Is Your Team Ready for a Startup Accelerator?

In my last article, I talked about team building for early stage startups. Team building is necessary to support a startup’s growth, but it’s even more critical that a startup be agile and have the ability to move quickly.

A startup accelerator can be a great enabler of growth for early stage companies. The benefits are numerous, but one of the main reasons startups look to accelerators for support is because of their ability to move things forward at a rapid pace. Whether this be through product development, engineering, marketing, or fundraising, an accelerator ‘accelerates’ a startup’s path to success.

At RNOX, our mission is to “Accelerate the Next regional technology powerhouses of Nevada” and we measure our success on the success of our companies. We’ve seen an incredible demand for our fall program, so I wanted to talk about some of the things that we look for when talking to startups.

The key areas of focus are:

The Problem:

Can you go in-depth about the problem your startup is working to solve? Successful startups have something in common, they focus on solving a specific problem. Your team should have a deep understanding of the problem and be able to articulate why people care about it. Teams who stand out here are typically building a product that solves a problem that they themselves have. If not, then they have talked to many potential customers with this problem.

The Solution:

Are you working on an idea that has the potential to be great? Early stage companies may have little to no revenue and zero users, but if they can explain the benefits and value of the product, it can help to show that their startup has huge potential. When talking about the solution you don’t need to have a polished version of your product. Slick videos and graphics aren’t necessary at this stage, it’s more important that you can communicate how your product solves a specific problem and provides value that your users demand.

Market Size:

Is there a significant revenue opportunity? Is there a segment of customers who are looking for something new or different in either an existing or new market? If there’s a strong demand, then you should highlight this. Even an imperfect product can succeed if it meets a strong demand. Luckily, most accelerators, and I’d also include investors here as well, will see this opportunity and guide you accordingly.

Business Model:

How do you plan to make money? It’s vital that you are able to explain how your startup will make money. This includes how you’ll market your product, set pricing and your plan with a specific timeline toward profitability. The gratuitous hockey stick graph should be replaced with a grounded conversation about your business model and how & why you’ve arrived at your assumptions. Almost every early stage company will be challenged with making accurate revenue assumptions, so the time spent building fancy charts and graphs should be spent on coding or talking to potential customers.

Competition:

Who are your competitors? I think some startups are hesitant to do the research and see whether they are building something truly unique or something that will have strong competition. Learning that there are others building what you’re building can be demotivating, but it should also serve as validation that you’re building a product that people want. Knowing your competitors and how your product stands out — your unique value proposition — is an important element of how to pitch to a startup accelerator.

Go-to-Market:

How do you plan to acquire customers? In addition to understanding whether you’re building something that customers actually want, you should also have a plan which defines how you’ll reach those customers. Regardless of the market you’re entering, it’s important that you and your team have a strategy for acquiring customers. Knowing the problem and talking to potential users is key. “If you build it, they will come.” is not a go-to-market strategy.

Team:

Who’s building this and why? More than anything, startup accelerators invest in people. One of the main reasons startups fail is because team members are not aligned on a shared mission. I encourage you to talk about the team and why your team members are the best people to be working on your startup.

Traction:

How much progress has been made and what are your key milestones? You should provide a high level view of your development roadmap. It’s common to underestimate the amount of time it takes to build something, so be transparent when talking about your development efforts. A startup accelerator will not expect perfection, but will want to know that your team is moving forward quickly. Momentum is key

Every startup and entrepreneur is at a different stage in their journey and an early stage startup may not have all the answers, but being able to demonstrate that you’ve thought about these things will go a long way in ensuring your path toward success. At RNOX, our entrepreneurial development programs have been created to accelerate that path to success. Find out more here.