Hey, everyone, I'm Greg comparative TechCrunch. And I'm joined today by the incredible Neil Salas, Griffin. Neil is a founder, a teacher, he was candidate for the mayor of Chicago, and is now the managing director of TechStars. Chicago. He's gonna break down the hows and whys of getting into an accelerator. And honestly, I don't think that there's anyone more qualified to do that. Just a quick reminder, if you have any questions for Neil, during or after his talk, please submit them through the slideshow tab that you'll find just to the right of the video player. I'll be putting these questions together and asking as many of them as I can shortly after his talk. Neil, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here. And I want to reinforce the idea that I want this to be mostly about questions. So I'll have a few things that I want to cover to give some advice. And I'll give a little bit of my backstory. But the real value here is going to be the dynamic engagement with all of you who are watching, so thank you for watching.
Yeah. With that said, Neil, I'll let you get ready to,
to stay. Alright, so he gave, you know, Greg did a great job of giving my background. So I'll leave q&a for a lot of the rest. But just a quick 32nd version of it. I'm from the south side of Chicago born and raised proud to, you know, have been from there, got into Northwestern University, which is pretty incredible started two companies. While I was there, two startups, got into venture capital and private equity somehow right after that, I continued that work taught myself computer science and web development after college, ended up starting one of the very first coding boot camps called Code Academy, which became the starter League, we were acquired by full stack Academy in 2016. And then, not long after that ran for mayor Chicago, which is a fun side story applied a lot of startup lessons learned there. And then from there, I became Managing Director of TechStars. Chicago, we're now I'm investing in 10 companies per year, sometimes even in a shorter timeline than that. And having run, you know, two accelerator programs so far and been a mentor for the past decade of TechStars. I'm really excited today to talk about some of the things that I've seen and learned over the past 10 years of all the companies that I've been a part of and supported, and now going through all of the accelerators, not just tech stars, and hopefully give you all some valuable advice. So with that, the first thing I want to talk about is why you should even consider an accelerator in the first place. And you know, a lot of the times people think about this as something to do to help accelerate fundraising. Now that's true, we want all of our startups if they needed to get the capital to accelerate their progress in their growth. That being said, especially with tech stars, but I'm sure this is true for many other accelerators. It can't just be about the money. If it's just about fundraising, and you don't really want any of the other parts of the experience, you're probably setting yourself up to not have a very good time, I would highly recommend reconsidering that. And instead focusing more on talking to early stage investors who might be interested in providing more hands on and specific support that you would need. That being said, doing accelerator can be amazing. Because all those things that you would naturally do as a startup in your local ecosystem, or community or wherever you're trying to grow your business. All of that happens in a far more immersive, effective, and accelerated way. So the mentors that you get connected to the investors that you get introduced to the level of knowledge, the holistic educational experience that you gain from being a part of an accelerator, can be a game changer for so many startups that are on those early days trying to figure out and find their path. So the number one thing that we've learned from all of the feedback and NPS scores and surveys that we get from our founders, after going through our accelerator, is the most valuable component to the experience to so many of our like a majority of our CEOs is the connection that they have with their fellow like cohort members. So the whole notion here is, yeah, we can teach you how to do financial modeling and how to raise capital introduce you to like the best possible mentors that you could have for your company. But the true connectivity between the founders and the CEOs, those lifelong friendships of people going through a similar shared experience and struggling through to scale their technology companies, that is the priceless component of the accelerator in our experience, so that if that's in the wheelhouse of a reason for you for why you'd want to be a part of it, strongly encourage it. So when it comes to actually getting in, because I'm sure some of you have either thought about applying, maybe some of you have already applied to one before, or maybe you're doing it for a second time or considering it in the first place. It's all about putting true effort into your application. And it just shocks me as someone who reads through, you know, almost 1000 applications a year hundreds every every cycle, at least. I can tell you the video matters, being honest and forthcoming matters. Having clarity and being concise in what you're saying about your company also matters. These things are crucial. And so many of these applications, when I look at them are lacking in some of those areas. There's a you know, it's clear to me sometimes when people don't get like Feedback from someone else to talk about it and get you know, your thoughts on their application responses, not just people within your company as well. But like talking to other founders, maybe an early stage investor to who you trust or value the opinion of. and dare I say people less familiar with technology or your business, because