We’re thrilled to share the news that three of our clients — Tribe, Urban Leash, and Akouba Credit — have been selected for the Techstars Chicago class of 2015. Hosted at 1871, the program is one of the nation’s most prestigious business accelerators, attracting over 900 applicants from around the world. From that pool, only ten are ultimately chosen to participate.

In their coverage of Monday’s announcement, the Chicago Tribune noted both the experiential and financial advantages of the 13-week incubator that come in addition to the mentoring:

Companies enrolled in Techstars typically take $118,000 in seed capital in return for 7 to 10 percent equity. The basic agreement offers $18,000 for a 6 percent stake, but most companies take another $100,000 in convertible debt, for an additional stake of 1 to 4 percent, depending on the value of the company when it secures further funding, Henikoff said.

Techstars companies also receive a variety of perks from marketing sponsors, including legal and banking services, cloud hosting credits and frequent flier miles. The Techstars website values the perks at just under $450,000.

Perhaps even more beneficial than the cash is the opportunity for participants to meet and interact with over 175 professional mentors, an expansive list that includes investors, executives, and senior technical staff from places like Google, GrubHub, Lightbank, and Redbox.

Having worked with these startups up-close, we’re not surprised by their continued growth and success. In addition to having creative ideas and solutions to real problems, the founders of all three young companies seem to appreciate the importance of agility, particularly with regard to their go-to-market strategies. This emphasis is critical not just because they were able to win paying customers sooner than most, but because those customers were in a position to provide feedback that could be incorporated into feature direction, branding, and overall product strategy.

This is something we stress with every product development client we serve. It can be tempting to try and pursue a grand vision, culminating in a huge unveiling, but without qualitative input from users and quantitative data from their traffic, strategic decisions tend to be speculative. Instead of running the risk of heading in the wrong direction and burning up precious early resources, we advise startups to strive for lean first versions: minimally-viable introductory launches that validate core product concepts, but let the winds of customer demand inform the next steps.