Choose Your Accelerator Program

August 12, 2023

Finding the Right Accelerator for Your Startup

The key, says Michael Wolfe, is getting into a quality accelerator that, in addition to those already mentioned, include AlphaLab in Pittsburg or RevUP in Rhode Island. If you go with an accelerator that is not as well known, or not as respected, the benefits are not as clear, he says. Talk to founders that have gone through an accelerator to figure out if it is a fit for you. Other accelerators or incubators may make sense for your founding team because they could specialize in your startup's sector. Leading US universities have well-regarded accelerators, including MIT's delta v. Corporations sponsor well-respected accelerators like Johnson & Johnson's JLABS that has a focus on life sciences. There are also some strong regional accelerators, such as MuckerLab in Los Angeles and the Entrepreneurs Roundtable in New York.

Evaluating Each Program's Fit for Your Startup

With all these different programs out there, says Pejman Nozad of Pear Ventures, my suggestion is to talk to founders who have gone through an accelerator to figure out if it is a fit for you. See what value you might get out of those relationships. If you own a non-tech business and want to grow, the ScaleUp acceleration program that The Center for Entrepreneurship offers might be right for you. The ScaleUp accelerator is a 9-month program where participants get access to key knowledge modules from marketing and sales to managing people and operations. The ScaleUp accelerator has a unique approach that is different from a typical startup accelerator. It takes a broad and inclusive view of entrepreneurship: any firm, regardless of age, sector, size, or history, can in principle scale up. What it takes is the ambition to grow, a scalable model, access to the resources to grow when they are ready, and the signals from all around them that growth is good and possible.