writing, you know, your application responses and submitting that video, which is very important as well, to demonstrate kind of your energy and ability to present and to sell, all of that's going to matter. And you need to provide it in a way that makes it accessible to anyone who's watching. So maybe we as managing directors, or accelerator operators, kind of know your space. But sometimes we don't, sometimes what you're talking about, you're the expert in the field, and you'll have to take the time to really break that down in an accessible way that gets us excited, but also educated and wanting to learn more from you. So another component that really comes up as you're going through the application processor and accelerators, this notion of distance travel. So what we're paying attention to on our end is how far have you come? And what are the note noteworthy experiences that you've been through that actually speak to your ability to run this business successfully, and scale it. So humans are emotional creatures, you know, even the critically eyed investor like myself, and I couldn't like encourage you more than to take the time to share your journey, including the impetus and motivation for starting your business in the first place, and tug at our heartstrings a bit, right, make us feel something because it's one thing to show very impressive metrics and a hockey stick growth path. And, you know, talk about how, you know, awesome your technology is. But it's equally if not even more important to talk about the human interest side. But from a customer standpoint, which I'll get to in a minute, but namely you and your team and why you all are doing this in the first place. We don't want to take a bet on somebody who's simply doing this for the cash.
So when it comes to showing up to the interview itself, I think it goes without saying that come prepared. But what does that really mean? So a lot of the times when I wrap up an interview with an accelerator candidate or applicant, I'll ask them, Do you have any other questions for me? And let's take a minute, they'll get stuck, they weren't even ready to answer, you know, to come up with questions, I'll have to come up with it on the fly. It's okay, from time to time, if you come up with new things as the conversation transpired. But have some at the ready, you know, do the work to actually know who you're going to be talking to, and understand, you know, what goes into the interview itself. So do practice interviews, do mock interviews with friends with, you know, some of your team members, with other investors, if you know them, verify if there's an agenda for the conversation and what they want to talk about, if they haven't done that already. And put yourself in the interviewer shoes, think of yourself and say, you know, if I was the person evaluating this company, and I had $120,000 to invest in, you know, only 10 companies per year, you know, why would I take a chance on this one over the rest when I'm looking at hundreds of them every single time. So once you do that, make sure afterwards you follow up, you know, send a thank you note or elaborate on a point that you thought needed additional clarification Are you think you can flex even harder on after, after the interview itself, express your gratitude, and make sure that you keep the updates coming between those sessions. So you know, the ones who were most likely to get in and into our program, were definitely the ones that kept in constant contact and communication, even if they didn't always hear back from us. So as far as like actually signing up for the accelerator itself, one of those questions that I get asked by a lot of founders is Oh, well, I mean, how does the accelerator work? Or what are some parts of the experience? Or what are the terms of the deal? And those are questions that are answerable prior to your first conversation with most accelerators. So a lot of that information is available online, you can reach out to other founders to get their feedback on how that works and what goes into it. There's a lot of stuff out there. And you need to show that you've actually done your research and your homework in order to demonstrate your seriousness as a candidate for the program. So just know the terms know the expectations, and find a way to sneak in there that you can almost acknowledge and reinforce your understanding of these things. Alright, so we're over halfway there. So I'm trying to move quickly so we can jump into the q&a. But if you have questions so far, definitely let Greg know, in the chat, because I'm looking forward to dynamically reacting to anything and everything you have come at me. So knowing who you're signing up to work with this is crucial. So it's not just one person, usually with most accelerators. So I may be the managing director of a program manager. His name's brashness here for my Chicago program. He's awesome. Every TechStars program has one and most other accelerators that I'm aware of have multiple people involved in the process. We have a set of associates, lots of mentors, lots of other people. And I think it's very important for you to demonstrate that you understand who these people are, you understand the unique value that they can add to your growth as an entrepreneur and with your company, because of their background, their track, record their experience, other companies that they've worked with or invested in, and really make sure to understand that this is a two way street, right? So it's not just the accelerator evaluating you as the entrepreneur. But just as importantly, you should be evaluating me and the the accelerator experience overall, I want you to ask tough questions, I want you to vet the experience that's demonstrating to me that you are a serious founder, and every minute of your time is valued by you and everyone else involved. So that's actually a really good sign.
