Orientation Week Review — Iowa Startup Accelerator
Last week, we accepted three new startups as part of the Iowa Startup Accelerator 2017 cohort. As part of their introduction to our accelerator, Agro Connected, Cargofy, and GOVRED Technologies went through a week long orientation program filled with workshops designed to help them hit the ground running.
When we changed our accelerator’s structure to be more flexible, we knew that there was still a need for some serious hands on training with our startups in the beginning. So, for the first week, we fill every single day with workshops and speakers. We take a holistic approach with our programming in orientation week, covering everything from strategic planning to public speaking. Most of the workshops were introductory in nature, but they were designed to leave our startups with actions they could take immediately.
One of the main focuses for orientation week was a full day of Agile training. Nate Adams, NewBoCo’s Agile Coach, ran a hands on series of exercises and lecture to teach the new teams about the basics of Agile and Scrum. We focus so heavily on Agile because we’ve seen how powerful it is — we actually run our entire nonprofit on Agile because of this. Agile and Scrum give startups the structure to rapidly iterate and be ruthless about prioritization — two things we’ve noted to be critical for their success. Each week in our program is a sprint for a team, and we’ll facilitate Scrum ceremonies with them every Friday to check in on their progress.
We also focused heavily on communication skills with a broad set of workshops from very different speakers. Strategic planning specialist, Jennifer Horn Frasier, ran a workshop designed to help the summer batch choose their mission, vision, and value statements. Ben Kaplan, NewBoCo’s videographer and former reporter, led the cohort through mock interviews and taught them about how to interact with the media. Immediately following this workshop, the cohort put their newly learned skills to use as they were interviewed by the Corridor Business Journal and The Gazette. Keith Dahlby, a former startup CTO and current software architect for NewBoCo, taught the group about communication tips for distributed teams. And in one of our most hands on, full body workshops, Kristy Hartsgrove Mooers, an adjunct theatre professor at the University of Iowa and actress, coached the teams how to deliver their pitches with passion by using theatre techniques.
Orientation week, however, is far more than just high quality programming. It also helps foster a sense of camaraderie amongst our startups and it gives them a shared language to talk about their work. Providing a common ground for our startups to get to know each other allows them to constructively discuss ideas across teams. Oftentimes, our startups become some of each other’s best mentors as they work through different business struggles together. Building up their connection to each other is crucial for their success.
Not only does the orientation week into the program allow the startups to get to know one another, it also provides each team multiple opportunities for networking with mentors, investors and ISA alumni. We hosted a mentor and investor happy hour, open coffee in the NewBo district, and a mixer between NewBoCo and the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance staff. By having the chance to openly discuss their businesses with interested parties, the teams are able to get valuable practice in pitching their ideas to people that may be able to help further their interests.
We couldn’t make orientation week happen without support from our mentor network and accelerator alumni. All of the people involved are incredibly busy people, but they knew how much value they could add to our startups by being involved. Their dedication and expertise help make our program possible. Going forward, each team will generate weekly newsletters detailing their progress for their stakeholders. They’ll also participate in weekly workshops, networking events, and Scrum ceremonies with us. We’re really excited about the progress our teams made in their first week, and we can’t wait to see how they grow and change their businesses over the next 12 months.
Note: We’re constantly refining our orientation week programming to make it the best experience possible for our startups. So, while we expect the fall orientation week to be similar to this one, some aspects may be subject to change a bit to adjust to the needs of the next group of startups we accept. Stay tuned to learn more of what we’ll have planned!
