Startup Accelerators: Overly Honest Advice from Alumni – Should You Join One?
Are you thinking about joining a startup accelerator, but not sure if it’s really worth it? In this episode of the Becoming Dauntless Podcast, Dauntless XR co-founders Sofia Lazaro and Lori-Lee Elliott get real about the world of startup accelerators. Drawing from their hands-on experience with renowned programs like Mass Challenge, and niche industry accelerators, they share the good, the bad, and the brutally honest truths every founder should hear before applying.
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, an early-stage founder, or just curious about how accelerators really work behind the scenes, this episode is packed with practical advice and candid stories. Discover what accelerators actually offer, the red flags to watch for, and how to decide if joining one is the right move for your business.
Episode Highlights
In this episode, we’ll cover:
What startup accelerators are (and how they differ from incubators and mentoring programs)
The real pros and cons of joining an accelerator, from founders who’ve done both mainstream and niche programs
Red flags in the application process—what information you should and shouldn’t share, and how to spot potential conflicts of interest
How to evaluate if an accelerator is a good fit for your startup and your personal circumstances
Equity considerations: What’s normal to give up, what’s a red flag, and how to calculate if the deal is worth it
The most valuable resources and support accelerators can (and can’t) offer, from cloud credits to founder networks
Why timing matters: How your stage of business and life can impact your accelerator experience
Candid stories about the best and worst accelerator experiences, and what the founders of Dauntless would do differently today
Essential questions to ask every accelerator before you commit
Frequently Asked Questions About Startup Accelerators
What is a startup accelerator?
A startup accelerator is a fixed-term program that supports early-stage companies with mentorship, resources, and funding in exchange for equity or a fee. Accelerators often culminate in a “demo day,” where founders pitch to investors. Unlike incubators, accelerators are usually more structured and time-limited, focusing on rapid growth and market entry.
How do startup accelerators differ from incubators?
While both support startups, accelerators typically offer short, intensive programs with a clear end date and specific milestones, such as fundraising or product launches. Incubators often provide longer-term support without a set timeline and may focus more on business development and networking.
Are startup accelerators worth it?
Accelerators can offer valuable mentorship, networking, and funding opportunities, but the benefits depend on your startup’s needs and stage. It’s important to carefully evaluate the program’s track record, mentor network, time commitment, and equity requirements before joining.
What should I look for when applying to a startup accelerator?
Look for clear program goals, relevant mentors, a strong alumni network, and transparent terms around equity and fees. Be wary of programs that ask for sensitive information too early or have conflicts of interest with other startups in their portfolio.
How much equity do accelerators usually take?
Most reputable accelerators take between 1% and 10% equity, often using a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) note. Anything higher than 10% is generally considered a red flag.
What are some red flags to watch out for in accelerator applications?
Requests for confidential financial or customer data too early in the process
Lack of transparency about mentors or program outcomes
High application burdens with little return
Excessive equity or fees required
Overlapping interests with other portfolio companies
What questions should I ask an accelerator before joining?
Who are the mentors, and what is their expertise?
What is the success rate for alumni companies?
What is the time commitment and program structure (remote, hybrid, in-person)?
How do you handle conflicts of interest between startups?
What resources and support are offered during and after the program?
Can I join an accelerator if I already have customers or revenue?
Yes, but consider the time and travel commitments, as well as whether the program aligns with your current business goals. Some accelerators are best suited for very early-stage startups, while others support more mature companies.
How do I know if an accelerator is a good fit for my startup?
Assess your business needs, growth stage, and personal circumstances. Compare what the accelerator offers to what you actually need to reach your next milestone—whether that’s funding, mentorship, or access to a specific network.
Transcript
No time to listen to the full podcast? Below is the full transcript of our conversation on all things startup accelerators. This episode was originally released on March 19th, 2025.
Lori-Lee: when you get into startup and entrepreneur land, one of the first phenomena you discover is The startup accelerator, and we get a lot of questions about accelerators because we've done quite a few, both the flashy mainstream ones, and we've done some very niche and company specific ones as well. By virtue of that, we've been accepted into a lot of accelerators, we've applied to a lot, and we have turned down quite a few as well. So today we're going to go answer the big 10 questions we get from founders, and try to help you answer if it's worth it for your business.
And up front, gonna let you know, I'm not a big advocate of most Accelerator programs, so expect honesty without the sugarcoating from me. I am happy with the ones we've done, most of the ones we've done, but there's a lot out there that are, in my opinion, just a waste of time.
Sofia: We should define what an accelerator is and how it's different from an incubator from just business or startup mentoring. Some of the big accelerator programs, some of which we've participated in. some of which we've turned down, some of which we've never gone after. Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Techstars, MassChallenge.