No, you can your customers. So this is my bread and butter. Like if there were a superpower I had, it would be within customer discovery and development. So I love geeking out about this stuff. So it's one of the first things that I tasked most of the founders to apply to my program with. So I want to understand how well you understand who you're selling to, how you're helping them, what their desired outcomes are, what success is defined by. And by the way, I care a lot less about what you're actually doing for your solution, until you prove to me that there's someone out there who actually has a need, and a struggling moment, and a problem to solve. So the framework that I often use to go about getting this information, these insights and packaging them in a way that is compelling, either to an investor or to someone else is this framework called jobs to be done jtbd. You can Google that if you're interested. But there are many ways to demonstrate a thoughtful and deep understanding of who you want to help and you know, with your company and why so you know, you don't have to pigeonhole yourself into one framework or technique. But I strongly encourage you to take that part very seriously. And you almost want to leave from from the jump in talking about how you're helping your customers succeed. Going from there, though there's, there's quality, you know, there's this quantity, and there's qual, I still want to know your numbers. All right, I want to make sure that you understand your metrics. And even if your business is at a conceptual stage, you can still forecast at least a few months out, maybe even up to a year, what you think might happen if things go your way with your business model. So we want to see how you think about that we know the numbers are probably wrong, we know they're probably going to be inaccurate. And we know that there's a lot more work to be done to actually fill it out fully. So that's representative of what your business is going to need. But that being said, you need to demonstrate what you plan to do with any funds that you might get different accelerators providing capital on top of the experience. And then also, you'll take the time to find the resources online, if you're not comfortable with, you know, financials or accounting, or you're, you know, not as math inclined or oriented. That was me, I felt like an imposter in the startup world back in on 14 years ago, or so, when people told me I had to build a financial model for my business to raise my first Angel round, because I was scared, you know, I didn't really know how to do it. And once I finally got in there and realized that I was managing my business, and it was my money. And at the end of the day, if I'm going to help my customers, I'm going to need to understand these things fully. That's when it clicked. So my accounting classes didn't do it. Even my entrepreneurship classes, I would struggle. It wasn't until I had to make it real with my own business did everything click, and I'm happy to say one other resource that would be worth checking out for you all, is my colleague, Troy henikoff, he was the former Managing Director of tech stars. He's now a partner at this venture capital firm called math in Chicago. But he has a lot of content online, and people fly him all over the world, you know, pre and hopefully post COVID in order to give lectures and teach people how to do financial modeling for early stage technology startups. So definitely Google toriana comm check out his stuff. It's all free. It's all out there. And it's fantastic. And then so the final point on the financial pieces, you know, just making sure that you've thought through all of the necessary components of what your needs are as a business. And it's showing us that you're being thoughtful in your approach to do so.
