Startup Accelerator Programs
Birmingham has 1.2 million people in its metro area. We have many strengths in our almost-perfect market-size. Not so big that when you start a new business, you’ll get lost in the mix… its a market that a good product or service can penetrate fast and build a brand name they could potentially scale. But more than enough people to build a great company locally.
We have phenomenal cost of living and the same goes for doing business.
If you can create jobs and you know how to recruit, this place can indeed draw talent. You’ve got to be able to sell the city, though. Because too many people don’t know about what we have here. Once you get them here, though… the bar is so low that its impossible not to exceed their expectations. Not sure I want it like this. I would love to go from the “best kept secret” to the “cool city that has a movement going on that people want to join.”
We’ve got great food, shopping and things to do, with anything we don’t have in those realms, being a day-trip drive away in Atlanta or Nashville. The fact is that we are in a great geographic location in the middle of the southeast. You can get to Nashville, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Memphis, New Orleans, the gulf coast, etc… in a relatively short driving trip.
Birmingham went from the Pittsburgh “Steel City of the South” to a city reinvented, driven by medical and banking. But now, we are in a new era. Does that mean we won’t be based in medicine and banking anymore? Do we need another reinvention? Not necessarily, but we do need to evolve those industries.
Medicine becomes BioTech. Banking becomes FINtech. New niches in other practical industries must arise as well, with technology as their core competency. This IS the second industrial revolution. Technology has changed everything. A woman in Nigeria carries her phone around with more information in her hand than President Reagan and his entire cabinet had access to 30 years ago.
People are high on the direction Birmingham is going and I am excited too. But to sustain the growth, to fill up the residential and commercial real estate, to bring more businesses into the city, to draw more talent to move here… we need jobs. To create jobs, we need investors both from inside and outside of this city and state. To draw investors, we need startups with a successful track that produces promise for the future. Jobs. Investors. Startups.
We also need existing businesses to thrive. This takes customers embracing these local businesses that have proven themselves with a great product and/or experience, as well as businesses embracing each other. Working together. Not working against each other. Talking positively about businesses in other industries and even businesses in our own industry, whom we compete with. Positive messaging that we each speak within our city limits and whenever we travel outside of them. This is what we need.
Just two weeks in, it is CLEAR to me that the Velocity Accelerator Fund is going to be a catalyst in this movement that we need to see occur here in our city. The ten startup CEOs and their brands that were selected to be a part of our 12-week program, are a part of a story that is still in its preface or maybe the introductory chapter. There are many chapters ahead. However, the exposition of your story is important to set the stage that will be the foundation for our future of economic development and job creation.
Our startup CEOs (eight startups from Birmingham, one startup from DC via Togo (Delect.co) and the other from Slovakia (LikelyAI)) arrived for orientation with a serious focus that was apparent right away. They each received their $50,000 seed check and heard from Managing Director Nate Schmidt, Program Manager Estes Gould, Entrepreneur-In-Residence Billy Boozer and myself, as I merely volunteering my daily time to mentor to all ten CEOs for the 90-day program. They’ve continued to hear from us four, and selected mentors who are successful Birmingham entrepreneur stories, each day over the first two weeks of the program.
As a group, we’ve been doing our best to help these startup CEOs realize how important these 90 days are for them and for the Birmingham business community. Let me elaborate some of those key points.
For the Startup CEOs;
Know WHY you’re in business. If you don’t know this, the rest will not matter. You cannot be successful without a strong WHY.
Use this cash and all cash wisely. It goes fast. Be a steward.
Make the most of this opportunity by performing in a way that will make your pitch stronger when you speak on the final day of this program — DEMO Day.
This time will go fast and you’ll want to go back, if you don’t make the most of it. Work as a hard and smart as you possibly can and know your end goal(s).
Your product is important, but right now the most important objective is customer acquisition. This is what investors want to know. Prove a strategy for customer acquisition that you can talk about just as much as your product you’ve built.
Know your numbers and continue to build a story around these numbers each week, by showing growth in your weekly reports to us. Write a weekly report each week by Monday at 10a.
If you want to raise money, this is the time to do so. People have never been as excited to see a successful startup ecosystem in Birmingham, as they are today. Make the most of this!
For the Birmingham business community;
We have ten great startups working out of one incredible space inside of our city’s Innovation Depot incubator! Make the most of this and get to know them!
Come and speak with these startup CEOs and share you mistakes, your learnings and your successes.
For those who pursue you, mentor them directly.
Invest. This is it. You have ten companies that have been handpicked for a reason; they are promising startups that could be the next Shipt, Daxko, Fleetio, Atlas RFID, etc. Find one you like and invest.
It’s a motivating environment to be in. No matter what stage you’re in, if you want to join the movement, there is a place for you;
- If you’re a college kid looking to make a name for yourself, message me so I can direct you on how to become an intern for one of our 10 startups.
- If you’re a young professional looking to start a business one day, message me so I can direct you on how to apply to work for one of our 10 startups.
- If you’re an up-and-coming entrepreneur and you wish you were in this program, message me so I can make sure you apply to be in the program in January 2018.
- If you’re a successful entrepreneur, YOU MUST GET INVOLVED. We need you to become a mentor and an investor. We have investors visiting us each week from all over the United States.
If you’re local, you must consider getting involved.
