
So, you want to go through an accelerator?
Some context about my project, Crumbs is an early stage startup that has the “big hairy goal” of reducing hunger through local food delivery. I decided to pursue this project after I had personally gone through two months of food insecurity. In one situation, I remember calling one of my friends and saying, “This is ironic! Here I am trying to solve hunger with this startup-thing and I can’t even feed myself”. The worst part of it all was going to bed hungry at night knowing there was no breakfast in the morning.
I was offered the opportunity to be in an accelerator known as the Google Launchpad for Machine Learning and AI. It was in New York and on a whim, I took the challenge.
Two months later I was back on my feet and I decided to apply to the Google Launchpad. Crumbs was a very early stage startup and I had received feedback that I couldn’t communicate my idea correctly. How was I suppose to go through an accelerator if I can hardly pitch it, let alone explain it? After I applied, I received a message asking to RSVP to the event and off I went on a plane to New York.
Below are things that I learned and some tips that will help any early stage startup make the most out of an accelerator.
Prime Your Network and Tools
Before you head out have your elevator pitch ready and let your mentors/advisors know that you are about to go through an accelerator.
Have your elevator pitch ready. The neat thing about the startup community is that they are quite supportive. At previous pitch competitions, I noticed that the crowd always applauded louder when founders fumbled their pitches. I like to believe this is a way to show support for the founder and to encourage personal growth. After I fumbled my pitch, I landed a great network opportunity by accepting the crowds’ support through a smile.
When I pitched, I was the guy that would rapid-fire nonsense and pepper in the odd forgetful blank stare. Thanks to one of the VCs, I was shown a trick to gamify and structure my idea for an effective elevator pitch. One can do this by first writing out the value proposition in the center of a blank page and surround it with value ads. After filming myself pitching and communicating the words that I had written in the most concise way possible — I had lost my stage fright and conducted a calm pitch at an event a month later.
Ask your network the essential questions. These three specific questions are essential at placing anybody in the right mindset for advising.
1.What were your previous experiences in an accelerator?
2.What would you do if you were in my situation?
3.Who would you talk to about if you were me?
These questions will allow your advisor to empathizes with your situation and add the most value to your goals. Fortunately, I knew I needed to ask my network these questions so I learned great tricks such as:
Take pictures of business cards with your phone and document meetings on Evernote premium. After the event, I became a big fan. I never loss a business card and noticed most start-ups/mentors at the event using it as well. If you want to download it, click here.
Post on LinkedIn and other social media what you are up to. Doing so landed me a great opportunity to meet with an old friend that runs several grocery chains. I never knew his work involved this area and I would have never known unless I posted on Facebook.
Use Your Early Advantage
I was an early stage start-up and it was intimidating but as the day went on I realized I had an incredible advantage.
We were asked to go on stage, pitch and say how much funding we had received. When other invested start-ups went up they gave numbers like $250,000–$500,000. I said I had received $750.
The advantage is flexibility and speed. Except for my personal values to solve hunger, I don’t have a team to comply with and I am not locked into a business model. Start-ups succeed because they can innovate a new product or service faster than a big publicly offered company can.
I was shapeless, it was easy to integrate mentor-suggestions that were impossible for an invested start-up to integrate.
Specialty VCs have incredible insight. Although I don’t have much experience in this area, receiving advising from a VC that is specialized in your field of expertise is essential. They know what other start-ups are working on and may advise according to it. One problem with doing this is that a VC will document your meeting and this may negatively impact your next session or start-up. Be on your best behavior and show coachability.
Machine Learning and AI
The Launchpad brought personal foresight in the machine learning sector. Data is becoming easier to access and allows more algorithms to train, learn and express confidence in innovative ideas. For example, in Calgary data on any property can be requested so that any home buyer is aware of geographical flooding. This kind of access could lead to creative innovation that entrepreneurs should take advantage of.
Undervalued at conferences, online learning and recommender systems are one of the best ways to bring value to your product or service. Although these were the only solutions I mentioned in my pitch — I plan to use unsupervised systems to validate platforms in many verticals for Crumbs in the future. If you haven’t done so yet, I highly recommend taking the coursera class in Machine Learning. It holds decent credibility in the industry and can be found here.
Remarks
Although it felt odd to be the only early stage startup at the Google Launchpad for Machine Learning and AI, I must say the experience was priceless. I made long lasting friends and industry contacts. I learned depth about the industry and have the intuition to better innovate Crumbs.
