life of the business. In addition, the alumni network is an added source to inquire about available talent and various investors and soliciting feedback throughout the startup or supplemental support in future developments.
In an article by Harvard Business Review, Ian Hathaway believes “a comparison of graduates of top accelerators with a set of similar startups that instead raised angel funding from leading angel investment groups - found that the accelerator graduates were more likely to receive their next round of financing significantly sooner.”
Additional research indicates accelerators aid venture development, establishing a foundation to primarily educate throughout the accelerator experience, exemplifying the value of a stable learning environment that promotes a higher success rate.
In most cases, accelerators positively affect startups relevant to performance compared with early-stage investors and sustain the ability to have a positive impact when attracting seed funding.
Evidence is encouraging when driving a favorable startup ecosystem across the global landscape when considering the rapid growth of accelerators. Universities may believe it doesn’t make much difference, but many do by referencing the success provided by accelerators. The ones that find accelerators most beneficial are the ones that significantly improve the odds of success.
The unique development of the B²Hub Accelerator Program capitalizes on expertise from our board members, resource partners, and investors. The board demonstrates various proficiencies from grant writing, industry experts, attorneys, accountants, and academic advisors that can offer essential services. The service side of development includes market research to find market gaps and evaluate competitors and market trends relevant to the selected demographics. Other services provided include patents, trademarks, copyrights, websites, advertising platforms (strategies), and contracts. As education and mentorship are the foundation of our success, we offer many online courses to build the proficiency of business owners and employees to safeguard sustainable success relevant to creating flexibility.
BAM - B²Hub Accelerator Program
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