❌ DO NOTs ❌ of a corporate accelerator:
- Demo Day
How many startups got funded or closed a deal at Demo Day?
It comes with a lot of overhead on both the founders and the accelerator staff to organise the day, update the decks, consolidate them, and practice the pitch. What for, that not decision-makers in the audience are feeling entertained and essential? This is not investor readiness. Deals are closed on 121s and behind closed doors.
- Pilot
Overpromise pilots if you have not taken care of securing resources, budget and executive buy-in after the pilot.
- Processes
A startup is not the average vendor of an enterprise. It comes from a partner relationship. Streamline your procurement, legal framework processes to integrate the startups' technology into the systems landscape smoothly.
- Coaching
Honestly, what does an accelerator staff on the enterprise's payroll know about the nightmare of founding and funding a business? Don't waste the founders time checking on their business, burn rate, and run rate. Establish a tailor-made program where experienced entrepreneurs come in to share their experiences. Take care of the quality of the coaches. If you don't find any in your local ecosystem, fly them in, it's worth it.
- Workshop
Rather than having random "How to start a business", workshops in a developed startup ecosystem such as Europe, the US, and parts of Asia focus on enterprise sales. This is a deep dive into your B2B entrepreneurial journey and hard to understand.
This is undoubtedly a value a combination of the accelerator's startup/corporate director role can add value to. Who are the decision-makers, what deals can they sign, navigating politics, dealing with corporate warriors?
- KPI
Who the hell ever established a KPI called: "Number of applications of XX# of countries? Who cares, and what do you do of this KPI if 99% of the applications don't meet the technical requirements you are looking for. Curate your scouting. For any given technology you are looking for, your investor can determine who the ten startups in Europe are you have to talk to. Call them!
