In the era of start-ups, more and more accelerators and incubators are springing up. Their primary mission is to help young innovative companies increase their growth. These companies, created mostly by coaches who are former successful entrepreneurs, can be a real asset.
A perfect example is FoodFutureCo, a food accelerator for founders or companies in the food industry with a clear growth idea. In this article, learn how an incubator or accelerator can help a startup succeed.
Why join a start-up incubator?
An incubator is an institution that supports start-ups when they are founded and provide financial and advisory support in setting up the company. Clearly, the incubator will transform the idea of young entrepreneurs into a real company with an ambitious project. Some business incubators are present in business schools and allow students to think about creating a start-up.
If a good number of entrepreneurs choose to join a structure to develop a start-up instead of working alone in their corners, it is for several reasons. Integrating a team will allow a project to materialize as quickly as possible.
This will be very useful for building a network of investors for fundraising purposes. This network can also make it possible to find an accountant or a lawyer and create a company and avoid common errors with the relevant authorities in your area.
For example, a young company just starting out can take place on the incubator’s premises. It can be a coworking space but also actual premises. Thus, it is housed and does not need to pay significant rent from the start of her adventure. The young start-up, created or not, will also have specific know-how.
The incubators will provide many experts, mainly legal ones. We also note the presence of marketing, communication, and design professionals, as well as financial and budget management.
All these beautiful people will naturally allow the young start-up that joins an incubator to choose its legal status, its business idea, etc.
A start-up accelerator
A start-up accelerator intervenes much later, after the creation of a company. They carry out ambitious projects and help companies with high growth potential to develop more quickly. These accelerators often intervene before first fundraising. An acceleration program lasts about a few months and aims to find business angels and solidify your entrepreneurial project.
Using a start-up accelerator, a safe bet?
An accelerator will help a young company develop a solid business plan based on the start-up’s current business model. The members of an accelerator have, for the most part, achieved significant fundraising before. Thus, they will help a young company in the search for financing.
In reality, the primary purpose of an accelerator is to help a company achieve a capital raise. This will help with the creation of a business plan and market analysis. Also, the accelerator’s mission will be to make the start-up credible in the eyes of investors and investment funds. The objective being the capital increase, the accelerator will make sure that the start-up ticks all the boxes to succeed in its fundraising.
Almost all of the entrepreneurs who are accompanied by them come out much stronger. Accelerators are designed by successful entrepreneurs and will therefore provide valuable advice, but also contacts to the innovative start-up.
Silicon Valley popularized this support system. It is now possible to find generalist accelerators that lend themselves to any type of market but also to more specialized ones. This is particularly the case in technological projects.
Example: Accelerators have specialized in helping innovative tech companies developing fintech or other innovative technology projects related to the blockchain, for example.