Lori-Lee: Welcome to Becoming Dauntless, the podcast where we talk about what it means to be Dauntless as entrepreneurs, as parents, and friends. I'm Lorelei Elliott, the CEO and co-founder at Dauntless XR.
Sofia: And I'm Sofia Lazaro, the other co-founder and chief product officer here at Dauntless XR. Together, we bootstrapped our tech startup from a pitch deck and an idea to a million dollar a year business. All while navigating boyfriends and engagements, marriage, babies, and day jobs. We'll be sharing our journey Behind the scenes insights, challenges we faced, and the occasional spicy take, so you can steal our 10, 000 hours to build a business, a career, and life that you're excited about.
Lori-Lee: Each episode, we explore the latest trends, breakthroughs, and stories from the front lines of business ownership. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, an engineer, a business owner yourself, a seasoned professional, or just curious about the future of technology, there's something here for you.
Sofia: Join us as we uncover what it means to be Dauntless.
The main first question that we had when we started this journey is, what is an accelerator? And why would founders want to put themselves through something like that?
An accelerator, in our experience, is like a startup bootcamp.
It's a program targeted at founders or early stage entrepreneurs, typically not repeat entrepreneurs, for a specific time frame, and it usually culminates in a very specific goal, depending on the program. The most common goal you're going to see is The program culminating in a fundraising event that is usually organized and or sponsored by the accelerator, but there are also ones where there are other milestones like releasing a beta product or some other company milestone, like incorporating and launching the brand.
Lori-Lee: Yeah, and accelerators, I think, are a pretty recent kind of thing. The first one is generally accepted to be Y Combinator, which started in 2005. And I believe it started as a kind of a private sector alternative to a business incubator. Now like you said, accelerators are typically short programs, you know, 12 weeks or less. And founders will opt to do them if they have a business idea that they want to refine, get a business model going, find product market fit, and then get funding. Most accelerators, like Sofia said, end with a demo day, which is also a term coined by Y Combinator, where founders pitch their business ideas and show.
prototypes of their technology to investors if you have a prototype ready. So founders like these programs because if you get into the right one, you can go from zero or, you know, an idea that is just on paper into a funded startup in three months, which is pretty fast. Well, like in 2005, it was fast.
It's not as fast now with social media and AI where someone can. Launch a business overnight and be pretty successful, but that's a different topic. So a lot of founders see Accelerators as kind of a golden ticket to instant success, which if you get into the prestigious ones, it kind of is. There's also a lot of social proof that comes with graduating from an accelerator.
You kind of get that industry stamp of approval if you're a graduate of, you know, like some of the big ones that Sofia mentioned earlier. High level. That's what an accelerator is, kind of a 12 week baptism of fire, getting your company going.
Generally once people figure out, you know, okay, there's, there's these accelerators, we can do them. The next questions are all around. How do I apply? What do you look for? What should I look out for in the application process? Because each accelerator has their own kind of criteria, we won't like go over what exactly that is.
So I think the best way to answer this is to maybe talk about what you should look out for when you're going into an application. Because these are usually really competitive. They can be really extensive and a bit of a time suck. So what do you think? People should look out for.
Sofia: think there are two areas to like not like red flags that I would look for, but just take areas that I would look for in the application process that I would approach with a lot of skepticism before getting excited about the potential fit for our business and accelerators. One is. What kinds of questions they're asking really, really early on in the application process.
So specifically, I'm concerned if they're asking for data early on that we wouldn't disclose outside of like a due diligence type conversation where there's NDAs in place and stuff like that. So you are probably already thinking of the one that I'm thinking of. But we had an intro call with an accelerator we hadn't even applied and they were it.
Repeatedly asking for very specific financial information that we had to repeatedly say we're not going to disclose this information at this time. Like it was and it was an intro call. It was very odd. So that's definitely one for me. The other area would be. If it's an accelerator that is more niche, so and by that, I'm going to define it as an accelerator that focuses on a more specific market or customer segment that can be really exciting because it feels like, oh, their support could be more relevant for me and my business, but it also increases the probability that You have a competitor in the program, either in a prior cohort or in a current cohort, and then you obviously have concerns about similar investors receiving information about your business that already has information or has a current investment relationship with a competitor.
Or even just the mentors, you know, we're talking outside of the any formal investors. So I think those would be the two flags that I would watch for. One is what information they're asking for you to disclose early on and making sure that that's information you're comfortable disclosing. And then two, if it is a more specific one, although maybe this is advice just in general, is to really pay attention for how in the application process they identify potential conflicts of interest between the program and the project.
your business and mitigate or eliminate them.
Lori-Lee: The questions, the probate questions about financials, like should not even be on the agenda because the point of accelerators is to get your business launched. So if you already have, if you're already making sales, if you already have numbers, like that's great, but they don't need to know about that per se.
