As a founder I've been approached by numerous -pardon my expression- sketchy so-called accelerator programs over the past few years that I resonate a lot with this article. Time and time again I bump into follow-on-only funds soaking up founder time with difficult-to-discern value add, sometimes even trying to charge founders $5k - $20k to join. It really refreshing to encounter Boost and the minority of others holding true to the founding principles of what Accelerators are meant to be. Thanks for what you do!!
I think the goal is always to service the customer, who is the startup. When thinking in terms of that, it helps us build something cool. Solving one problem at a time. ALso my team is awesome that helps.
Great post and also loved your book. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on whether the gold-rush towards accelerator model is just to copy YC's success, or is part of a general re-orientation towards early stage rounds as the highest-performing investments when compared to growth rounds. Eager to learn more!
Thank you for this article. I just shared it with my network. For me startups are the future lifeblood of our economies, it might sound to over optimistic but I know how much corporates learn from startups. I am still fairly new as a “corporate dropout” in 2019. Founders need to learn and move things on the fly and a good accelerator is enabling that without to much restriction. I have seen quite some accelerators and see huge differences. For me there are still missing pieces to make it holistic like focusing on leadership and personal growth enabling the founders way deeper than today where it is 90% on functional building the business.
Amazing insights as usual. Thanks for the nuggets. As someone who works with a business incubator, we shall do well to incorporate these best practices
As a founder I've been approached by numerous -pardon my expression- sketchy so-called accelerator programs over the past few years that I resonate a lot with this article. Time and time again I bump into follow-on-only funds soaking up founder time with difficult-to-discern value add, sometimes even trying to charge founders $5k - $20k to join. It really refreshing to encounter Boost and the minority of others holding true to the founding principles of what Accelerators are meant to be. Thanks for what you do!!
I think the goal is always to service the customer, who is the startup. When thinking in terms of that, it helps us build something cool. Solving one problem at a time. ALso my team is awesome that helps.
Great post and also loved your book. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on whether the gold-rush towards accelerator model is just to copy YC's success, or is part of a general re-orientation towards early stage rounds as the highest-performing investments when compared to growth rounds. Eager to learn more!
I'm replying to this in the post I'm writing today.
Thank you for this article. I just shared it with my network. For me startups are the future lifeblood of our economies, it might sound to over optimistic but I know how much corporates learn from startups. I am still fairly new as a “corporate dropout” in 2019. Founders need to learn and move things on the fly and a good accelerator is enabling that without to much restriction. I have seen quite some accelerators and see huge differences. For me there are still missing pieces to make it holistic like focusing on leadership and personal growth enabling the founders way deeper than today where it is 90% on functional building the business.
Thanks for reading. I’m glad this was useful and there’s Always more ways an investor or accelerator can help startups. :)
Someone I once knew, read everything Elon Musk posted, wrote, etc.; can I be accepted into Boost this time?
Amazing insights as usual. Thanks for the nuggets. As someone who works with a business incubator, we shall do well to incorporate these best practices