Accelerators in general are great, the whole purpose of an accelerator or incubator is to bring together a group of like minded individuals who are doing awesome things and assist them in progressing their company forward. However, you should know that an accelerator is not a magical place with elves and hobbits… well sometimes we have those things, but generally the progress is generated through hard work, and the people who truly take advantage of a good accelerator program are able to generate 5X the productivity they would have on their own. In order to understand how to do that, it is important to understand what accelerators are good for from the startups point of view.

Access to a Network

Just as every person should judge a book by its cover, everyone should judge an accelerator by its network.

I list this as number one, because it is the most important for a startup to understand. THE MOST important thing that a startup can get from an accelerator is the network. So when reviewing accelerators, a startup should be trying to understand if the network of the accelerator is the right network for them. Does the accelerator have a great group of mentors connected to the program? Do they have good relationships with investors? How many degrees of separation are they away from Kevin Bacon?

This also represents access to the other companies in your batch that the startups end up “Fighting in the trenches” with. Knowing that these are high quality and talented people is pretty important. In a technology accelerator, we have found that a majority of the founders should be technical. We always say that teams need to have the “means” to build the product they are pitching.

Industry Knowledge

There are three channels in which startups will receive industry knowledge while participating in an accelerator.

• Speakers — Speakers are pretty great to have during an accelerator program. Having a big named investor come talk about investing, or someone who has raised funding talk about fundraising adds a lot of value to the basic knowledge base of companies.
• Mentors — Having mentors super involved in an accelerator program are core to producing a quality session. It is important to understand what the mentor program at an accelerator is when joining, and how the accelerator works with the mentors. This should give you an idea of how involved they become.
• Other companies in the program — It turns out when you get a lot of very talented, very ambitious people in a room together, even if they are all working on different projects, there is a lot of shared knowledge that goes on. And generally someone in the room has the help you need.
• The Network — Most accelerators should be open with their rolodex if they have accepted a startup into the program. This would mean that if there is a specific person you want to get in touch with, you should be able to get connected to it by the person who runs the program.
• The People who Run the program — Generally people who have started an accelerator have experience either investing in an industry or starting a company in an industry. They are now trying to help companies get started, because they have valuable experience to advise with.

Confidence

By accepting a company into a program, the accelerator is not only giving a startup a network, and not only giving a startup some money, one of the most important things we give startups is confidence. Confidence that they are crazy, but just crazy enough that their idea might work. I have found this to be more valuable than any money.

Friends

Friends are always good. Be friendly and you might meet some.

Drive you to be better

When you are surrounded by talented individuals who are all working as hard as they can to succeed, the atmosphere rubs off on everyone and increases productivity 5X. It gives startups a touchstone for how hard they have to work in order to be the hardest working and most productive.

Accountability

Throughout a program, you are held accountable to mile stones, these mile stones help you show progress and progress helps you feel like you are headed in the right direction. Not to mention, investors love to see progress. And really, investors only invest after they see progress.