So almost last but not least, there's two components of the team, I'll get into two slides here. Knowing your team and showing us that you've been thoughtful around who you surrounded yourself with, now you may be a solo founder. So maybe it's merely a set of advisors and people you're seeking mentorship from, even from that are the co founders that you've selected the people near, you need to have complementary skill sets, you need to be able to demonstrate your work dynamic that's positive and constructive, you need to show that you all have a strong and effective communication style and how you manage your work and get stuff done. And this is, quite frankly, the most important thing that most early stage investors and accelerator programs are looking for. So the numbers are great, your customer understanding is vital, too. But at the end of the day, we're taking a bet on people, you know, your business model might change, you might change your business entirely. But those people who are involved those early stages who have ownership and equity in those companies, they're going to be the ones that you know, we're truly putting money into and supporting no matter where you go with your business. So it's so important for you to demonstrate how strong your team is, how proud of your team you are, and what you plan to do to grow your team and what your hiring strategy will be in the coming months. Last but not least, knowing yourself. So it's not enough to just talk about how great the people are around you. You need to talk about what you're going to do as presumably their leader as a founder or co Founder or CEO, with your decision making with your vision, these are like the most important factors for us as investors to determine whether we're making the right bet or not. So be sure not to hide the areas that you have for growth, it's very, very common for people to just paint this really pretty picture of how awesome you are and how awesome your company is gonna be without actually owning up to the components that need a lot of love and need a lot more support or need to be refined to revisit it or you have a weak area. We know you do, because we all do. We're all imperfect. And especially when it comes to startups, there's a lot going wrong, this still needs to be fixed and improved upon. So that being said, owning it and being completely honest, and forthcoming and candid about it is a plus, in my view, in my book, and most of my fellow investors feel the same way. So definitely be bold enough to open yourself up to whatever your flaws might be, and where you want to grow and improve. Because I think that'll get some investors to raise their eyebrows. And you know, you'll be a breath of fresh air for a lot of folks that are used to people saying one thing and then getting the capital and then learning a lot of other new things. So last but not least, I have this word up there grace. And I added this as a bonus, because sometimes even if you don't get into an accelerator, how you handle it afterwards is what might set you up for success. And it'll tell you a lot about yourself. So if you react to either I wouldn't call it rejection, but non selection, because I think a lot of the companies that I see that I don't invest in aren't bad at all. They're awesome. It's just timing and fit. And you can only choose 10 minutes at a time, as far as we're concerned. But you know, don't bat channel negativity, don't send a snarky or salty follow up, like try to stay above the line, you can offer constructive critique and feedback. I you know, we welcome that. And I think everyone would appreciate it. But I just want you all to know more than a third of the companies I've invested in through TechStars. We're repeat applicants. So what you say and how you handle the non selection matters for the future, because we'll remember, and we'll take note, and we'll appreciate really, really valid substantive feedback. But if you're just really upset and disappointed that you didn't get what you wanted, you're going to have to, you know, put the chin up and figure out how to move forward regardless. And a lot of the times a lot of investors in managing directors of accelerators will still take the time to work with you and support you in tandem with the accelerator experience that they're running. So that's pretty much my high level overview of how to get into an accelerator. And hopefully in the q&a, we can talk about how to take full advantage of the experience itself, and much more. But thank you very much. Awesome, Neil, thank
you so much. That was just jam packed with information. I really appreciate you putting that together. For
sure. By the way you want me to stop my presentation? Or would you just leave it up?
I think you can leave it up just because I think the visual team will handle it on the other end. But whatever you're good with on your end. So I want to jump pretty quickly in the q&a here, because we got a bunch of questions coming in. But before we dive into that, there's one thing I wanted to ask about. So early on, you're talking about making your presentation kind of accessible, and just really just assuming that just getting everybody on the same page? How do you balance that accessibility with, I guess, almost not being like, condescending? Like, how do you accidentally not throw too much information that a person might already have with them? Is that even something that a founder should worry about? Got it?
Yeah, no, I do think that's something to keep in mind. And there is a balance there. And the best way I think to determine what that balance should be, is by getting feedback from other people. Right. So, you know, I couldn't tell you it would have been like highly on the company. Sometimes if something's deeply technical and somewhat complicated to explain, you're going to need to take a little bit more liberty and take more time to you know, break it down. That being said, there is so much power in being able to convey complicated ideas in a simple manner. So I would encourage you to think of the you know, the old adage less is more. It certainly is and you can leave us to ask more questions and dig deeper. So we can demonstrate, you know, our energy, our enthusiasm and our curiosity in your company as a potential investment.
Okay, so first question from the audience. This one is from anonymous, will accelerators and investors look favorably or unfavorably at founders who are partners? For example, married to each other?
