I am hard pressed to find one reason why this staggering growth is a bad thing. The world is rapidly building these fantastic mini-ecosystems that serve as on-ramps to the Startupalooza Highway. There are more flavors and iterations than ordering at a coffee house. Big ones, little ones, fat ones, skinny ones. I’m still waiting for an Accelerator for Accelerators.
The below fact was shared by Ash Fontana of AngelList at the Grow Conference in Vancouver a couple weeks ago:
“In 2010, there was 1 accelerator on AngelList. There are now 1,200+ YTD.”
Of all the startups in the current Promus Ventures community, 35% have been through accelerators and some have been through more than one. The people who run and help mentor startups in most every accelerator I’ve visited are genuinely passionate and dedicated to helping each company in every batch according to their unique needs. Every startup is a unique organism — there is no playbook to just take off the shelf to fry up a successful company.
In that vein, accelerators are like great cooks who can come into a kitchen, find whatever is in the fridge and pantry, and whip up something that tastes fantastic. They know the ingredients that can spice a dish up without being too overpowering, as well as the many other ingredients better left on the shelf. The total sum of external touch points within a compressed time period for a startup generally leaves the founders more focused and passionate about their mission and vision.
More important is the alumni network inherent in each system. Every startup genuinely appreciates the mentors and help, but gush poetically about the friends they make in the process, and the ability to tap into the accelerator’s vast pool of alumni. The lifetime value of these strong and helpful alumni networks continually rank as the greatest aspect of accelerators.
Last year a founder that I had known for a bit and checked-in regularly with sat down with me for coffee in San Diego. He told me they applied and were accepted into a well-known accelerator, and was debating whether they should go through the program. His company was on the precipice of scaling, and didn’t want to divert attention from the business. He ultimately decided to participate, and the program acted as a slingshot that catapulted the company to a new level.
I have also met many startups that for various reasons decided to forgo the accelerator route, even though they acknowledged their networks would have been greatly improved. Where you are in your startup cycle matters greatly, and I would recommend that every startup seriously considers the value of entering an accelerator program early in their life. Although the equity and time dilution is not negligible on the front-end, the benefits on the back end seem to most often outweigh the costs.
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