The first run of a pre-accelerator focused on blockchain
Accelerators such as Y-combinator and Techstars play an important role to startups. With a large network, full-time staff, and central locations, these accelerators offer much to companies at the cusp of growth in providing not only access to funding, but also equipping entrepreneurs with the training to scale a business.
Accelerators provide a vital function to the startup ecosystem. Pre-accelerators fulfill another need: creating a formalized program to connect experienced entrepreneurs with founders of fledgling companies to get them to the next stage.
I shadowed Startup Boost NYC, a volunteer-driven pre-accelerator pre-accelerator providing air (accelerators, investment, revenue) to startups in the validation stage through six weeks of pitch coaching, educational presentations, and mentor sessions. Let me tell you all about it:
Who gets in?
Startup Boost is a free program. None of the staff are paid, and neither are the mentors. To make the most out of the available resources and maintain high quality throughout the program, six teams were selected out of a great many, an 8% acceptance rate.
As seen, not all companies got in and this was not an opportunity to take lightly just because it was free. The goal of this program was to help these companies get to the next stage with the incorporation of blockchain technology. More importantly, it was to see where it made sense to achieve a technological advantage in using the tech, not as an added feature that wasn’t core to the business model. With the hype of the buzz word floating around nowadays, anyone can say they use blockchain, but what would be the point if it didn’t help a great deal with the business?
Going along with that, what does and does not make sense to an idea? Startups exist in the stages of idea, prototype, validation, early customers, and scale — Startup Boost takes companies at the validation stage, requiring cohort participants to have a working MVP. This MVP gets challenged, starting a process of repeated iterations over the course of the sessions after founders incorporate lessons learned from pitch feedback, teachings, and mentor sessions.
Pitching, teachings, and mentor sessions
A crucial part of being a startup founder is the ability to clearly describe your company, particularly when you meet potential investors, advisors, or partners. At Startup Boost, each session began with pitching practice: teams would give a 30-second or one-minute pitch and then receive feedback from the mentors — it was great to see the changes made to each pitch after every session, with the founders taking the advice given and incorporating them into new ways of presenting their companies. A great example would be how one team switched from originally having both co-founders present to pitching with only one speaker, allowing for greater focus on the content over the presenter. I remember one great rule of thumb on pitching: 30 seconds time is enough to give an introduction to your company as if at a business gathering or social event; 2 minutes is for a full explanation covering all the bases, leaving room for follow-up questions.
With any new technology, noise dominates and it may be confusing to know what information to take in and what to ignore. Furthermore, first-timers amidst activities such as fundraising can make sudden decisions with long-term consequences. Hence the importance of education: each Startup Boost session focused on a different topic, presented by a domain experts. Whether it be understanding incentive structures to help better design blockchain systems, learning about smart contracts and hiring developers focused on this, or raising funds, each session came from someone experienced in the field to provide practical knowledge.
These group sessions helped the collective cohort with knowledge and practice. The individual mentor sessions helped the founders in hearing from different, but all extremely experienced, backgrounds. With the general theme of entrepreneurship and the specific focus on blockchain, mentors came from these two camps, with some notable individuals including a senior member of a blockchain “conglomerate”, a venture capitalist, and an actively involved member of multiple accelerators. Hearing unfiltered advice from these individuals proved invaluable.
Time for another round
Session 1 is done, and there is more to come, most immediately this fall 2018. And not just in one city, but in multiple locations. See site for more details.
Startup Boost, originally known as Startup Next (part of Techstars), prepares startups for accelerators and seed investors. It is a passion project for all of those involved: program attendees, program managers, city directors, and mentors — the people make it happen. Thanks to everyone who helped out!
