How Accelerators Are Helping Startups Optimize For Success

While building a business can be an incredibly exciting journey, it can also be a very insular experience for founders. Is the company growing fast enough? Is it evolving in the right direction?

Accelerators are uniquely positioned to offer startups a broader perspective in these early stages, as well as providing access to a wealth of connections and resources. SigmaLabs by Sarona Partners is one such example, supporting startups in Israel through programs and ecosystems that have a transformative effect on new businesses.

In this conversation with David Debash, COO, Sarona Partners and Shai Goel, Program Manager, SigmaLabs, they break down what participating in an accelerator entails and how founders can leverage this expertise to optimize for success.

What value does an accelerator bring to the entrepreneurial journey?

Shai Goel: Accelerators have the potential to be a great milestone on an entrepreneur’s path to success. They offer invaluable knowledge provided through mentorship and guidance given directly from experienced entrepreneurs. Accelerators can also open doors; connections truly are everything and, unfortunately, too many founders get stuck on their path to building a business due to a lack of network. When entrepreneurs join an ecosystem like Sarona Partners, everything their startup or scale-up might need is within arm’s reach.

How do Sigma and Sarona support high tech startups in Israel?

David Debash: We support high tech startups from Pre-Seed up to Series B. For emerging startups looking to scale, Sarona is a rocket ship enabling them to drastically shorten their time-to-market and reach their largest milestones faster. In the world of startups, the name of the game is SPEED.

How do you find the right ISVs to onboard?

David Debash: ISVs come to SigmaLabs and 365x Scale-Up through a few main channels. An important one is our ecosystem; we take ecosystem recommendations very seriously. Startups also come to us through word of mouth recommendations from alumni. Finally, we scout the best startups at events and through incubator programs and demo-days.

How do you act as an enabler for growth?

David Debash: We enable growth by really paying attention to our startups and giving them all the tools they need to succeed. This includes strategy, commercial access to customers and partners, and of course fundraising from tier-1 US investors and a closed network of active tech angel investors.

Shai Goel: Finding customers for our startups is a key part of helping them drive growth. For SigmaLabs startups in Pre-Seed stage, we help with design partners, LOIs and POCs, and for Seed and Series A startups in our 365x Scale-Up we provide active biz-dev through our existing network of C-Level executives in multinationals in US, Canada, EU and LATAM.

We also help startups build the base they need in order to scale by connecting them with the most relevant network of business and funding opportunities. Giving startups the correct base and the right network allows them to grow quickly without the fear of collapse.

What training and support do accelerators provide?

Shai Goel: Each accelerator focuses on different aspects of the startup’s journey. In SigmaLabs the support we give can be broken down into 3 categories: mentorship from industry experts in the form of one-to-one guidance; workshops which provide a great base for startups to learn skills and are followed up with office hours so startups can get into the nitty gritty aspects of their startup; and community — SigmaLabs leverages the entire Sarona Partners ecosystem, one of the largest entrepreneurial ecosystems in Israel right now.

SigmaLabs is one of the leading startup accelerators in Israel. It focuses on helping startups reach product validation, market fit and building the right fundraising strategy. Together with its growing community, SigmaLabs aims at providing startups the fundamental tools needed to optimize their likelihood of success.

Sarona Partners is a fast-growing international ecosystem aimed to help technology startup companies in Israel achieve global scale. Currently Sarona Partners operates a Venture Capital, co-working spaces in Israel, the leading Israeli Tech-Media and four startup Accelerator Programs.

To join the new wave starting in March — apply by 15 February on the website.