Should you try to get your company into an accelerator? How far along should your idea and your team be before applying? When it is time to apply, how do you make your application stand out from hundreds or thousands of others? How fancy do you need to get with the application video?
For answers, we spoke with Neal Sáles-Griffin, managing director of Techstars Chicago, and the founder of one of the earliest coding bootcamps with Code Academy (later known as The Starter League). He is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University and was a mayoral candidate in Chicago’s 2019 election. He’s got an incredible wealth of knowledge about all things startups — our chat was only about 40 minutes long, but he absolutely crammed it with insights.
Here are some highlights from our conversation at TC Early Stage — Extra Crunch members will find the full video and a transcript below.
Why (or why not to) join an accelerator
Throughout the talk, Neal shares plenty of reasons why you might want to join an accelerator. The connections! The shared knowledge! The support network! The funding is nice too, of course — but he’s quick to point out that it shouldn’t be your sole motivation.
It can’t just be about the money. If it’s just about fundraising and you don’t really want any of the other parts of the experience, you’re probably setting yourself up to not have a very good time. I would highly recommend reconsidering that and instead focusing more on talking to early-stage investors who might be interested in providing more hands-on and specific support that you would need.
That being said, doing an accelerator can be amazing, because all those things that you would naturally do as a startup in your local ecosystem or community, or wherever you’re trying to grow your business … all of that happens in a far more immersive, effective and accelerated way. The mentors that you get connected to, the investors that you get introduced to, the level of knowledge, the holistic educational experience that you gain from being a part of an accelerator can be a game changer for so many startups that are in those early days of trying to figure out and find their path.
(Time stamp: 2:30)
Be prepared and follow up
It’s important to think through the entire interview process — not just your answers to the questions that might pop up. Knowing a little bit about the person interviewing you and showing that you really know what you’re getting into can go a long way.
A lot of the time when I wrap an interview with an accelerator candidate or applicant, I’ll ask them: Do you have any other questions for me? And they’ll have to take a minute, and get stuck … they weren’t even ready to come up with questions, so they have to come up with it on the fly. Well, that’s okay from time to time, if you come up with new things as the conversations transpire … but have some at the ready! You know? Do the work to understand who you’re going to be talking to, and understand, you know, what goes into the interview itself.
Do practice interviews, do mock interviews with friends, with some of your team members, with other investors if you know them. Verify if there’s an agenda for the conversation and what they want to talk about, if they haven’t done that already.
And put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes! Think of yourself and say, “If I was the person evaluating this company, and I had $120,000 to invest in only 10 companies per year, why would I take a chance on this one over the rest when I’m looking at hundreds of them every single time?”
Once you do that, make sure afterward you follow up. Send a thank you note, elaborate on a point that you thought needed additional clarification, or you think you can flex even harder on after the interview itself. Express your gratitude, and make sure that you keep the updates coming between those sessions! The ones who were most likely to get into our program, were definitely the ones that kept in constant contact and communication, even if they didn’t always hear back from us.
[ … ]
One of those questions I get asked by a lot of founders is, “Oh, well, how does the accelerator work?” or “What are some parts of the experience?” or “What are the terms of the deal?”. Those are questions that are answerable prior to your first conversation with most accelerators. A lot of that information is available online; you can reach out to other founders to get their feedback on how that works and what goes into it. There’s a lot of stuff out there.
You need to show that you’ve actually done your research and your homework in order to demonstrate your seriousness as a candidate for the program. Just know the terms, know the expectations, and find a way to sneak in there that you can acknowledge and reinforce your understanding of these things.
(Time stamp: 6:57)
Knowing who you’re signing up to work with … this is crucial. It’s not just one person, usually, with most accelerators. So I may be the managing director; I have a program manager … his name is Brad Schnitzer for my Chicago program; he’s awesome. Every Techstars program has one, and most other accelerators that I’m aware of have multiple people involved in the process. We have a set of associates, lots of mentors, lots of other people. I think it’s very important for you to demonstrate that you understand who these people are, and you understand the unique value that they can add to your growth as an entrepreneur and with your company because of their background, their track record, their experience, other companies that they’ve worked with or invested in, and really make sure to understand that this is a two-way street, right? It’s not just the accelerator evaluating you as the entrepreneur; just as importantly, you should be evaluating me and the accelerator experience overall.
I want you to ask tough questions. I want you to vet the experience. That’s demonstrating to me that you are a serious founder, and every minute of your time is valued by you and everyone else involved. That’s actually a really good sign.
(Time stamp: 9:17)
You don’t have to be a comedian
Neal had tons of tips for what’s good to do in your application, but I was curious if he had any tips on what not to do. What could make an otherwise good application fall flat?
The things that people do that they think are cool but aren’t really … is trying to be a little bit too clever, or cheeky, if you will, when they’re putting out their video [application], or they’re describing their business. You know, it’s one thing to have a sense of humor — that’s awesome. It’s another thing to try to crack one too many jokes, or, you know, slip in something that’s a little bit too personal, right?
Definitely walk a fine line there … but at the same time, I don’t want to ever encourage anyone to not be themselves. If you are just that interesting, quirky person that has a lot that you want to say in a certain kind of way … by all means, own your truth and be yourself! I’m not trying to knock you.
But sometimes when people are trying to game the system or go over the top, it’s kind of obvious to us. We can see past that, you know? Where’s the business when I look under the hood? That’s what matters most, and you have to reinforce with that.
(Time stamp: 23:35)
Going it alone or finding a co-founder
It’s a question we see pop up in just about every audience Q&A session: Do I need to find a co-founder? Or can I do this alone? Here’s Neal’s view on it:
There are definitely lots of investors out there that tend not to want to invest in solo entrepreneurs and there’s a lot of valid reasons as to why. There’s a lot of experience, from a lot of these investors, where when they invest in a solo founder they tend to struggle to complete their team.
And they struggle to go through an accelerator experience as well, because there’s so many moving parts and pieces, and workshops, and deliverables, and different activities … to spread yourself so thin as an individual company owner can be a bit taxing.
That being said, I’ve invested in multiple solo founders. I’ve seen them run laps around founders with teams, even in an accelerator experience. So that isn’t to say it isn’t possible — it’s just going to be a lot harder, and you need to make sure you’re going in with the right expectations.
(Time stamp: 26:52)
If you’re considering applying to Techstars or any other accelerator, I’d highly recommend checking out the full conversation — you can find the video right here:
Want to read instead of watch? You can find an automated transcript of our conversation here.
You can also check out other sessions from Early Stage here.