About the author: David Arnold is managing director of Straight Shot, a 90-day accelerator that aims to help software as a service and e-commerce startups.
The conclusion of the 90-day mentorship process for an accelerator like Straight Shot marks a shift not only for participating founders but also for those who are tasked with running the organization. The coming of the “offseason” (air quotes emphasized) starts the clock on the countdown to next year’s class and triggers an ever-expanding list of to do’s.
However, the change also represents an opportunity to strategically evaluate the most important elements of an accelerator and make refinements that fill gaps or add missing value. As a young organization in its second year, it’s important Straight Shot continues this maturation process and implements changes that will allow it become more effective and impactful in the years to come.
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Effective Mentorship
Priority one following Demo Day was for Straight Shot’s Associate Director Peter Frei and I to brainstorm changes to the mentorship curriculum. This summer Peter (yes ladies he’s still single) was tasked with primary responsibility for coordinating mentor roundtable discussions and thus had first hand insight into what was and wasn’t effective in 2014.
Prior to this summer updates were made to the mentorship process to better balance generally applicable mentor discussions with open time in founders’ schedules to help them take action on the valuable advice they receive. This “quality over quantity” approach paid dividends, especially for the founders who were effective at prioritization and weren’t shy about expressing their needs.
Where we see opportunity moving forward relates less to new subject matter areas and more around how and when we deliver each substantive discussion. The goal of proving slack in founders’ schedule was warranted but led to an assumption on the organization’s part about the clarity surrounding how founders should best leverage mentors’ advice. For future classes we’ll be more diligent about establishing sequential curriculum milestones and over communicating next steps following discussions. Ultimately, if we’re responsible for creating a schedule that has the potential to overwhelm founders we also bear the responsibility to properly (and explicitly) guide them through the process.
Building A Community
One of the more difficult changes we decided to make heading into 2014 related to the number of events Straight Shot would host during the 90 days. While the core competency of an accelerator relates to customer validation, organizational development and growth strategy there are also valuable community building opportunities created by such a program.
If structured effectively an accelerator can help advance a startup community by creating opportunities for people to dip their toes in the “entrepreneurial waters”. Whether one’s curiosity relates to mentoring, investing or starting a business of their own, Straight Shot and similar programs offer a low-barrier way to get involved and determine how one fits in a startup ecosystem.
However, this year we intentionally took a “less is more” approach that admittedly resulted is fewer mixers and social events. To ensure we were still fulfilling our community building role we did very consciously do two things as it related to events:
- Ensured that public gatherings we curated offer the dual benefit of making founders better and providing transparency to a curious public at the same time (e.g. public pitch practices); and
- Pushed our network to partnership events with organizations that already had a reputation for high-quality curation (e.g. One Million Cups partnership & the Halfway There event with Silicon Prairie News and NMotion).
Moving forward, our accelerator can do a better job of advertising both our open door policy and delivering additional unique events. However, when it comes to community building, collaboration will always be more effective than tribal competition and Straight Shot will continue to pursue partnership opportunities to advance the cause.
Capital Is King
The greater Omaha community has an immense amount of wealth but today it isn’t invested in tech startups as often as many would like. Being the residence of the world’s most famous value investor is a testament to our business community’s ability to compete but it also reinforces the traditionally conservative nature of most investment appetites. This culture creates difficulty not only in raising funds to support seed-stage investments like those Straight Shot makes but also when it comes time to securing the resources that will help accelerator graduates sustain and leverage momentum.
Whether it’s the most appropriate metric for accelerators or not, the number of graduates that raise follow-on capital is something that affects a program’s national ranking as well as its ability to recruit high-quality companies. However, the control accelerators have over how much companies improve from day one to day ninety far outweighs their ability to get independent investors to open their checkbooks.
What is fair to say though is that those same investors are more likely to provide their capital to companies that demonstrate sophistication and graduate from accelerators they know and trust. As a result, our focus as it relates to investment capital has been on continuously improving our mentorship curriculum and cultivating strong relationships with prospective investors. The latter is often a slower process than one would like but it’s arguably the most critical thing for a young program to address.
Onward & Upward
A recent trip to New York City for a Managing Directors conference hosted by the Global Accelerator Network provided initial validation for some strategic opportunities Straight Shot has been considering. These initiatives are still being vetted and evangelized within our network and thus would be premature to announce. However, what they aim to do is better tie the accelerator to our community’s existing strengths and further help address the three questions that nag every MD:
- How do I continue to improve the quality of deal flow for future accelerator classes?
- What’s the best way to differentiate our program in an increasingly crowded accelerator and incubator market?
- Can I ensure that graduates and alumni will have sufficient opportunities to secure the capital and strategic partnerships they need to succeed in the long run?
I’ll be the last person to claim now or in the future that we’ve figured everything out. The good fight continues and as our focus turns to 2015 I’m confident Straight Shot’s best days are ahead. As a relatively small metro with a disproportionately large business community I feel greater Omaha is uniquely qualified to support and leverage the accelerator model. The journey ahead will be challenging but we here at Straight Shot feel fortunate to have the support of such strong sponsors and high-quality mentors to keep us company.
Applications to Straight Shot open next spring. For more information visit StraightShot.co.