I'm sure many accelerator evaluators will disagree with me, but they were asking, like, very specific questions about who our Department of Defense customers were. And it's like sir, no, like, I don't know who you are. Like, no way. We met you 5 minutes ago, like and I think you're pretty generous.
You're like, these aren't red flags. I've got red flags. Like,
Sofia: Okay, what are your red flags? What are your red flags?
Lori-Lee: feel like, I mean. I've been burned. I've had to, like, the recipient of these accelerator programs, like, not working out, maybe more than you did,
Sofia: Yes.
Lori-Lee: more of them earlier on, right?
Sofia: Yes.
Lori-Lee: yeah. Which is why I'm probably, like, also more jaded about these, but I'm self aware that that is my [perspective]
Sofia: That's your perspective. Mm hmm.
Lori-Lee: Yeah. So my, one of the biggest initial things that I look for is, is my startup or my idea actually a good fit for this program because a lot of these accelerators want to report these crazy low acceptance rates. Like we got 10, 000 applications and we only accepted 10 companies. This is the cream of the crop.
Like this is the very best teeny tiny top percentage. And they want to do this so that they can say like, oh, we're really exclusive. " One accelerator comes to mind. They're a Europe based accelerator. So they're mostly catering to European startups. But they spam us every year with emails telling us to apply.
And it's just, I know it's just because they want good numbers. We've applied, I think we got pretty far this year. Maybe we pitched, I don't remember. But like. We clearly don't resonate with who their investors are, but they just want us to apply so they can have th numbers. You know, there was another accelerator.
The other thing I look for is what is the ratio of the application burden to what you get out of it. So, for example,
Sofia: Good point.
Lori-Lee: , you know, they say all of the websites like all the applications are really easy. It's fast. It should take you 10 minutes and you'll go through it and then it'll be like, oh, yeah, I feel like your company name and how many people are on your website.
Oh, and then also upload a 15 page pitch deck. I don't know about you, but I don't have a crafted 15 page deck, like, hanging out. I'm gonna have to either edit one I already have or make one, and that can't be done in 10 minutes. So, go through and look. Like, there's a Women in Tech Pitch competition.
I think it's an accelerator. I don't think it's around anymore. And it might actually just be called women in tech. And they also hound me to apply every single year. And I think the most money you get out of it is like 50, 000, which if you are starting from absolute scratch, that is great startup money.
I think, especially cause it's equity free, but like now for me to go through and fill out that kind of application for a 50 K I'm like, no, Like Sofia said, if they ask for a bunch of company data up front, it's like, well, what are you doing with that data? Are you trying to figure out if there's a conflict of interest or, you know, you don't want too many competitors in the same cohort, like, fine. But are you also just asking that so that you can go feed that to your portfolio companies? And give them a heads up that there's, you know, a competitor coming down the pike. Like, you know, you got to watch out for that. the last thing I'll say for now, because I could probably go on forever, is check how much equity or what kind of fees you're expected to pay.
So like, how, what percentage of your company do they want you to give up? And then some accelerators will ask you to give up equity and pay a fee on top of that. It's less common, I'd say, in North America to pay. It's more common in Europe, where they will just be like, this costs X amount of euros to do. Okay, I'm gonna call it quits there because otherwise I'll just keep renting.
Sofia: You're like, I've got a whole armful of red flags.
Lori-Lee: Yeah.
Sofia: Hard earned and harder than one. Okay. Well, on a positive note. Because you did say at the beginning, and I know this, that there are some accelerators that we think the benefits, you know, outweighed the time spent and things like that. So what was your favorite accelerator and why?
Lori-Lee: Oh, a good question. So, my favorite, and it's funny because this is actually like an anti accelerator. my favorite program was Decelera. Which is in Spain, they go, they do one in Spain and one in Mexico every year you go to Menorca, which is an island right next to Mallorca for two weeks and then the accelerator brings in investors, entrepreneurs and like what they call experience makers and you meet with investors like right by the beach with like the Mediterranean breeze blowing. Drinking like the, the, the house Spanish wine, which is like, which they basically give away for nothing. And we're all the entrepreneurs. They're like, guys, this is really good. You need to be charging. More for this wine. but yeah, you meet with investors. It's really chill you and you get to talk to entrepreneurs that are a couple steps or like several steps ahead of you and kind of get an idea from them like things to look out for.
It was great. And then you, they also curate, like I said, these like experience maker sessions and you can go learn about Running a big business, like scaling up your company and creativity and things like that. Like all of the kind of you don't typically get in an accelerator. And I think part of the reason I liked it so much was, well, one, like it was on a beautiful island in the Mediterranean.
