A Business Accelerator is a program that gives developing companies access to mentors, investors and other support that help them become stable, self-sufficient (and hopefully) profitable businesses.
Is that sexy? I’d say so! Most entrepreneurs can find some benefit from accelerator programs. However, what I’ve found, a lot of them don’t know about it. As entrepreneurs, we need EVERY resource available to us. The problem is, we don’t have managers telling us where to look or what to look for.
Sure, we have Google and the World Wide Web at our fingertips the vast majority of the day but if you don’t even know what you need…well, good luck.
Accelerators are typically for the “toddler companies” meaning, you can walk but you still fall every once in a while. Far from running, your no Usain Bolt… yet, but you have the potential to be.
These programs aren’t long, don’t worry you aren’t going back for your Master’s Degree. They are fairly short term, 2 to 6 months long. By the end of the program, you should be ready to sprint & take on the world. Well, in your industry at least.
So you may be asking yourself what’s the downside to being in an accelerator program? In my opinion, none. Do you have to pay? Typically not upfront which is beautiful. You might have to pay in equity of your business (a small price for all of the available resources) and you may have to give up a percentage of the future funds you raise because of the accelerator but again…these are typically funds you wouldn’t have had access to without going through the accelerator program.
If you are interested in finding a Business Accelerator I strongly encourage you to do so. Of course, you can Google “Business Accelerator” but I will also provide a list of some of the more popular ones below.
- Y- Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
- TechStars: https://www.techstars.com/
- TechStars: https://www.techstars.com/
- 500 Startups: https://500.co/
- MassChallenge: https://masschallenge.org/
- StartUp Boot Camp: https://www.startupbootcamp.org/
Good Luck Entrepreneur. Please make sure to check out all of our business articles. We want to see you succeed and as an entrepreneur, you need every advocate in your corner that you can get. We’re here for you.
