Growth

What It’s Like Inside A Top Startup Accelerator

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500 Startups

My company was recently accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator program which, is one the most exclusive in the world. There is approx. a 3% acceptance rate. For the last couple months, I’ve been spending every other week in Silicon Valley at their HQ in Mountain View, CA. Needless to say we’ve been pushing it hard and earning a lot of sky miles.

500 Startups is a micro VC and as part of the program, they invested $100K in our company. There is also an investment made with their network of mentors and CEOs who are there to help you grow and keep you accountable.

There is a lot of hype from the outside about these accelerators. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to do it. After all, we had an existing business with customers and revenue. I was worried that we would get there and would be told to start over and redo our product.

What I found was different than what I had expected. We have barely talked about our product. I guess the assumption is that you already have a solid working product; otherwise you would not have been accepted into the program in the first place. The main focus is on how to scale your business. They push you for growth and then hold you accountable each week for hitting specific growth metrics.

Since joining the program we have quadrupled our level of sales outreach to build up our customer pipeline and are developing a repeatable sales process. Having a level of accountability each week where you have someone asking simple questions such as ‘why didn’t you hit your metrics?’ or ‘you didn’t have time to pick up the phone and call that prospect, really?’ all hit home hard when you’re looking someone in the eyes and you know there is a high expectation for you to deliver.

It’s not all roses. Things could be organized much better. It’s one of those deals where it’s totally up to you to get what you want out of the program. There are lots of resources available to you but it’s up to you to go get them.

We actually don’t spend the majority of our time at the program when we’re traveling there. Much of the time we spend visiting prospects in the Bay area based on our sales efforts. The amount of learning that we have done in such a short period of time has been phenomenal. There are a lot of talented people in the Bay area due to the strong startup ecosystem. We just brought on a new strategic investor after being there for only two months.

I absolutely would recommend the 500 Startups program for other entrepreneurs. The program has pushed us out of our comfort zone in a good way while providing guidance to scale our company. We’ve learned that there is no silver bullet. Growing the company into our vision is in front of us if we hustle like hell and go out and get it!

Everyone Needs Their Own ‘BC’

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It’s true. Everyone needs what one of my best friends, Ross Kirchman and I call, ‘BC’; short for Breakfast Club. IMG_1565

A few years ago we started meeting every Wednesday at 7am, before work at a nearby Starbucks. We would meet for an hour with the goal of keeping each other accountable to goals each of us would set to push ourselves beyond our current lifestyles.

By most measures, we were doing well. Each of us had good paying jobs with growth potential, we both had completed our MBA programs, and were having fun going out with our girlfriends.

However, each of us wanted something more. Neither of us wanted to be content or just settle for something short of what we felt like we could achieve.

So it started. Each week we would meet for an hour to discuss ways to push ourselves in different areas of our lives. We would discuss everything from advancing in our professional career, growing to be a stronger Christian, to ways we thought we could become a better leader.

The big point is that we did not just talk about ideas and then go off to work and feel good about ourselves. Each week we would commit to actions we would take to achieve specific goals and then we would hold each other accountable.

For example, one of my big topics was starting my new company at the time. I would commit to writing a business plan and doing research by a certain date and presenting it at BC, where Ross would provide feedback. We would share ideas and think about ways to take steps towards accomplishing our goals.  We had a mutual respect for one another and neither of us wanted to let the other down.

Ross lives in West Palm and I live in Atlanta now so we don’t meet each week at a Starbucks. Now, we talk on the phone every third Friday of the month at 7am. Last month we both presented our goals for this year. I know that each month, Ross will want to hear about the progress I’m making towards them and I will be doing the same for him.

Having someone there to keep you honest, share ideas, and encourage you helps, no matter what the circumstance or what you’re trying to achieve. It may be something different for everyone. For Ross and I, it’s BC and it’s something I plan on doing for the rest of my life.