Got it? So that is a fantastic question. So if I heard that correctly, is it favorable or unfavorable for founders to be partners meaning either, you know, close friends or potentially romantically involved, and I would say that it really does depend on the individual investor, because I know investors who have a internal or informal policy to either avoid or just completely not invest in founders who are romantically involved. That is not My position, that has not been my experience, I think there have been plenty of companies that have been successful with founders who are closer in a personal relationship. And sometimes, quite frankly, it may not even be, you know, my full business. Now we want to know, we want to have that awareness. We don't want to get surprised if something goes south, and there was some really crucial information about that, that we would have, you know, been able to help out with or you know, help you navigate. That being said, it really does depend on the right kind of investor. But I don't think that that should ever prohibit you from thinking you can either get into an accelerator or raise capital, you'll just have to find the right types of investors who are open to supporting companies like that.
Okay, Michael asks, should the founding team be complete when applying to an accelerator?
Should the founding team be complete when implying to an accelerator now, complete is an interesting way to put it because I guess that would be ideal, right? There have been experiences of for me and from others who I know, and I'm sure many, many more, who are looking for someone to complete the picture for them, right. They know that they have a strong technical person. And they might have a strong salesperson, but they're lacking when it comes to operations, or you know, another aspect of the business that's vital to you know, your specific industry that you're trying to grow it within. That being said, depending on the stage of the accelerator, what types of investments they're making, they might set expectations about wanting you to have a complete team, and if so make sure that you have a story to kind of explain how you see that being the case or not. But for me, that's not a non starter whatsoever, I would encourage you to apply to my program, even if you felt like there were more people that you needed to round out your team.
Okay, this next one comes from Elizabeth, shout out to Elizabeth, she's been asking a bunch of great, great questions throughout the day, I see him or her pop up in other panels. But so what is the main attribute you look for in a startup?
Yeah, the main attribute that I look for in a startup is obsession with customer success. So not only should you be personally invested in the success of the business, because you care about the impact it's going to have on the world, but I am really, really focused on how well you understand your customers needs, and how focused you are on to an unlimited capacity iterating your solutions towards what they need. And even being able to release your solution completely. Because it's not about you. It's not about your company, it's not about the cool app that you have. It's about them in the progress, that they're seeking the desired outcomes that they have, and the success that they'd like to experience by, like paying you for that progress. So that is that is absolutely the key for me. There are obviously some basic, you know, components that follow up with that, knowing your numbers, you know, and having a strong, you know, team behind you and all that other stuff. But definitely, it's about your connection to your customer, that will matter the most.
So you mentioned earlier that you you go through probably hundreds of applications, each batch and 1000s each year, how can someone stand out in that process? And on the to kind of flip that around? Is there anything that companies do? Or teams do they think is good or clever and actually kind of plays against them?
Sure,
yeah, there are a you know, I'll start with the second part, and then I'll jump to the first part, because I think those are both greatly, you know, great questions, and they're framed in the right way. The things that people do that they think are cool, but aren't, really is trying to be a little bit too, either clever, or cheeky, if you will, when they're putting out their video, or they're describing, you know, their business. And, you know, there's one thing to have a sense of humor, that's awesome. It's another thing to try to, like, you know, crack one too many jokes, or, you know, slip in a little bit, something that's a little bit too personal, right, TMI. So definitely, you know, walk a fine line there. But at the same time, I don't want to ever encourage anyone to not be themselves. So if you are just that interesting, quirky person that has a lot that you want to say, in a certain kind of way, by all means, Own your truth and be yourself. I'm not trying to knock you. But sometimes when people are either trying to game the system or go over the top, and it's kind of obvious to us that we can see past that and that, you know, where's the business? When I look under the hood? That's what matters most and you have to reinforce with that. So in Greg, Can you remind me of the first half of the question.
It was really just the inverse of that. What are some things that they can do to stay?
