Should You Join a Startup Accelerator?
If you have a startup, then some of the things you need include some direction, advice and funding if you are to grow it, as per the gurus over at runrex.com. This is where startup accelerators come in as they bid to help startups by providing guidance, mentorship and financing helping them grow. As discussed over at ppchire.com, when a startup joins a startup accelerator, they do so for a fixed amount of time, which is dependent on the accelerator’s program. Most startup accelerators usually come with a promise of rapid growth of your company within a matter of months and they are usually very tempting, especially since most of them also promise to secure you a first big round of funding at the end of the program as revealed in discussions on the same over at the highly regarded guttulus.com . The questions that most startups are faced with is if it is worth joining a startup accelerator. The truth of the matter is, despite how tempting joining a startup accelerator may seem, it may not always be beneficial to join one and whether or not you should do so depends on a number of factors. This article will look to highlight some of the pros and cons of joining a startup accelerator as well as what to consider before joining one with the hope that it will help you decide if you should join one or not.
We are going to start by highlighting some of the reasons why you should join a startup accelerator; the pros of working with one as it were. As per the gurus over at bitgale.com, one of the biggest advantages of joining a startup is due to the comprehensive support you will get form one. Given how difficult and demanding it is to operate a startup, joining a startup accelerator may provide you with some much needed support. This may be emotional support as well as knowledge, direction, mentorship as well as the support and experience of other founders in the accelerator program. Another benefit of joining a startup accelerator is so that you can get access to investors, which you need as a startup. Investors will naturally be drawn to accelerators with the hope that they may unearth the next big thing as discussed over at runrex.com. It therefore allows you to meet investors, especially during a startup accelerator’s demo days, which can open the door for you to receive some much needed funding. Speaking of these demo days, which are covered in detail over at ppchire.com, another advantage of joining a startup accelerator is the fact that most of them invite target audience members to listen to startups share about their projects during these demo days. This provides you with a chance to gain future customers by providing you with advanced publicity. There are many other advantages to be had by joining a startup accelerator which is why most startups actually do.
On the flipside, it is not all rosy as far as startup accelerators are concerned, as there are some drawbacks to joining one. One of them, as per the gurus over at guttulus.com, is that since there are many accelerators in the US, with more cropping up each day it seems, then it means that there are fewer and fewer high-quality startups out there given how diluted this market is becoming. In most cases, you will find startup accelerators that have very weak relationships with investors which means that when their demo days come, there will be very few, if any, investors in attendance making it difficult to get funding as discussed in detail over at bitgale.com. Finding a good startup accelerator is more difficult nowadays given their sheer number out there. Given that a startup accelerator’s main benefit is to help startups get funding, despite the fact that many champion many other benefits, if the aim for your startup is not to raise funds, then it may not be beneficial to join one as per the subject matter experts over at runrex.com. Finding a startup accelerator that offers a lot more than just access to funding can be difficult hence why sometimes it may be prudent to not join one. Most accelerators also require startups to meet with mentors and other parties during social events that they host daily. This may be a distraction to you when you have lots of things to deal with as you prepare for the demo day. Accelerator programs also take months to run their course, which may take valuable time from your startup, which you need if you are to grow your business. If you don’t get value from your time in an accelerator, then the time lost could be detrimental to the chances of your startup surviving.
So, if you are to join a startup accelerator, given the pros and cons mentioned above, with many more covered over at ppchire.com, then there are a number of things you need to consider. The first is the track record of the accelerator you wish to join. You should look to join a startup accelerator with a proven track record of bringing results to startups, something you can find out by researching some of the startups that have worked with them. You should also consider the location of the accelerator verses the long term location of your business. You want to join on that compliments the long term view on where you see your business being located as per the gurus over at guttulus.com. The quality of the mentors in a startup accelerator should also be a big consideration, looking to join those accelerators with high quality mentorship networks.
If you are looking for more on this and other related topics, as well as help on how and which startup accelerators to join, then head over to the highly rated bitgale.com.