"Accellerators" and "Incubators" are startup programmes created to help founders get a better footing in the early stages of their business. They typically offer some mix of funding and resource for some single digit or low-double digit amound of equity in your business.
Some of the world's best businesses have gone through these, at the start when their founders were just finding their feet. Here are some examples:
Notable Companies: Accelerator or Incubator
There's more detail on what they are below, but if you want to explore by yourself here's a list of the notable accelerators and incubators that have a presence in London:
London Accelerators and Incubators (List)
Accelerators and Incubators are designed to:
- Help founders find their feet
Depending on the stage (and whether it's an accelerator or incubator, the distinction between which is outlined below) this can include identifying and refining the actual business idea and finding a co-founder
- Help founders grow their business faster
The reality is a first time founder will have little-to-no idea how to "run their company" i.e. build a strategy, translate that into product, market it effectively to the market place, get feedback from the marketplace, iterate the product, find product-market-fit and then build in the processes and functions required to scale the business. Againm, depending on the stage they focus on Accelerators and Incubators can help with many of those steps
- Help founders get funding - particularly from top VC's
The combination of a) getting into a good programme and b) the guidance from the programme helping you build a more investable startup mean you're much more likely to get venture capital funding, especially from top-tier firms. The best VC firms typically have the best resources and are more "founder-friendly" so this can have huge implcations down the line.
What is the difference between an accellerator and incubator?
It's all in the names:
- Accelerators help you "accelerate" the growth of a company you're already running
- Incubators help you "incubate" ideas you have for a startup with the hope of building a product and business model from which you can form a company
Accelerators
- Typically structured programmes (i.e. x weeks @ x location)