Like, okay,
Sofia: I remember you sending me pictures and I was so jealous. I was like, well, this is the coolest accelerator ever.
Lori-Lee: yeah. And I want to go back. You can go back as an alumni. So I think we'll go back one year and be able to enjoy it even more because you don't have the stress of being like, okay, now I have to go do like, I'm not kidding, like 20 back to back investor meetings, which is very common across accelerators.
But I think, yeah, part of the reason I liked it so much was I did it at the right time for. Maybe not necessarily like the optimal time for the startup, but it was a good time for me.
Sofia: Hmm.
Lori-Lee: COVID. I didn't have any, I didn't have kids yet. I could take the time off of work. I was still in a 95, but I had PTO, so I could take the time off without having to stress about like, trying to run the business.
I could, I, you know, I could get paid I was there. so I think that was a big part of it too. If I, if I had to take two weeks away from my family now to go do that, I don't know that I would enjoy it as much. I would like, probably try to bring them with me, which I think they would be cool with, quite honestly.
Sofia: But even the business now, like it would be very hard. Yeah.
Lori-Lee: and it was like I saw other founders there that, you know, in between every meeting and like all of these great excursions, like they were huddled in a corner over a laptop trying to take a call trying to get their team sorted. And like, the time difference for us was a thing. Most of the other companies that were there were based in Europe.
So they didn't have the time difference to contend with. But we did. So we were like on calls at very weird Times or like we'd have to leave dinner because that would be the middle of the day here. But yeah, that that was mine How about you? What's your favorite one?
Sofia: My favorite one that we participated in was actually during COVID. It was Maritime Blue. There were two things that I really liked about Maritime Blue, which, you know, while not an anti accelerator, it was definitely a niche accelerator, right? Very focused on the maritime industry, obviously, from the description.
One thing I like, I can't remember if we were the first COVID cohort of Maritime Blue, or if we were like the second or the third, but they adapted their programming to be remote in a very effective way. So it wasn't like, here's a bunch of on demand videos, like these were live sessions with Q& A with everyone on video, very interactive.
They, accommodated time zones as best as they could and like varied the timings of certain things. So you could kind of split things up across the team. I think it just gave us a lot of flexibility to be able to participate really fully because of the way they designed it. I actually don't know if they still run it remotely now or not, but it was a great experience, which you'd think like a remote accelerator, like you'd lose a lot of the benefits, but they did a great job.
The second reason why I loved it was because they, They were the ones that pointed us towards the federal small business research program. So, and then they encouraged us to attend some government industry events, and it was at one of those events that we Met who became our first technical point of contact signer, which is just gov contracting speak for like the person that you work with within the government when you're doing one of these grants.
So, and it was after that program that we won our first grants. And that was huge for us because it enabled us to. We build the products that we were trying to build at a much faster clip because we were able to bring in contract and grant money and not investor money because a lot of things about the way we were structuring the business didn't make us necessarily the perfect fit for VC so that really felt like a big unlock step for us, and if they hadn't pointed us in that direction and been like, hey, this is a really good product for both the government and the private sector, you should consider this, like, Federal R& D Research Program.
I don't, I don't know if we would have found it on our own. To be honest, I would have liked to think that we would, but that was huge for us that they pointed us in that direction.
Lori-Lee: Yeah, that's right, and it was originally Navy. They wanted us to do Navy SIPRs, because it makes sense, they're maritime, and I think the program manager at the time was a veteran, so he knew all about the program. And I actually, I remember, like, writing it on a giant sticky note, like, we're doing like the goals for the quarter, and it was like, figure out when these SIPR applications open, and like, Yeah, and we tried, we tried to get a Navy sibber before, but like knew nothing about what we were doing. This was like way pre COVID. But yeah, no, they, they set us on that path. So, I guess on that note, one of the other questions we get is, About like, what do you actually get out of an accelerator? Like, what was the most useful resource you can remember? And
Sofia: So like monetary value. Yeah, like monetary value resource. So not the like introduction to the SIPR program, right? Which is more of an awareness thing I would say is actually cloud hosting credits. Doesn't sound that like cool or sexy or fun, but that is a cost that is really nice to not have to worry about when you're in the beta stage of your app was one thing, right?
We didn't really have to worry about it. We could deploy it to devices. We could test it to people. We could release it for user testing without stressing about racking up like. Variable cloud fees. And then the other side of it is we were able to use the usage during the period when we were using the free credits or the sponsored credits.
I guess I should I should call them and different accelerators will work with different cloud providers. So it's something to look into. But I remember accelerators we did had options for both Azure and AWS, but we were able to use the historical usage of while we were doing the beta testing to actually better project what our cloud cloud.
