Six ways we secretly judge your accelerator application

We’re recruiting once again and want to remind founders of best and worst application practices. Keep reading to find out how to get a smile and avoid an eye roll as we scroll through your materials.

Cohort 4 hustling away

1. Have so much self-awareness that you’re borderline weird. A recent team approached us with the acknowledgement of their team gaps. They let us know how/when they would fill them, identified some people they were targeting, and then talked about the steps they were taking to reach those folks. That’s both refreshing and admirable.
2. Overshare. We ask about your passions and challenges beyond your startup to understand how you’ll contribute personally, professionally and in the community. Tell us why you’re a great addition to our MiLA family and how you make the world better. Maybe you socialize puppies as a side gig? We love puppies!
3. Stalk us. No, just kidding. Please don’t stalk us. We’re actually very accessible and love to meet founders while we attend events, participate on panels, host office hours, and judge pitch competitions. Meeting us early gives you a head start and increased opportunity to impress us. And it allows us the chance to help you make smart decisions.
4. Know your business. You should be knowledgeable about your numbers and your competitors; more knowledgeable than us. We are mass generalists and should not be surprising you with knowledge of competitors or acquisitions in your industry.
5. Know what you don’t know. It is amazing how many founders don’t know their market size, cost of customer acquisition, BOM costs, sales price and margins. But what’s more damning is when we find founders who lack as a desire to know their numbers. Many also fall in the pitfall that they are 100% right. They know everything and they have discovered product market fit. It’s hard to have product market fit, but we want to know how you have and will continue to derisk product market fit as your business evolves.
6. Know the process. On our website we have an application, a timeline, and FAQs. While there may be room for improvement, we have a process publicized. Too often, a founder is eager to come in and do a demo. They aggressively push for an office hours appointment or demand a meeting on their next visit to Los Angeles. While we love assertive founders, they need to do their homework first. And then ask us questions instead of pitch. It is amazing to us how some of the pushiest show up unprepared, expecting us to give a tour and then fall in love. The best office hours are the ones where founders ask us the hard questions because they want to understand if we are a fit, and they prepared for the meeting by doing their diligence on us.

How can you float your application to the top of our pool? Embrace the following attributes and let your application exude them. At Make in LA, we value founders who are:

Curious > Product-Market Fit

Principled > Polished

Creative > Experienced

Hungry > Aggressive

Confident > Arrogant

Does this sound like you? Apply here.