Making the Most Out of Joining Plug and Play Tech Center
Launching and scaling your startup comes with an array of new experiences. Finding your first customers, pivoting, raising capital, being acquired are all likely new experiences for founders and early members. Joining an accelerator program may be a useful and make-or-break time in a startup’s life cycle. It can provide a few of those aforementioned experiences, namely helping to pivot, raising capital, and perhaps even being acquired.
Plug and Play Tech Center is one such accelerator. Based in Silicon valley and boasting of early investments in Google, Dropbox, PayPal, and newly minted unicorn Honey, it has become a powerhouse alongside the likes of Y Combinator, Techstars, and 500 Startups. Plug and Play operates with a slightly different business model however. Startups are able to join Plug and Play without sacrificing equity. Instead, corporate partners who pay into Plug and Play’s Open Innovation platform ultimately decide which startups join, allowing for startups access to big name corporates as potential customers and acquirers. Plug and Play will also then have an option of investing in those startups, but only if they come to mutually agreed terms. That said, Plug and Play regularly tops the lists of most active early stage investors.
I’ve had the privilege of joining multiple “batches” at Plug and Play around the world and participating in many of their official and unofficial events. My first introduction to Plug and Play was through their International Program held in Silicon Valley, which is usually a combination of Government-sponsored programs, and a bit of a crash course to the Plug and Play ecosystem. In my case, it was sponsored by the Korean Government’s Korea Innovation Center (KIC) program. While KIC organized their own accelerator program, we were essentially applying for a spot in Plug and Play’s International Program. Additionally, I have also participated in the more focused Energy & Sustainability program and the Houston office’s inaugural batch part of the same industry vertical, a program in the Indonesia office, as well as Plug and Play Japan’s IoT batch program.
While neither I nor Plug and Play can guarantee your startup’s success, I have been able to identify some tips and tricks to make the most of your time at Plug and Play.
Networking, Obviously
This is probably the most obvious area to focus on, but you would be surprised how many startups, especially from the international program, have trouble in this area. That said, it isn’t just about meeting people, but meeting the right people.
Don’t Limit Networking to Just Corporate Partners
Many people are coming through Plug and Play outside of the corporate partner innovation managers and representatives. Lawyers, VCs, research institutes, university partners, media partners, government partners and more come through the doors regularly (pre-Covid at least) or have some partnership with Plug and Play. If you are looking to connect with a specific entity related to business, you will likely find them and it could be at the lunch table.
Get to Know Other Startups in Other Batches / Alumni
This is a good chance to meet other high growth startups in various industries which could make for strategic partners, a talent pool source, or even just a new friend. Likely, they will also have their own advice to share.
Meet the Staff
You will be communicating with Plug and Play staff from your program regularly, but there are many programs and Plug and Play members you can interact with from various verticals, teams (program vs. venture), and locations. Especially if you are interested in a specific industry vertical or location, knowing the team members who drive those programs, invest in that space, or communicate with the corporate partners doesn’t hurt.
Find a Champion
This particular advice came from the Plug and Play Japan team and was more specifically mentioning the innovation managers from the corporate partners. That said, anyone within the ecosystem you can get to care about your product will make future introductions much easier. This can be from the staff, to mentors, to corporate partners, and more.
Be Willing to Share Your Own Network/Experience/Knowledge
I have found that most people you will come across in the Plug and Play ecosystem are very open and willing to share. Be sure to reciprocate and lend a helping hand when possible.
Pitch, Pitch, Pitch
Pitching is a part of being a startup. From an elevator pitch, to investment pitching, or maybe even in a startup competition. It is ingrained in the culture and frankly, some people hate it. At Plug and Play, there will be countless opportunities.
Always be pitching
I don’t mean this in an obnoxious or literal sense, but if you are networking correctly and meeting more of the Plug and Play staff, you may be asked to pitch at additional events outside of your program, furthering your reach and getting more exposure, ideally to the right audience.