Costs would be moving forward and that was super helpful. What about you? I
Lori-Lee: The most useful resource. This is not like a monetary one, but I remember coming out of the Female Founders Alliance accelerator program, which was then called Ready, Set, Raise. I don't know what it's called now. I think it's called the Catalyst launch or something like that. But the end of that program, you go to Seattle for, I think, a week and do all of your Demo Day pitches and all of that, and they put us in a house with, like, or eight female founders, and It was so nice to be able to connect and talk with other founders that have the same challenges and problems as you're experiencing, because being a founder can be a very lonely and isolating role.
I mean, we're lucky we're co founders, so we have each other to talk to, but I think out of that entire cohort, there was only one other company that had a co founder set up. Everyone else was a solo founder. So, you know, coming out of that and, like, having that network to talk to, like, I think even in, to, like, till this day, even though we're not, like, in close communication, you know, all the time, I know that if I emailed any of them asking for something, I would get a reply and, you know, like a referral which you can't say for sure. All, you know, like friend groups or, you know, people you work with or things like that. The other thing that I was gonna say, I guess it's related to that, but you know, like the, the network that you get with the accelerator, which is really up to you to utilize, right? Like what quality of network you get is really what you put into it while you're there.
If you're out there like talking with people and you know. Having conversations like you're going to walk away with a better network than if you don't and as an introvert, like that's a that's like a conscious decision when when we went into these things be like, okay, I need to talk to people.
Sofia: think another one of the big questions that we had starting these out and that we still get when we talk to people about our experience is when the accelerators are talking about equity kind of up front as a part of the program. So do you want to talk a little bit about like, should you give away equity this early?
What did we see when we were doing it? How much is normal? Thoughts?
Lori-Lee: Yeah, no, for sure. I think whether you take equity or not. obviously like a business by business decision, but also there are some businesses that are almost impossible to start up without taking some kind of funding and if you can self fund it, great. But if you can't and you have to go to VCs, you know, then that's what you have to do.
You're going to have to give up equity. We were not in a position where we had to give up equity to build the business and. But what is normal, normal fees for accelerators are between one and 10%. So you have to give up, you have to give the accelerator one to 10 percent ownership in your company. And you usually do that on a safe note, at least in the United States. That's the normal, I guess, vehicle to use. And a safe note is just like a kind of debt where. You can give away that percentage of your company without having to put a valuation on it and valuations are really hard to do pre revenue, pre product.
So that's why they, they kind of use this setup. And I would say anything over 10 percent is a red flag. I had one accelerator try to, you know, they put us through the whole application process. They were like, Oh, we want to offer you a spot. And then they told me they wanted 20 percent of the company. And. I literally blocked the guy's phone number.
Sofia: You were so mad. I remember this. You were so mad. It was like, late in the process, too. I feel like we were more than a couple of steps into the process. They were not up front.
Lori-Lee: They were not up front and their whole thing was I think they had sold whoever their investors were that they were going to become like the next Y Combinator, which give me a break, like, come on, no. And then like It wasn't like they had gone and done all of this work on the back end to build out, like, a fabulous program with all of these investors and mentors and everything.
It was like two dudes in a WeWork. Like, it,
Sofia: It was mid.
Lori-Lee: yeah, that. I was like, who, like, who else is joining this, like, who is signing up to give away 20 percent of their company for what, you know? Yeah. So what do you think about giving away equity this early? Should you do it? Should you not?
Sofia: I mean, you and I are very aligned on this. It's not like I'm gonna like devil's advocate this, which like is normal in a co founding relationship. You should be very aligned on how you finance your business. So obviously I share the personal opinion that you should give away equity never if you can.
And then only if absolutely necessary based on the type of business that you're building, which to your point, if you're trying to invent hardware, yeah, your capital requirements are going to be much higher than A software business or you know, anyways, so I would say, no, don't give away equity in this.
You have to but rather than looking at what the accelerator is offering, I think it's better to start with what you need, because one accelerators are. offer could look terrible to one set of founders and great to another depending on what they need. So if you're able to walk back, like what funds do you need to get to whatever milestone you're trying to achieve, right?
So which in my opinion, the milestone that you'd want to use, the milestone that we use, just what kind of funding do we need to get to get to a releasable MVP, not a perfect product that contains every feature that we would like to deliver to our customers, but a product that offers enough value that we can charge for it.
And then we can start building our customer base. And use revenue from that to continue to R and D the product itself. So I think having that number first, knowing how much money you need to get to that milestone from a hiring and operational perspective will make it easier to look at these different accelerators and look at what the deal is that they're offering and assess whether or not that's worth it to you.
Lori-Lee: all for
Sofia: if they want a large percentage and the amount of money that they're offering,
Lori-Lee: to
Sofia: And the type of check that their investors, right? Right. If it's angel investors versus more institutional, if that's only going to get you a small percentage of the way towards what you need less of a good deal, if it's a really low cost business idea that you have from a startup, like a startup cost perspective.
