Being an internet entrepreneur is about marketing your personality. When you are selling a product it doesn’t matter what you look like, but if you are selling yourself how you look gets people’s attention. Having a photoshopped picture or professional models doesn’t work for you because the business world is so competitive. The very first step to being personally successful is to actually be happy with who you are and selling your personality instead of your looks. People will remember why they liked you in the first place and pick up where you left things off at when they see your new visual presentation.
What is a Startup Hub
There’s a reason why Silicon Valley is famous for countless successful startups, major corporations, investors, and universities as well as startup incubators, and accelerators. This is because it’s considered to be the perfect startup hub.
San Francisco and Silicon Valley are the epicenters of entrepreneurship, home to 13.5% of all global startup deals.
What is this hub word I keep throwing in your face?
Startup hubs create a vibrant ecosystem for startup founders and an environment that encourages collaboration and information sharing among entrepreneurs, corporations and venture capital investors.
How do you identify these hubs though? Well, According to KPMG, the top factors that are important for a tech hub are:
- Modern infrastructure,
- An urban locale,
- At least one research-intensive university,
- Investment funding, and
- Available talent.
So, start looking at where you’re located 🗺 ️and with whom you’re associated.
What is Startup Accelerator
If you’re a startup fanatic you’ve probably heard of the company Y-combinator. If not – that’s okay. Let me fill you in: Y-combinator is the world’s most well-known startup accelerator program. 😉 What’s an accelerator, though?
Accelerators normally help startups at the beginning of their business.
They provide startups with tools that will help them internally as a team and of course, externally that will help them achieve seed or series funding.
In the end, they try to accelerate what your startup will only achieve or gain over several years into just a few short months.
What is a Startup Incubator
Incubators, on the other hand, invest in startups on a more long term basis, spending much more time and resources to design and build a structured and sustainable business model from the ground up. It’s also the perfect environment to develop and build your Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Incubators invest in startups on a long term basis, spending much more time and resources compared to accelerators.
A great example of this is Launch Academy, a tech incubator that provides mentorship, resources, and a networking environment for entrepreneurs to launch, fund, and grow their startups.
Incubator vs Accelerator
The age-old question. Which one is better for your startup to become a part of? 🧐
Let’s look at the pros and cons 👇
Incubators
An advantage of being a part of an incubator is that your startup business gets access to a wide range of financial capital alternatives. In addition, it also provides mentorship, networking, and expertise in your specific startup industry, as well as helps startups turn ideas into new businesses.
Sometimes these benefits can also be a disadvantage to incubators. Certain types of mentorships and networking with entrepreneurs may hinder the startup owner’s focus during the risky early stages of their startup and your idea might not always lift off.
Accelerators
On the other hand accelerators in general work extremely close with everyone involved in the startup, which is an advantage. Accelerators also match the partners and investors to fit with the chosen startup.
In accelerator programmes they also focus on the development of pilot projects for their startups to ensure growth and success. Accelerators try to provide a platform for the startups to grow fast while enrolled in the programme to increase the probability of receiving startup investment.
Y Combinator accepts about 1.5% to 3% of the applications it receives.
A disadvantage of accelerator programmes is that they are short-lived and won’t provide as much support as an incubator would over an extended period, however the short-term acceleration might produce better results in the long run. Another con is that these programs only accept a few startups every year and require equity in each startup they accept.
In the end, it depends on how developed your startup is and what type of support it will need to grow.
I can already hear your next question in my head… What do I have to do to be a part of an accelerator programme?
Don’t worry I’ve done the research for you👇
Checklist for your startup to be ready for an accelerator program
Are you ready for the next big step in your startup — a journey that will change your life forever?
1. Trillion-dollar startup idea?
The bigger the idea the more likely you will get noticed in your application. You also need to make sure that you are able to explain your idea so that it is easy to understand.
95% of accelerators seek B2B startups, while only 78% of accelerators look for B2C startups.
2. MVP
Your product/service needs to be completed, but that doesn’t mean it has to be perfect. Launching a Minimum Viable Product shows how your idea can work in the real world, gives you time to get customer insights, and highlights the areas where you would want to improve your product/service when you apply to enroll for an accelerator programme.
68% of accelerator programmes accepted startups that already have a prototype in place.
3. Evidence
Are you growing as a business? Can you prove it? What is the likelihood of growth in your startup over the next 2 to 5 years? How many customers have you worked with? How many people are visiting your website? What’s your ROI? These are the things that you will need to provide when you’re filling in an accelerator application.
53% of accelerators accepted startups that already have some customers, even if some of those customers aren’t yet paying.
4. Your Team
You need employees. No one can run a startup on its own for long (#burnout!!). Your employees need to work full time or be willing to switch over to full time when being accepted into the accelerator.
18% of startups fail due to team problems such as a lack of domain knowledge, lack of marketing knowledge & plan, lack of technical knowledge, friction within the team, lack of motivation, and a lack of availability.
5. Network + Research
Do you have references from mentors and other founders who have gone through one of these programmes? Have you done your research on which accelerator will be the best fit for your startup?
“It’s OK to ask recruiters and hiring managers questions to see if their vision aligns with yours so you can run a successful business.” — Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
6. The Pitch
If you get accepted to go through to the interview for one of these programmes, you need to be ready with your pitch. You need to know your business inside out. This means you need to know the metrics, stats, the vision, and how to overcome potential obstacles (check Point 3 again).
