I Joined 2 Startup Accelerators. Here’s What Happened (Part 3: Alternatives)

Are they worth it?

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters” — Epictetus

This is the third story about my learnings about startup accelerators. In case you didn’t read part 1 and 2, I recommend you check them first.

What can you do to help your startup succeed if you are not part of an accelerator program?

Money

Money is like oxygen. We don’t live without air, but we don’t live to breathe. Without money, your startup is going to die. You need to be very smart about how you spend money, especially in the beginning.

Usually, startup accelerators invest some money in the companies that are joining their programs. The money isn’t the same for all programs, but it allows the company to survive for at least the program’s time. For me, that was very helpful, as I wasn’t making enough money yet.

One way to survive without the money from these programs is to find a way to make money faster. Many startups don’t focus on making money initially, and because of that, many of them die. You need to know your burn rate (how much you are spending every month) to understand how long you can survive with the current money you are making (if you are making some money).

When I started, I was doing work for hire projects to pay the bills of my company. When my three partners left my company, I had some money left in the bank that could pay the company’s bills for a few months. I got rid of the office to save more money and had help from my mother for my personal expenses. At this point, I had two employees to pay.

When I invited a new partner to join the company, we weren’t making money yet. He sold his car to cover his expenses. A few months later we became a profitable company, and later the same year we were paying a good fixed salary for us.

Every person has a different situation. It’s essential to put your expenses in a spreadsheet and see what you can do. Before I left my company, I did some calculations to see how much time I would survive without making any money. I didn’t know what I was going to do yet. Knowing how much time I had helped being calmer to test different things but also put some pressure on me to create a new business before running out of money.

Mentors

An excellent way to learn is from our mistakes. A better way to learn is from the mistakes of others. Mentors can help you with precisely that. Being part of an accelerator program can expand your network. It is easier to get good mentorship, and you don’t have to pay for that. I had amazing people supporting me during my entrepreneurial journey.

Before being part of any program, I tried to reach different people to learn from them. Not always did I succeed in talking to those people, but at least I tried. I also was reading and watching everything I could about startups, entrepreneurship, leadership, product development, company culture, etc. There is a lot of free or not that expensive content on the internet nowadays.

Another thing you can do is to create a group of local entrepreneurs. Here in my state, we had a group of gaming companies where we shared experiences. It’s an excellent way to learn from the mistakes of others. I was invited to join this group a little bit before going to my first accelerator program. When I came back from the second program, I talked about my experience and answered specific questions from the entrepreneurs there.

In 2018 I was invited to be part of the Scale-Up Endeavor group. Endeavor is an organization headquartered in New York City that supports entrepreneurs with potential economic and social impacts in their regions. The group I was part of reunited companies that already had achieved some financial level. It was an excellent opportunity to be able to share experiences with other successful entrepreneurs.

Nowadays, it is easier to get mentors if you are willing to invest money in that. The billionaire Warren Buffet said that he did a course during his twenties that changed his life. It was a public speaking course from Dale Carnegie, the author of How to win friends and influence people. After reading the book, I decided to check if there was this course where I live. To my surprise, I found it. I watched a free talk about how it would work, and after a few weeks, I was participating in the classes. That was before joining any accelerator program.

During the course, I was instructed on how to set goals for myself and my company. After six months of finishing the course, I moved to Chile to go through my first accelerator program for startups. Six months after that, I had a profitable company. I don’t believe I would have achieved those results if I haven’t get paid for this mentorship.

Office

Entrepreneurs usually believe that they need to have an office to have a successful company. I used to think like that, and that is why I started my company in an office with my three initial partners. We tried working from home in the first month, but it didn’t work. We didn’t know to handle that.

After my three partners left, I decided to get rid of the office because I needed to save money. I did not do that because I believe a home office was better than having an office. I did that by necessity. However, as I did that, I decided that I would get the most out of it and studied how I could have a successful company with no offices.

As my company started to grow, many people told me that I would need an office to keep that happening. My story proves otherwise. Remote working was not that popular as it is nowadays. Today, I see many of the entrepreneurs that told me that my company would not succeed working from their homes. Many of them asked me for tips on how to have their employees working better from home.

A startup accelerator helps with office spaces. The best part of this is to be closer to other startups, so you share knowledge and experiences. However, there are different ways to do that, as I wrote before.

If you believe your company will be more productive with an office, then go for it. But remember, you don’t need to have an office. It is a choice. I like to compare it with having a car. I don’t have one because I don’t feel that I need one. I use Uber all the time and rent a car when I need to make a more extended trip. However, some people like cars so much that they prefer to own one. The critical thing to remember is that an office is not an obligation for success. Choosing to work from home can help you save a lot of money, especially in the beginning.

Investors

I always thought that I had to have investors to be able to have a successful company. That’s the main reason I practice pitching so many times. Later on, in my career, I found that that is not true. Not every successful startup had investors. You need to understand what type of company you want to have for yourself. You may or may not need to have investors.

Investors can invest in different stages of a company. They may invest when you are starting or when you are growing. It’s always better to get money when you don’t really need it, as you can negotiate better terms. In this case, the money’s goal is to increase your growth speed. That’s how we raised US$1 million.

Being part of an accelerator program expands your network, and you have the opportunity to meet many investors. It makes things easier because being part of a program like this is validation from someone, which means less risk for the investors. Being part of two accelerator programs opened many doors for me and was how I met my investor.

If you are not part of any program, you need to find different ways to expand your network. Before joining any program, I was already attending various conferences and talking to as many people as possible. You have to share what are your goals and your traction. Keep in touch with the investors and sent updates to them from time to time.

The most important thing that they want to see is growth. If you met someone at a conference at the beginning of the year, for example, and met again at the end of the year, you have to have some growth to share. Find a way to keep in touch in the meanwhile.

It takes time to build a relationship with investors. Raising money is a long term game. Don’t expect to raise money fast. It’s like getting married. Usually, people date for a while before so they can know each other better.

Final thoughts

You don’t need to be part of a startup accelerator to succeed. There are a lot of successful startups that didn’t participate in any program like that. However, I believe they really can help and make things easier and faster for you. As an entrepreneur, we often think that the only way to be successful is to go through something like this, but that is not true.

I believe that we first need to understand what kind of life we want for ourselves and then build a company around that. If going through an accelerator program for startups will help with your goals, then go for it. As entrepreneurs, we need to understand what is best for our companies. We don’t need to join an accelerator program just because they seem cool to be part of.

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