What Startup Accelerators Really Give You?
Here’s Our Top 5 Takeaways From Zeroth!
As a startup founder with so little resources, you must have a lot to deal with everyday. You want some help, that’s why people now often ask “Do accelerators really help startups?” “How does one determine if they’re a good fit or if it’s the right time to join an accelerator?”
The number of startup accelerators/incubators has increased rapidly over the past years. You must spend some efforts on researches in order to find the right program for your team. In our very humble opinions, you need to clarify your purpose by asking yourself first
- What is the stage of your company?
- What do you want to achieve by joining an accelerator?
- What is the accelerator’s expertise? What do you need from the program?
After five weeks working very closely with the #Zeroth01 program, we believe it’s time to share the values we perceive . Here are the 5 reasons why we think Zeroth is so unique：
1. Strong Network
The most obvious benefit of an accelerator is the network of people that you connect with. As a start-up company based in Taiwan, all our members are Taiwanese with limited connections with people from the Western countries. Our goal is to build the super robust deep learning product for the whole world. Like many other entrepreneurs, one of the biggest challenges we faced was to try to build a solid network with the right people.Zeroth is highly specialized in our relevant field — AI/ML so that it is able to provide the teams access to world-class connections.
The first 2 weeks in Zeroth were “Mentor Madness”, and it is called madness for a reason. We met about 20 mentors over 10 days. It’s like speed dating, you have 20 minutes to talk about your company, ask the right questions and make an impression. The mentors include successful entrepreneurs, consultants and investors, such as Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype, and Rui Ma, partner at 500 Startups China.
2. Energetic Focus
The top three important instructions we received from Zeroth are focus, focus and focus. Nothing is more important than to focus on improving your core value.
We believe many of the start-up founders must be familiar with the following situation: You have too much on your plate and too less time to focus on your product. You thought they are all necessary for building your own business, but maybe they are not. Let’s do some math, assuming you spend 10 hours talking with potential customers and investors but only 1 hour on the product per day, that’s only about 10 days a year.
Time is precious. We realize the fact that we cannot take all advices and cannot do all. Staying focused and be exceptional are the keys. Now, whenever there’s a decision to make, we ask ourselves the following questions:- Is this really necessary or it is just another distraction? Will we still be in line with our mission after taking this task? Does this task bring us closer to the goals or farer?
3. Guidance
An accelerator can’t make a decision for you, actually no one can, instead, they will give you guidance, help you make the informed decision.
Another vital thing we learned from the program is to be true to your business. Being a startup is like being a little kid. A lot of people try to tell you that you need to study very hard to enter the best university in the world. However, they are not you and are not responsible to your life. What if you don’t like study science? What if you are actually a musician? In the end, the most important thing is to find who you are and what you are capable of.
In Zeroth, they don’t just like put you through another sort of “MBA courses 101” for startups founders. They really get under the skin of the actual thing you’ve built and offer you guidance and direction. Help you shape your business, and maybe help it grow.
4. Pressure Cooker
Accelerator environments are typically really intense, it pushes you to Do More Faster and makes you to achieve as much as you can in 3 months. This does require commitment, a tremendous dose of passion, and the determination to do everything it takes.
Working in a dynamic and energetic environment is stimulating to everyone. For the first two weeks in the program, we went back to hotel at late night every single day with the notebooks full of feedback, to-do lists, a stack of business cards, and the tiredness. A good accelerator may be super-intense and fast-paced;that’s how it shortens your roadmap and accelerates your business. When we left Hong Kong and came back to Taiwan — where our business would be built, Zeroth didn’t relieve the pressure when we were away. We kept good communication with the program to make sure our team grew as fast as we were in Hong Kong.
5. Love
We love Zeroth for its free milk, detox water, beer on tap all the time. Just kidding. Never give up your equity just for free beer!
People are saying that as a tech startup, you are judged by your technology, traction and team. We believe it goes the same way when a startup company is choosing an accelerator:
Technology (product) — Mentors；
Traction — Alumni；
Team — The Program Operator.
We LOVE Tak and his team! We believe a lot in them and we want to cowork with them, grow with them.
It’s amazing how Zeroth makes it so stressful yet cheerful working with them, so big thanks to Tak, Mike, Sumner, Maggie, Adam and Kate.
Hopefully this piece of our story is helpful to other entrepreneurs who are considering having their company participate in a accelerator. Positive experience depends on setting realistic expectations and understanding what these programs can and can’t do. We believe everyone can gain from joining the right accelerator for you.
