What’s the essential characteristic of a startup?
The speed at which it learns
I was talking to a VC this morning about accelerator design. I mentioned that Gene Frizzell, MBA, M.Ed. and I had identified over generic 500 steps that a startup needs to take between ideation and Seed.
Each of these takes time to understand, time to apply, and time to deliver. Lots are skipped of course.
There’s a correlation between the number successfully completed and the chances of success.
When we design accelerators we spend a small amount of time on a small number of these.
This really raises awareness. Nothing more
The key problem is the founders’ ability to learn, understand and implement quickly.
The faster they can do this, the greater their chances of success. Mentors obviously help to accelerate this, as does networking and accountability.
This is the real reason why accelerators haven’t really had the impact that was hoped, and why the startup success rate hasn’t budged much over the last 20 years
What do you think?