“Most tech startup people are so in the trenches of their product that they forget how to talk high level about who the tech is for.” —John Murphy, eBike Generation
7. Accepted 🎉
If you get accepted you are one of few. Take this opportunity to expand your network in the startup realm. In addition, make friends — being an entrepreneur isn’t always easy and not everyone understands that part of the startup world.
Angel investors made up 47% of post-accelerator funding, followed by VCs at 32%, and 59% of all investors are located within 100 miles (160km) of the accelerators that graduate their startups.
With all that said, you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed. Where to start? I’ve listed a few of the best known accelerators for you to check out below.
List of Accelerators to Investigate
1. Y Combinator — Probably the most well-known accelerator in the world.
2. Launch — It’s a 14-week program, with 7 startups per cohort.
3. Techstars — 3-month accelerator programs of (usually) around 10 startups each cohort.
4. Pioneer — Pioneer is a remote-first, global accelerator.
5. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) — Focuses on software-related startups to fund.
6. Forum Ventures — The Forum is focused on the future of SaaS.
7. Village Global Accelerator — Backed by some big-name founders, including Magic Johnson, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Diane Greene.
8. Founders Institute — A pre-seed startup accelerator program
9. MOX — A mobile-only accelerator serving mobile Internet users.
10. Gener8ter — Each cohort, invests in five startups who receive a concierge experience during a 12-week accelerator program.
The Entrepreneur’s Journey
There are a lot of steps in the journey of an entrepreneur. Maybe you already have an idea and you’re well on your way to developing your business plan. Maybe you know you want to create something or have interest in entrepreneurship, but you don’t have an idea just yet. That’s okay! We are here to walk you through this journey, no matter what step you are in.
At SuretyBonds.com, we have the pleasure of working with small business professionals everyday. We’re proud to be an online resource to small businesses to help them get the bond required of them in order to obtain their business license.
Starting your own business can be tough. You’ve got the drive and determination to make your small business succeed, but you don’t always have all the tools you need to help you get there. That’s why we’ve created the Small Business Startup Toolkit. This startup toolkit is meant to make running your small business easier and give you the online tools you need to reach your small business goals.
Check out our featured small business tools below!
Accounting & Finance
As a small business, it’s important to have an efficient system to track sales transactions and employee payroll. Here’s a few online tools that can help your small business:
- Gusto – an online payroll and benefits platform designed for modern businesses. Gusto makes payroll for your small business simple and affordable. Try 2 months free.
- Wave – a great resource for fast and easy online accounting for your small business. It’s made for entrepreneurs and small businesses with less than 9 employees.
- Xero – the online accounting software alternative to Quickbooks. It features lots of time saving tools you need to grow your small business.
Customer Support
Pleasing your customers is one of the most important roles as a small business. Here are a few online tools that can help you provide excellent customer service support:
- Desk – customer support software that makes customers happy. Features business tools that grow with you including multi-channel support and productivity tips.
- Nextiva – business phone solutions for small business owners. Nextiva boasts enterprise-class technology on a small business budget.
- Olark – give your customers the answers they need, before they leave. Olark allows small businesses to chat with visitors on their site, solving problems and making sales.
Design
Design elements are crucial to draw in customers through marketing efforts. Here are some online tools that can help you create effective and compelling designs:
- Canva – easily create beautiful and professional looking designs for your marketing strategy. Canva’s suite of online design tools are perfect for small businesses.
- Pablo – social media images made simple. Easily format images and annotate your message to create easily shareable graphics for your social media presence.
- Pixlr – online suite of image editing tools. Pixlr’s online tools are great for small businesses and allows you to create professional graphics easily and affordably.
Legal
Owning and operating a small business is a lot of work, and these online resources will help you make sure you are following all laws and regulations:
- Docracy – the web’s only open collection of legal contracts and the best way to negotiate and sign documents online. These online tools will help you operate legally and effectively.
- Rocket Lawyer – online legal documents and advice. These online tools can help you incorporate your business or stay in compliance.
- SuretyBonds.com – the nation’s leading resource for surety bond information that helps small business owners get their business license.
Marketing
Marketing efforts are key to making sure your business’s content is seen by users. Here are some marketing hacks to help get you noticed and generate leads:
- MOZ Tools – the best tools for online marketing and local small business marketing. Stay ahead of your competition with MOZ’s online tools for SEO and local marketing.
- Buzzsumo – online content research tool. Buzzsumo allows you to research what’s popular online and how that content can relate to your business.
- Optimizely – website testing tool to optimize experiences for your customers. Create the best experience for your visitors using Optimizely’s online testing tools.
Operations
These operations tools will help your small business increase performance efficiency and productivity:
- Bplans – starting a business made easy. Check out Bplans’ complete guide to business planning to outline your growth plan.
- Zoho – the operating system for business. Zoho’s online tools for managing your business.
- Google Apps – best online productivity tools for small businesses. Google’s suite of apps for small business are perfect for collaborating and operating efficiently.
Sales
Sales is often a stressful task that is critical to maintain your cash flow, and these technologies can make life much easier for your sales team:
- Spiro – your personal sales assistant. This management tool helps you stay in touch with sales prospects and close more sales.
- Square – making commerce easy. This simple POS systems for small businesses features tools for every type of business.
- Shoeboxed – organizes sales documents and receipts and turn them into data. This online tool helps you digitize your physical sales docs.
Conclusion
Sometimes it is hard to find the right tools for certain jobs. Maybe you want to start a blog, but you aren’t sure which software to buy. Here are some tools I use for my startups.