Yeah, so so as far as like what makes you know, application stand out the video is definitely important. I see a lot of applicants who don't take the time to really put some energy and thought into it. And they just either upload a old video that they use for another accelerator application, or it's a marketing video that I can find on Their website or if I google them, that is not good enough, like you need to do a video that's, that's personal, that's connected to who you're speaking to, meaning you're acknowledging who you're speaking to. And you're saying, This is a video for you. Just think about how you would want and you know, someone to apply to an opportunity, and put yourself in the shoes of the person observing it, when you have a bunch of videos of founders who are being super thoughtful, and really creative and just consider it and how they're presenting themselves. And then you have another batch of founders who are just kind of nailing it in, it's very clear who you're going to gravitate towards, and who you're going to want to talk to you first. So just keep that in mind as you apply.
So speaking of videos, how much does production quality matter on application video? So someone's like, Look, I got a great idea. But all I have is this kind of old iPhone to shoot this video on? Do you, okay?
I really don't care production quality is not a thing, like whatever you can do to do it, do it. If you put there, you don't have access to video equipment for some reason. You know, in this day and age, that's rare. But it let's just say it's the case, find another way, you know, I'm open, like we're not some rigid, structured thing where you know, someone's unique situation isn't going to be accommodated to a certain extent, like we're reasonable about it. So all I want to do is just make sure that in addition to reading what you have to say, hearing or seeing what you are about as well is equally important. So that's really what goes into it. But definitely don't over engineer it. Don't even like you don't even have to try that hard. I've seen amazing videos with people holding, you know, a phone in their hand, and they're just like standing outside talking and explaining what they're doing. Those are more than good enough if you are thoughtful and considerate enough about what you want to say.
Okay, this next question is from Rahul, how do you and accelerator programs honestly view solo entrepreneurs?
Yeah, solo entrepreneurs is is is interesting, because I there are definitely lots of investors out there that tend not to want to invest in solo entrepreneurs. And there's a lot of valid reasons as to why there's a lot of experience from, you know, a lot of these investors where when they invest in a solo founder, they tend to struggle to complete their team. And they struggled to go through an accelerator experience as well, because there's so many moving parts and pieces and workshops and deliverables and different activities, and to spread yourself silt that so thin as an individual, company owner, can be a bit taxing. That being said, I've invested in multiple solo founders, I've seen them run laps around founders with teams, even in an accelerator experience. So that isn't to say that it isn't possible, it's just going to be a lot harder, and you need to make sure you're going in with the right expectations.
Okay, so another one from Elizabeth here. Is the TechStars format, or mindset or advice different in each location, I applied to TechStars. London, we're a SAS should I have applied to a different location?
Great question, Elizabeth. And great questions, Elizabeth, since you're getting so many in fantastic, I welcome more from you. It does depend, it does highly depend on which program and this is TechStars specific. So I don't want to speak on behalf of other accelerators out there. There are many great accelerators out there. So I encourage you to you know, diversify. You know what, what's available to you and figure out what's best. That being said, for the TechStars accelerators, each managing director has an immense amount of autonomy with how they go about selecting their companies. What the criteria is, anyone what the experience is, during the accelerator itself. There's a framework there. And there's a lot that we do you consistently, but there's a lot of customization and creativity that goes into the process as well. So yeah, everything that I'm saying is general advice. Some of it is true for many or most accelerators, some of it might be more unique to me and a handful of other investors, right. So not every MD is going to want Managing Director MD is going to want to invest in a solo founder, not every MD is going to ask you for customer discovery insights or financial, you know, information and metrics during the interview process. Not every MD is going to value the video submission as much as I do. Some only look at the videos first, and then they decide to read the rest of the application. So it really does depend on on who you're you're reaching out to and engaging with. But the bright side of it all is usually what they expect. And what they're looking for, is made transparent publicly somewhere online. So you should be able to go find that out before you even submit an application. So do the due diligence to understand which programs would be best for you to apply to. And then from there, you should have the right expectations going into the process.
Okay, but along those lines, so I know that TechStars Chicago is over because of the pandemic has, has gone largely or completely virtual. So correct. Yep. That's great that we thought you've expanded your scope beyond Chicago.
