AlphaLab Kicks Off New Cycle [Virtually]
By Olivia Payne
AlphaLab, IW’s software accelerator, located in East Liberty, has kicked off its 22nd cycle! We have six great companies that will go through a 4-month program where they’ll receive investment, learn from industry experts, get connections to corporates and investors, and ultimately grow their businesses. What makes this year different from all others? The program will be run entirely virtually!
Today is the start of a short blog series. Each week, we’ll introduce you to a new company by way of Q&A with their founder(s).
This week, we’ll start with AlphaLab’s Senior Program Manager, Aaron Tainter. Aaron will tell us more about what to expect this cycle and how going virtual is allowing us to “A/B test”, right along with our companies.
How do you go about choosing the people who you invite to the accelerator?
In addition to the things that most accelerators look for: market opportunity, team, progress to date, ability to build product, we place a special emphasis on overall fit. What we mean by that is we want to make sure that we are able to help companies in the relatively short time they are in our program. So we want to make sure that the timing is right for the company and also that we have the right expertise within our team and our extended AlphaLab network to help the company we’re considering to get to the next level of growth.
When those companies accept the invitation, what do they get?
Those who join our cycle receive investment in exchange for a small piece of equity in their company. Normally, the companies would have access to a co-working space, complete with their own office in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood, along with weekly cohort lunches and in-person educational and networking sessions. But most importantly, they get to participate in a 4-month program that teaches them everything they need to know to develop and grow their business. They get connections to our network of mentors, corporate partners, investors, and technical experts. And our goal for each of the companies is that by the end of the program they are ready for their next stage of growth, which usually means some initial market traction and to get to a stage where they can attract outside capital.
What’s new or different about this cycle? Has the pandemic affected how this cycle will run?
Well, we started recruiting for the cohort in February, before the Covid pandemic resulted in shelter-in-place orders in the U.S. Our team had to quickly adapt to a virtual model for recruitment, company selection (interviews), and now our entire program is run virtually. We have tested different engagement models through virtual platforms like Zoom and Google Hangouts and rely more heavily on Slack for day-to-day communications.
We work with software companies so they are typically on their computers all the time. A lot of our virtual interactions are even more natural than I would have predicted. We’ve actually gained a lot of efficiencies through virtual methods. We can now connect with our mentors from all over the country in the same way.
So who exactly will you be delivering this program to? What industries will be represented in this cycle?
This cycle, we have a very diverse group of companies. There are five companies and their focuses are in fintech, fashion, influencer marketing, and eSports.
We are also very excited to welcome our very first non-profit that focuses on the fintech/human services industry.
What are you most excited about? Favorite part of the program?
In addition to continuing to test different virtual engagement methods, I’m really excited to watch the growth of these 5 companies over the next 3 months and to get to know the founders over the summer.
And to wrap it up, what’s your go-to fun fact about yourself?
We have a eSports company in our current cohort, and while I don’t play eSports, I am an avid Fantasy Sports player and play a lot of Daily Fantasy for most of the major sports. My specialties are Golf and Football.
Thanks for taking the time to give us some insight into the newest AlphaLab cycle!
This concludes our first interview of this AlphaLab 22 blog series. Check the AlphaLab blog each week for a new founder interview from AlphaLab Cycle 22!