It might look like a good, a good deal to you. So I think having that work done first makes it easier to evaluate these rather than trying to just compare the accelerators to each other is to compare them more to like, well, what is it that you need to get to the next milestone, which is that like releasable product you can charge for?
Lori-Lee: Yeah, no, that's a really good point. And a lot of the time, I mean, I think, I don't want to say Techstars. I think why Combinator is pretty upfront about, because they've had so many people go through
Sofia: Yeah.
Lori-Lee: like the information is out there, I think it's something like they put in thousand. For, like, that's what they put in for taking, like, whatever percentage cut. and then you still need to go raise, like, another dollars, right?
Sofia: Mm hmm.
Lori-Lee: you're gonna get that first initial 100k, but then the rest of it's on you to go out there and bring that money in.
Sofia: if you can get to something meaningful in that hundred K. That makes you a really strong investment candidate. And then the type of investors that work with Y Combinator are the type of investors that would work with your business type. Like then it's potentially a great deal.
Lori-Lee: Yes. Yeah. So you have to kind of look at it from that perspective as well. And that actually leads into one of the other questions, really common questions we get is why why did we decline certain accelerators? And so we've already kind of talked about the equity thing and that being a deal breaker but some of the other, like, I guess some of the other contributing factors were you know, I guess. Well, we can talk about, we can talk about TechStars. So we declined TechStars because, mostly because of schedule. They needed someone from the company to travel for several weeks of the program. It was pretty much like you would go home then you'd be traveling for a week and then you'd go home.
Like it was on and off like that for 12 weeks. And I had just had Quinn. I was still breastfeeding. I think you were pregnant. Or maybe like,
Sofia: I was pregnant. So the program would have kicked off when I was only like five or six weeks postpartum.
Lori-Lee: oh, yeah, yeah. So that that was like, no, you can't you can't travel every other week and no one else senior on our team that would like meet the tech stars requirement would be was able to be away from their family. That much in such a short amount of time and then it also seemed like raising capital was a really big focus of these trips.
So you were going to these different like investor hotspot locations. Like they had a couple of like road show stops in California 1 in New York you were going there mostly to. To pitch and we didn't really want to raise capital at that point. So it wasn't a great fit. So we ended up turning it down for that, but I will say like the travel thing comes up a lot for us.
Like even before we had children, the, these programs definitely are. Like not catered to, but definitely are easier to do if you're early on in your career and you have fewer obligations and responsibilities, like if you can just drop everything and, you know, go travel and roadshow and hit up a bunch of cities for 12 weeks while like, you know, running your business from a laptop.
Great. I can't do that anymore.
Sofia: No, and I don't No. And that was a huge factor, that one, but there was one other one. I don't remember how well you remember this, but the time period in which they were requiring the travel was also when we were closing out two of our large contracts with the Air Force and kicking off our first contract with NASA.
So, and you and I talk about this all the time, saying yes to something is saying no to everything else. And we were really concerned about closing out those contracts and converting them to subsequent ones and then kicking off this new line of research really effectively. And we also talked about with I mean, yes, the travel constraints were a huge part, but another one for us was, is the benefit outweigh the risk that we take to these current contracts, because we will have less time to dedicate to them.
And that was also a huge concern. So I think early on in your career is one, but also like early on in the stage of your company, like we had customers at that point who had expectations of us on a reoccurring basis. We had employees who expected access to us on a regular reoccurring basis. So I think that was.
Another factor that really complicated the timing of that one. I do think if that one had appeared a year earlier, two years, probably earlier, we would have had a very different kind of benefit cost analysis looking at whether or not we take that one.
Lori-Lee: Yeah, I do remember talking about, I don't remember if that was Techstars or something else, but like, literally saying if this had come about months, 2 years earlier, we would have been like, yeah, sure, let's do it. But the timing
Sofia: It's terrible.
Lori-Lee: yeah, and it's a little bit, you know Like chicken and egg because a lot of these programs when they're evaluating they look at things like do you have any early traction?
Do you have customers like and that is obviously? Gonna help improve your scoring but then at the same time if you have those things odds are you have obligations to those customers and you can't just like be like see you guys I'm gonna go do an accelerator for 12 weeks like you have to keep doing your job you're more likely to have employees so it's a little bit like you have to hit it at like exactly the right time for you personally and the business in its growth it can be really hard to do if you don't have the referrals and the connections and everything to kind of Boost your application because by the time you're like scoring a hundred percent on these applications Like you probably don't need the program anymore.
Sofia: You've outgrown it. Like the stars just have to align at the perfect. Yeah. Okay. In the same vein, if we got into Y Combinator today, what do you want to do it?
