Startup Accelerators

CHAPTER 8How to Get the Most out of an Accelerator

If you don't plan ahead, accelerators will dominate your time with mandatory meetings, workshops, and events. You will surrender your life to the accelerator schedule for three months.

Lyle Stevens, co-founder Mavrck; alumnus, Techstars

Plan Ahead

In order to compress years' worth of learning-by-doing into months, and still significantly transform founders and their startup, accelerators will have a lot going on during the accelerator program. Founders may find the experience akin to drinking from a fire hose. From the very first day of the accelerator, startups will face a flurry of activity that includes events, workshops, meetings, mentoring sessions, urgent deadlines, and dynamically changing schedules. While a lot is on offer, not everything will be mandatory or a priority for each startup, and founders need to avoid being pulled into many different directions, and thus wasting valuable time. If they don't, accelerators may dominate their time with activities that aren't crucial. Alex Iskold, managing director of Techstars' New York accelerator, strongly advises startups to be clear on their company goals—and then to work backwards from those goals when setting goals to achieve during the accelerator.¹ After doing this, founders should then set and pursue the monthly, weekly, and daily goals that will drive achievement of the overall accelerator goals. He warns that unless founders are clear on overall company goals ...