Well, so yeah. We'll do one clarifying point and then I'm sure you have a question to follow up here. We have historically over the past 10 years of being around TechStars, Chicago, we've had probably like half of our companies come into Chicago from somewhere else. So we can invest internationally. So there's no one who who, who couldn't apply to TechStars. Chicago necessarily. And the reason being is, is we want to diversify our ranks here in Chicago, we want to bring more people in. But there's also a set of unique mentors and investors and networks and companies here, that will be beneficial to companies, even if you have a headquarters somewhere else. So we're more than happy to work with them to
go, this place, kind of into the next question here from Michael, should be applied to accelerators in our region, or should we make efforts to relocate to another city? And I'm sure that, you know, kind of the answer to that depends a little bit on how the pandemic plays out moving forward,
which is, I mean, it's out, yeah, it's how the pandemic plays out, Greg, it's also how, you know, what the nature of your business is your specific situation and circumstance, because, you know, I definitely would encourage you to expand your horizons, right. Because if you're going to grow your company, you're probably going to go out of a state at some point and do business. So it might be really beneficial for you to consider setting up shop and in multiple locations, or, you know, even relocating, depending on what the opportunities might be in a different area. So you're definitely going to have a bit of a networking leg up with whatever's local to you. But it's definitely something you can overcome if if you're worth your salt. And I'm sure if you're here watching this TechCrunch talk you are, because you're doing the work to, to understand what it takes to actually get in before you apply. So definitely encourage you to you know, spread your wings a bit, consider other places to apply to and be a part of, and, and even relocate to even if it's temporary, just to, you know, build that network there and come back home and bring that with you and keep that connection going. lots of reasons and opportunities to do so.
And these, these questions just keep coming in. They're great, too. So let's go. JOHN asked me are two co founders running a successful company, if one of us needs to keep the lights on, which I assume means having another job? How does that impact our application?
Sure, yeah. So there's a couple things there. You know, part of why we invest real cash and real capital into your company is to give you a little bit more freedom to go all in, it would be very difficult for us to go all in with you if you're not willing to go all in with us, too. Right. So, you know, for the, and this is specifically for an accelerator experience. Now, if you need capital, but that's all you need. And a lot of the other things from the accelerator aren't as important, then, yeah, it makes sense, you can try to raise an angel round, and you need to be honest with your investors about your time commitment and the commitment of your team. But for us, and I'm speaking specifically for me in TechStars, Chicago, I'm definitely looking for people to be all in now, are there exceptions, every now and then it's very rare. Because most of the time, when that happens, there's a little bit of a competing, you know, interests with respect to, you know, your ability to go all in and be committed. But we definitely want to make sure that our program is accessible to people who need to, you know, take care of other things, either at home or to, you know, generate a certain amount of money in order to take care of their family, or their obligations. So definitely sensitive to that would not discourage you to apply even if you have that situation, because we can talk it through and figure out what would make sense. But when we're putting in $120,000, to go through a three month accelerator, we're hoping that that will buy you the time to focus on the business completely. Got it.
Okay, this next one is from Stephanie, how much of the human side or even story should a founder bring to the application process? You mentioned this briefly earlier, alongside metrics, etc. So how much of the founders own story should be in there?
Yeah, I think the story is very important. And even if someone says it isn't, it is, they just may not be admitting it right away or understand, you know, what you went through, but you decided to start a company, that's a big deal. That's not an easy thing to do. And follow through on fully, it's an easy thing to say you're doing, you can put a CEO anybody can see on a LinkedIn profile. But it's another thing entirely, to really put yourself out there to get feedback, to be critiqued to be asked tough questions. And we want to know who's behind all of that, and why, you know, the, the causality of you wanting to start a company as opposed to working somewhere, volunteering somewhere, you know, you know, there's a lot of other things you could be doing with your life to make progress with the domain of the problem you want to solve most likely, and starting a company's probably arguably the most difficult one. So telling your human side of your story. And your journey to get to where you are is is vital, as far as I'm concerned. And I put a lot of stock in that. Because if I know that you are going to be rigorous and your commitment and diligence and working on this problem. I'm going to be more likely to want to invest in you than if it's something where you don't have as much of a personal connection to it. You see a market opportunity that can be kind of, you know, a system that can be gamed and You know, you can flip it really quickly in the next five years to turn out, you know, decent return. That's maybe some people's interests. It's never been mine, because it's never ever only been about the money. I care deeply about what societal impact you're gonna have your company to.