Friday pitch sessions
Every Friday, Plug and Play Silicon Valley holds a pitch session with an industry theme. These are generally done by batch companies, but if your product or service is relevant and you ask the team in charge, or your program manager, you can also get in. Many outside corporates who have not officially joined the ecosystem join, the judges are usually executives in Residence who sometimes serve as mentors to the batch startups, and there are other VCs in attendance as well.
Events at Plug and Play or partner events
Even with the global pandemic pushing events online, Plug and Play organizes tons of events either directly, or simply through the community. These are generally open to registration and may provide an additional chance to present your company. As well, Plug and Play generally promotes external industry or partner events and may provide discounts for registration or special access to pitch competitions only for Plug and Play member companies.
Attend the Summit, and Any Summit You Can
Summits are like Plug and Play batch graduation ceremonies and happen quarterly. In most cases, the presenting companies are those finishing up their program. However, there may be an opportunity for non-batch companies to pitch if their solutions are a good fit for a specific industry vertical.
Treat the Summit as an Application
If you are able to get an invite to present during the summit for a batch other than your own, think of it as your application. The vertical teams will be getting feedback from the corporate partners attending, as well as other VCs and potential corporate partners attending the summit.
You may get an invitation for a umber of reasons, but it starts with networking, and always being ready to present.
Cross-vertical is Key
Plug and Play operates 60+ programs every year. Colloquially, these are called verticals, for example, industry verticals such as fintech, insurtech, supply chain and logistics, and many more. Other times, these programs can be divided by location, or as mentioned before into a generalized international program. Either way, it is to your advantage if you can work cross-vertically in Plug and Play as it will open you up to the larger corporate partner network and help to discover new use cases and clients. While it seems that each startup will likely already have a vertical focus, it doesn’t hurt to look through the other programs as you may have target customers in a variety of verticals and they are sometimes unexpected.
From International to Vertical-specific
In my case coming through the international program, it was a good chance to look through all of the verticals and match our product offering to the corporate partners which made the most sense. I remember very vividly looking up at the wall at Plug and Play which has all of the corporate partner logos and taking mental notes of various use cases which we could pitch to each. We ended up focusing on a utility use case and eventually joined the Energy and Sustainability program.
Plug and Play is “Open Innovation”
Do not feel that you are stuck in one vertical just because you are currently in that batch or program. If you truly believe you have an offering for another industry vertical’s corporate partners, ask for an introduction to the team and make your case. The same can be said for the location. If you would like to explore a new market, ask for an introduction to the regional offices as well.
Understand and Prepare for Dealflow
Deal flows are short, 20 minute one-on-one meetings with Plug and Play corporate partners. They are generally planned well in advance, but it is not unheard of to have a sudden opportunity. That is where always being ready to pitch comes in handy, however preparation is key.
Prepare in Advance
Of course you know that you should prepare in advance for a potential customer meeting. Where the real tip is, is to have a slide or 2 explaining how your company or technology is a good fit for the company you are presenting to. Talk with your program managers, mentors, and other startups who have met with them in order to learn what they are looking for. You may be meeting the innovation manager, someone from their investment team, or even the CEO. It just depends so try to prepare accordingly.
More Discussion, Less Pitching
As you only have 20 minutes, I suggest giving a brief introduction, around 5 minutes, and then share your proposal and let the discussion focus around it. If you are unable to make a direct proposal, start with some probing questions to learn what it is they are looking for. The attendees are going to have many of these dealflows over one or two hours, so it is best to engage them in a conversation rather than give them another presentation.
With all this said, you only have 20 minutes so just making a good first impression and leaving more to discuss in the future when they have more time is a good strategy.
Ask, Ask, Ask.
Having success at Plug and Play may come down to this very simple point. Ask for what you need. I’ve seen countless companies go through the motions of Plug and Play and complain that they didn’t get much out of it. In some cases, there may just not have been a good fit. But the vast majority I believe are simply because they did not ask for introductions, did not ask for a new mentor, or ask much at all.
The Plug and Play staff that I have met have always been more than happy to offer me any help I needed. Some have even gone as far to make a quick introduction to the CEO of one of our target customers who just happened to have stopped by the office.
And the end of the day, it may just be that simple.