Lori-Lee: no, no
Sofia: I'm done being accelerated.
Lori-Lee: I'm done being accelerated. I'm sorry Y Combinator. I have nothing against the Combinator like it's a great program But like if we were doing our next startup, like if we have, we have exited Dauntless and we're ready for startup 2. 0 and we had some like some youngins on the team that really wanted the, the accelerator experience, I would maybe do it. But at the same time, I kind of doubt I would ever build something that an investor at a Y Combinator demo day would be interested in. And at the end of the day, that's really what they select for, right? That was very loud. That's what they select for. They're like, when this company gets to the end and demos their business idea and their product, like, are people watching going to invest in it and. You know, I don't, I don't know that we, I would build something that would fit that demographic, but I don't sound jaded. I have nothing against YC. but what does annoy me is, this was not a question. I'm just, I'm just talking now. What does annoy me is the people that wait for Y Combinator to drop their focus areas that they're doing for like whatever spring cohort that they're going to be selecting for. They, people turn around and they're like, okay, how do I create a company that fits this exact criteria so that they'll select me and I'll get in. And I'm just like, this business is about to consume all of your waking hours and some of your sleeping hours too. So you should pitch something that you actually want to build and not just try to fit the mold of what people think is investable. Does that make sense?
Sofia: Yeah, it's like a chicken or the egg thing. But it's because you and I have lived it and we've known. You have to have the motivation on the worst days. And the motivation generally comes from, this problem is so annoying, I have to solve it. Like, I have to build products that will solve it because this problem is just infuriating and shouldn't exist.
And I know it through whatever personal experience or exposure or access to the correct technology or whatever it is. But, yeah. I, I don't disagree. The last question that we tend to get is what questions, if you are considering an accelerator, what questions should you ask about resources, about support when you're in those early stage, whether this is questions that you're answering through online research or whether you're at the stage of like an introductory call with someone from the accelerator, what questions should you be asking as an entrepreneur?
Lori-Lee: Yeah, I think, you know, most of the big questions, and probably most of the ones that I'm going to come up with are things that. Should just be listed on the accelerators FAQ page. And if they're not, that in itself is a little bit of a red flag. Like, if you have to go ask a human on a call, like, about these things, it's like, not a great sign, but I'd say the, the major stuff to look for is who are the mentor mentors in the program?
What is their expertise? And like, does this map to something that you need? Right? Like, who are the people that you're going to be spending time around while you do this program, and what value do they bring?
Sofia: Yeah, because no founding team is perfect. So you're going to have gaps in expertise with your founding team. If your founding team has like deep and dense technological expertise, but maybe lacks commercialization experience, like, you're not necessarily going to be excited about being matched up with like state of the art technologists.
You're going to be more excited about max, like, working with people with a background in sales and marketing from a mentorship perspective.
Lori-Lee: right, right, and yeah. So you have to make sure, like, it's a good match there, and they should be up front with who their mentors are. Sometimes, like, especially for the more high profile ones, they might not have them locked in, but, like, you can look historically, like, who has been there and get an idea of what Sort of person they're bringing in. The other thing I would look at or ask about is what is the track record of the accelerator. What percentage of the graduating, graduating companies are able to fill their round? What are they filling their rounds at? That's important. Like, if you're like, hey, I'm a hardware startup and I'm going to have a 5 Raise but then you see the startup accelerators, you know, their graduates tend to get like 1 or 2 million.
Then, you know, like, okay, this isn't going to maybe be a good fit. so, yeah, definitely look at, you know, they're kind of their success rate and at what level able to raise at and. we kind of, you know, we've alluded to, I think you need to ask about the time commitment. Is this in person? Is it remote?
If it's hybrid? If it is remote, like, what are the, what are the time commitments? How, how many hours a day are you expected to be in Zoom if it's remote or if it's in person, like in a conference room being? Being accelerated some of them are all day. You're there for eight hours a day. It's full programming.
Like, Decelera, that was a full, like, ten hour day. Every day. What else?
Sofia: I think the only one that I would add, which is just like a callback to what we talked about earlier, which is to ask them about what their processes are to eliminate conflicts of interest between mentors or within a cohort. If you're a really early stage startup and you're doing these startup accelerators, you probably have not paid for any IP protection.
You probably don't have anything to protect. So, you know, you're in what we call stealth mode. And the stealth is your most valuable asset at that point. So understanding what their process is to de conflict situations on your behalf because you can't do it. You don't have all the information. The program operators do.
