Winning Trust in the Accelerator Application Process

July 15, 2023

How to Win Trust and Secure Your Spot in Startup Accelerators

When you apply to the accelerator, your job is to first demonstrate a founder/market fit. Describe how your team's background and skills led you to a unique market insight on which to build a sustainable business, and why your team is the right one to grow and scale the business. Second, you need to sell your vision of this future. Share your thoughts on why this is such a compelling and exciting opportunity that led you to pursue the startup path, even given the inherent risks. Like all investors, startup accelerators want to believe in you, but they are reviewing several hundred applications at once. Be concise to keep them interested! Overly wordy or buzzword-filled applications will get passed over for a lack of clarity. Keep your application focused and easy to follow. A succinct application can help you move on to the accelerator investment board and give you another opportunity to demonstrate you have a viable product and a team that can make your pitch a reality.

Key Organizations Supporting Entrepreneurs

The Center for Entrepreneurship offers two pivotal programs: the ScaleUp accelerator and Startup Club. The ScaleUp Accelerator is a 9-month program with group sessions and individual ones with selected mentors. It provides access to key knowledge modules from marketing and sales to managing people and operations. The program takes a broad and inclusive view of entrepreneurship, supporting firms regardless of age, sector, size, and history. What it takes is the ambition to grow, a scalable model, access to the resources when ready, and the signals that growth is good and possible.