These 5 steps got our startup into a Techstars’ Accelerator

Metta Space was accepted into Techstars Workforce Development Program on 12th September 2022 (just under 2 months after we originally started working on our application) and the program began the first week of November.

Since joining Techstars as a portfolio company, they have helped us think more clearly about our solution, see the bigger picture of the market that we are in, and hone down on the aspects of our business that matter most to us.

You shouldn’t underestimate how much of a huge investment accelerators like Techstars are.

With that in mind, here are the 5 steps with data points - like how long it took us to apply , the interview process and our own application document — that will help your Techstars application and hopefully lead to a successful application.

If you found this article insightful and still want a first-hand experience with Techstars before you apply, you can register to watch our demo day happening on Feb 8th here.

Step 1 — Decide if Techstars’ accelerator programs are right for your startup.

Get it from the source — you can check out these series of articles ‘Inside a Techstars Accelerator’ written by Techstars themselves.

Step 2 — Figure out your criteria to choose which accelerator fits your startup best.

We knew that we wanted to join a program that was focused on:

1. GTM (go-to-market) strategy
2. Commitment to positive impact

A bit of context — we’re an all technical founding team so we only wanted to apply to programs that would help us improve how we were currently selling our product.

Here are the 3 programs that we applied for and why we applied to them (this is copy and pasted from our original application document):

Our first choice fit our criteria perfectly and we feel grateful to have joined the Workforce Development (WFD) cohort of 2023.

But how did we actually get our foot in the door?

Step 3 — Writing a ‘no-brainer-we-need-to-interview-this-startup’ application

The application had 3 sections and 25 questions.

Feel free to skip this part if you already have the application in front of you as it may have changed since we applied.

The questions:

Founder Profile

1. About you
2. Demographics (optional)

Startup Details

1. Startup name
2. Is your startup incorporated?
3. Startup URL
4. Date of incorporation
5. Enter your startup tag-line
6. What does your startup do?
7. What industry are you in?
8. Do you have any co-founders?
9. Are you based in or conduct business in Russia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela or the Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk regions of Ukraine?
10. Please share your product demo video (upload to youtube under unlisted mode)
11. Please share your team introduction video (upload to youtube under unlisted mode)
12. Please share your latest pitch deck (optional)

Startup Progress

1. Please share any traction metrics you have
2. Do you have revenue?
3. Have you received funding?

Startup Strategy

1. How do (or will you) make money? How much could you make?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. Who are your competitors or might become competitors?
4. What is your competitive advantage?
5. Why is this the right time now?
6. What is your customer acquisition strategy?
7. What is your grand vision, where do you see this going 5–10 years from now?

To organise it properly, my co-founder (Helena) and I transferred the questions onto a google doc that we could work on together and share with our financial advisor to review.

• It took us about 3 weeks to complete all of the questions from start to finish.
• We answered each question and ended up producing a 5 paged document of 1.7K words.
• As a tech team, we concentrated on data above everything else and ended up introducing more than 53 data points into our application.

What we didn’t realise at the time was that there were character limits to each question. So our original 5 page document was sent on afterwards as an addition to our application and we instead drastically shortened what we had written up.

Step 4 — Filming a team introduction video

Our team video introduction was the most time-consuming part of the application. We first wrote out exactly what we would say during the video and timed howlong each of ours parts should be.

• We filmed it on our phones front cameras
• Sat in front of white backgrounds
• Made sure we had plenty of natural light on our faces
• Wore plain t-shirts

Step 5 — Post-submitting application next steps

So what actually happens once you’ve submitted an application? Hopefully you’ll get an email saying that they want to set up another meeting.

This will probably vary from program to program but in total we had:

• 2 interviews where we had the opportunity to meet our future MD (Taylor), our Program Manager (Allie) and our Lead Operations Associate (Keeisi)
• 1 Q&A session with a fast-paced 15 mins screening committee
• 1 last call inviting us to the program by our MD Taylor

We officially accepted to join the WFD cohort on 12th September 2022 (just under 2 months after we originally started working on our application) and the program started the first week of November.

It’s been a whirlwind journey and worth every second. We’re so excited to be pitching at demo day on February 8th — you can register here if you would like to watch us pitch!

Thanks for reading and good luck with your application! Feel free to connect with me on Linkedin if you have more specific questions.