Okay, this next one is from john, my co founders on the marketing side, not the tech side, how much would they benefit by attending the accelerator?
Oh, everyone would benefit from participating accelerator, depending on the size of your team. Now, you have a team of 20 people that's happened before, but you wouldn't have people probably doing the accelerator experience. So it's usually best to have anywhere from two to five or six people doing most of the accelerator activities. That being said, it can go a little bit higher than that, for sure. And a few times it's gone lower. But yeah, your marketing co founder would definitely benefit from participating as well, I think it's really important for you all to not only share the load, but gain, you know, similar shared experience and knowledge. Because as you grow and scale your hopefully successful company, a lot of the people who join your ranks will not have gone through that accelerator experience. And it'll be up to you all as leaders within your company to pass along that wisdom that information, those resources and those insights and those connections that you made. So the more people who are involved and engaged during that program experience, the more effective you'll likely be in passing that knowledge on to the to the team members that you'll hire eventually, who will need it.
Hey, look, another one from Elizabeth here. Would you rather invest in an amazing team with not such a good product or an amazing product with not such an amazing team?
Definitely the former, I would think it depends. But I'll be honest, by and large, like when I've been faced with those situations, it's always a team because a good team will catch up on the product side, but a good product with a bad team. That's a recipe for disaster. Because it might be successful, despite itself. But even that'll be rare. The most common reason we see startups fail, or because they have that products is because the team doesn't quite work out. There's a disagreement. There's miscommunication. There's mismanagement, there's a lot of personal or personnel issues that occur in the company's lifecycle at the early stages that caused it to crumble, not the product.
Okay, we're coming short on time here. But we talked a little bit earlier about how TechStars Chicago has moved over virtual. As we as life returns back to normal, is there anything that you're going to take from the the virtual accelerator process anything you've learned from that you're going to take back into the the normal quote unquote, program?
Yes, thank you for that. So when it comes to TechStars, accelerators going virtual from in person and some being hybrids now, and hopefully after our next program, which comes up in July applications next week, by the way, deadline, April 7. There are so many insights that I've gained over the past year, and I took TechStars, Chicago, my program remote very early. So it was a week before lockdown occurred, you know, we had the national emergency and all that last year, I kind of saw the writing on the wall, I looked at the data, and I saw what was going to happen. And I said Alright, y'all, we need to get ready. So I'm gonna go ahead and pull the plug on this and go remote. And thankfully, it was seamless the transition. Because most of what we manage during our accelerator when it comes to content when it comes to scheduling when it comes to communication, we're all within online systems, so that our founders, whether they could be in the office any given day or not, we're still able to participate and make progress. So we had the remote infrastructure already built in place in TechStars. As a company is remote, we're global, right? We have nearly 50 accelerators all over the world. And we need a way to collaborate as a 300 person company to make progress and still support all of our founders. And that's exactly what we are willing to do. So the I guess the final thing I'll say here, as far as insights is, we were definitely able to include far more people when it comes to mentors, workshop presenters, thought leaders, and you know, a lot of other helpful folks to our founders, because we're able to be remote, right? So it like the engagement actually went up. Because so many folks are willing to just say yes to either a zoom call or a phone call, as opposed to having to commute all the way to downtown Chicago into our office to have to present so we're planning to keep some of those hybrid components for good, so that we have more accessibility with our program experience.
Awesome. New. We're just about out of time. If anybody wants to get a hold of you get in touch today, what's the best way? Sure. Yeah.
So I'm active on Twitter. That seems to be the hot spot for now, you know, for for reaching out publicly. And then you can find me via email. Any AOL dot Sal? Yes, at TechStars. com. Super easy to find. I appreciate a second follow up. I get a lot of inbound. So I would love to hear from you all and I look forward to hopefully some of you all applying to our program by April 7 next week.
Awesome. All right. Neil, thank you so much for your time. Thanks, right