Startup Accelerators

CHAPTER 3Is Your Startup Ready for an Accelerator?

Startups get distracted by fake work. Fake work is both easier and more fun than real work for many founders.

Sam Altman, co-founder of Loopt, venture investor and president of Y Combinator

What It Takes to Get into an Accelerator

Getting accepted into a top tier accelerator, like 500 Startups or Techstars, can be a game changer for any startup.¹ For a start, it often comes with instant credibility (e.g., with prospective customers, future employees, and investors). It also usually comes with access to world-class mentors and networks, access to big-time investors, as well as a great opportunity to get startup strategy right. Perhaps even more important, it comes with a great opportunity to get the execution right (for example, by receiving hands-on help to initiate and close mission-critical partnerships and deals). Not surprisingly, the entry criteria for such accelerators can be steep. With reported acceptance rates of 1% to 2%, some have contended that it is easier to get into Ivy League universities like Harvard and Princeton^2,3 (who have acceptance rates of around 5%), than it is to get into a top-tier accelerator. But not all accelerators have such steep entrance hurdles. Our observation was that the acceptance rates and impact of accelerators on startup success roughly follow a normal distribution, as depicted in Figure 3.1. In this figure, the quality tier or effectiveness or success of accelerators increases ...