I think that's really important. Just asking them what their process is early on. So, you know,
Lori-Lee: Yeah, no, that's a good point. And it is important to remember as well that these accelerators, like the company that runs the accelerator, they are invested in a whole portfolio of companies. So you're looking at conflicts of interest with people that are in your cohort, but then also existing conflicts of interest with the companies that they've already funded. And that's where a lot of that, you know, kind of nefarious information gathering comes in that we were talking about. They're not going to give that information necessarily to someone else. That's applying with you. They're looking to give the companies have already invested in a heads up. But on that lovely positive note, I think that's our those are those are the main questions.
Sofia: I have one more question for you.
Lori-Lee: Oh, you do? Okay,
Sofia: What is in your recently played? So this is how I expand my horizons, right? As I ask you what you've been listening to and what is the thing that you would recommend?
So what's the most interesting thing that you've listened to? Let's go in the podcast arena like this past week.
Lori-Lee: Yeah, podcasts are so hard to find good ones, so this is a, this is a great idea. This week I was listening to Impact Theory with Tom Bill, Tom Bilyeu, and he interviewed Peter Diamantis, and Peter is the, I don't know, founder, partner for XPRIZE, which is not really an accelerator program, but it's in the It's in the family, I guess it's like a really intense, if it were an accelerator, it's a really intense one and so I was listening to that episode, it's broken into two parts on impact theory, but the thing about it that I actually like got out my phone and googled was this thing he mentioned called find My purpose finder dot AI.
Peter believes it has this like ethos that everyone needs a massive transformative purpose and I say everyone, I guess like entrepreneurs meeting massive transformative purpose. So he built an AI to help you find yours. And I did it. I, I like went through and it gives you like this AI generated image at the end of what your, Okay. M MTP is, and I I don't know, it it, like, for for whatever reason, mine included a a lot of people in swimwear, and it's, like, realized that this was maybe not safe for work, so it, like, blurred it out, and I'm like, oh god,
Sofia: But how did it know that you would rather be at the beach? Like, in basically any occasion, you would rather be at the beach.
That is, that tracks for you.
Lori-Lee: it does track though. Yes, I would, I would like to be at the beach. So don't remember what it came up with, but it exactly, but it was something about helping people come up with, use creativity and innovation to solve big problems and make the world a Better place something to that effect, which again, like how do swimsuits factor into that?
Maybe if we're all in swimwear, we'd all be the world would be a better place. I don't know, but it was cool It was one of the things I googled listening to the episode and then the other thing that I googled well Searched that he mentioned was the work of Mary Lou Jepson, and I now follow her on LinkedIn.
She's the chairwoman and founder of Open Water, before that, she was at, like, Google, Facebook, and Intel. Like, she is an accomplished woman and
Sofia: What a logo list next to your name. Dang!
Lori-Lee: right? She's just doing really cool research, so I was like, I, I want to know what you're up to. How about you?
What's your listen of the week?
Sofia: I love that. Mine is probably, my best one's probably thematically aligned. So, it's not a new podcast, but it's new to me in the sense that I just started listening to it, which is the Startup Idea podcast. The episode I listen to is Launch a 1 Million Plus Startup Tomorrow. And the premise is they take three trends that they've seen either on the internet or in business in the news, and they kind of pitch back and forth how they would build a profitable business based off of that idea.
And what's so fun about it is it just kind of gets your creative Like juices flowing and the way that they go back and forth like they literally argue about the domain name at one point. Like if they were going to go start up a business for this, like what would the domain name be? Which is the kind of thing that you and I talk about.
So that was really fun to listen to two people do who are not us. And they listed some really good resources, a bunch that we use in a couple that we don't. I'd have to go back and look to do kind of trend validation. Bye. To see, like, yes, this is a trend, but how do I tell the scale of the trend and the, like, longevity of the trend?
Is this a very new trend, or is this, like, a slightly longer trend that's been slowly building? So it's fun. I, I, it was a really enjoyable listen, and I would recommend it, and I plan to listen to more by that channel. So, I'm excited.
Lori-Lee: I heard of a similar podcast called Half Baked, where they just talk about half baked business ideas, and I'm like, damn, I wish I'd come up with
Sofia: That's such a good id I'm gonna have to go I'm, like, gonna go at it right now, because that sounds really fun.
Lori-Lee: yeah, it, I haven't listened to it yet, but it's been on my like in my queue.
Sofia: I like this.
Lori-Lee: No, we, and we definitely need to talk about naming your startup, naming your business because we have gone through it. We've gone through it twice and it's a whole We are both being slacked,
Sofia: We are. It's time to go.
Lori-Lee: If you have questions about if you're thinking of joining an accelerator, what kind of questions do you have? Let us know. Have you done an accelerator? Do you think it's worth it? You know, which ones are the ones to after? Which ones would you avoid? We want to know all of them. All the tea, all the juicy details, please share it with us in the comments. We will be right there replying to each and every one.
