So many people think accelerators are their fast pass to success. I can say from personal experience, it can also be your fast pass to failure. Truth.
7 answers from the community
accelerators are for chumps
I'm a sole founder so I can't even get into most accelerators but I don't mind since I don't want to give up 7% equity just to be part of an accelerator. Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc. never joined accelerators and they were successful.
This new trend of getting together a bunch of founders to work alongside each other for 3 months and then presenting at the end to some investors and reporters is definitely an unnecessary one. Companies with traction will get noticed whether or not they join an accelerator.
At the end of the day, all that matters is user growth and/or revenue generation. Nothing else matters; not which college/university you went to, not what previous company you worked at, not your connections.
If you don't believe me, read up on Color and Clinkle; two well connected, and well funded startups that are complete failures; the former because nobody wanted their product and the latter because they were bullshitting about their technology and what it could do, so lots of high level employees have left and they still haven't launched.
Explain the fast pass to failure
<p>We were a stronger company coming in than going out. Ultimately, we made changes to the our model which resulted in less interest/ultimately failure. It was our call to make the changes, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that there is pressure to do so.</p>
Define success and failure
The pandering, ass kissing and tweaking of the start up to the "model" preferred by the given accelerator and its Angels can derail and waste the time of the startup. @kaffegeek
Early stage startups join accelerators because not everybody is living in SF or big startup cities having access to loads of events or potential Angels. As a startup founder to succeed you also need money and connections to get more money, and accelerators should be a path to that. Unfortunately not all of them provide these two.
Plus, if you are not very experienced, you might hope to find in accelerators people who will guide you through the rough path to success. Once again unfortunately, in some accelerators some of the people that are part of it, feel that they have the power to judge what your are doing and pressure you to change model/initial idea, rather than guiding you.
Therefore, yes, accelerators can definitely be a fast pass to failure. Not much to be done. Learn and move on. Next time you will avoid such places!