How has being part of Ignite helped our founders?

Applications for our next accelerator programme in London are open right now, and I’m meeting as many founders as I can as often as I can.

One of the most common questions people have is , “What will it be like on the accelerator and how is it going to help me?”

Usually, we’ll give our opinion and some examples, and that does it. However the best way to really get an answer to that is to ask the founders and teams who have done it, and we commonly put teams that we select for programmes in touch with our alumni to get an open and honest view of what it’ll be like.

I recently asked the alumni to write down their thoughts on how Ignite helped them, they’ll all be going in a new section of our website soon but we thought that rather than wait for that to happen, let’s get some of them out there now for people to reference — so here you go:

“Ignite took us from an idea with a scrappy MVP and it’s cofounders chatting on WhatsApp, to a company with a major growth curve in users and an awesome product. We would not be where we are today, with tens of thousands of people using our fitness app across the world and a strong team driving future growth without the focus and business processes we learned during [the programme].”

Paul Slater, Co-Founder of FitGurus

“Being part of Ignite gave us the time and support to properly explore and validate our business and product. Having access to so many mentors and networks was invaluable.

We also met some fantastic people along the way. It’s great working with other teams during the programme and many of us are still in touch over a year later.”

Hannah Chaplin, Co-Founder of Receptive

“It was incredible to be surrounded by such passionate and smart entrepreneurs. The mentoring sessions were incredibly valuable, helping to shape a clear strategy for GoRaise. We’ve recently raised £600k, and this wouldn’t have been possible without the ignite experience.”

Gary Thompson, Founder of GoRaise

“Going on Ignite was by far the best decision we made for our startup. We grew our network, skills and became part of an incredible family! It was down to being on Ignite that we were able to go on to raise our seed round.”

Nafisa Bakkar, Founder of Amaliah
(Nafisa also wrote about her first weeks on the programme)

“Ignite was instrumental to our success. With their help, we changed the way we acquire customers, process bookings, and measure our success. The whole team came together during the programme and we were able to recruit talent through Ignite’s amazing network. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to build a successful business.”

Jean-Michel Chalayer, Co-Founder of LeSalon

“We categorically wouldn’t be here today without Ignite. Not sure I need to say anything else! Our time on the programme was genuinely life-changing, with the support and mentorship post-accelerator helping us to continue scaling Chew.”

Wil Benton, Co-Founder of Chew.tv

Without Ignite, Reposit wouldn’t exist. It gave us the time, space and funding to build out our ideas with constant advice and support from the people who eventually invested in us. Moreover, the sense of community is something you can’t put a price on; being surrounded by teams going through the same process as well as programme directors who’ve seen it a thousand times gave us the confidence to do it ourselves. If you’re committed and passionate about creating a business, Ignite will give you everything else.

Curran McKay, Co-Founder of Reposit

“Probably one of the best decisions in our startup life. Hard and bold decisions need catalysers and Ignite made their name stand up for what it means.”

Gilbert Corrales, Co-Founder of Leaf.fm

“Ignite provided us an environment which allowed us to discover what our business really does. Through the program, we were exposed to some of the best mentors I have ever met, and with the help of the the Ignite team themselves, we found our true market. The support continues even post-program, both from accelerator and the teams that were in it — it’s an Ignite family for a reason!”

Denis Konoplev, Co-Founder of Disperse.io

“I’m at least 100% better as an entrepreneur as a result of my time on Ignite. I wish I could have done it years ago. We’re now growing faster and making smarter, better decisions.”

Neil Cocker, Co-Founder of Ramp

Their own words, completely un-incentivised — go ahead and ask them. Sure, this is super positive and there’s definitely things people would also say they didn’t like, but more often than not, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Accelerators aren’t about pleasing people, they’re about supporting people. They’re about supporting new founders through a complex and intimidating time by surrounding them with other people in the same situation, going through the same experience and sharing the same problems and complexities whilst skilling them up to be better, stronger, faster versions of themselves.

If that sounds at all interesting, and you’re a small, early stage founding team with the beginnings of a smart, scalable tech company then we would very much like to hear from you because you sound like our kind of people.

Applications for our next full-time accelerator programme in London close at the end of July.

As we say here at Ignite, “Shy bairns get nowt”, so get your team together and apply.

Got questions? The Ignite team are doing a live Q&A online at 4pm on Wednesday 20th July. You can also check out the Ignite FAQ.