If you’re an entrepreneur and are seeing for ways to boost your business, you should adopt modern technological methods. By collaborating with renowned companies, startups and scale-ups, you can always get the chance to flourish. The best thing to do is adopt Accelerator and Incubator programs that can help you grow startups and scale-ups. The 2 terms are often to be used interchangeably and serve the same purpose, yet they both carry different connotations. Let us find out the difference first before finding out the best Edtech Accelerators and Incubators.
Difference between Incubators and Accelerators
Collaborations are of two kinds: Accelerator and Incubator program. They are interchangeably used and almost serve the same purpose. Following are a few of the structural differences between the two programs.
- The existing companies fund and support Accelerators, whereas Incubators are independent, but they form connections to work with capital firms and universities.
- The main focus of accelerators, as the name suggests, is to accelerate the companies and scale them up. On the other hand, Incubators works on stimulating innovation by incubating unique ideas.
- Accelerators are time-framed and have to be consumed in a specified period of time, while Incubators last longer and are open-ended.
- The basic & crucial difference between the two is quality vs. quantity. The accelerator offers mentoring by the legacy company, and the Incubators emphasize having many people instead.
- Accelerators are a bit more organized and structured and attempt to create alignment between the startups. Incubators focus on creating a congenial environment for co-creation.
Now that we know enough about the difference between the Accelerators and Incubators let us introduce both startup programs.
Incubators
Incubators are specifically designed to assist the entrepreneur in developing their brand to be ready to launch. The Incubator is a collaborative program designed to lend a helping hand to startups by offering workspace, seed funding, mentoring, and training. These are mostly located physically in one central workplace hence the convenience.
Startup Incubators are nonprofit organizations that are often affiliated with schools and universities, who invite their students and alumni, and other community members to seek some benefit from the program. These incubators are always ready to provide the resources required to grow business.
Merits
- The best and the most helpful advantage any startup program could offer to a newbie entrepreneur is to render a network service of accomplished business partners. The successful business partner the Incubator link you up with are those who would never collaborate with anyone without forming any substantial financial commitments.
- The most important thing to be a successful businessperson is to have more exposure and experiences. It is only possible through Incubator that gives you the chance to interact and extend your business.
- Incubators often get an opportunity to hear the motivational talk of successful businesspersons so they can learn from their personal experiences. These mentors help you stop from making mistakes they made during their expedition to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
- It is obvious that the work you do by cooperation is far more effective and better than the one you do on your own. By interacting with mentors and sharing experiences with comrades, you can gather many ideas and launch a business of your own.
Tips for joining Startup Incubator.
As mentioned earlier, Incubator offers a long-term chance to those wishing to launch their business. However, before planning to join any Incubator, bear in mind that not every Incubator is the same. There are different types of incubators:
- Profit Incubators: They are there to monetize their equity in your company.
- Nonprofit Incubator: They help your business grow with the aim to improve the local economy.
- County: These are the state and university-operated incubators.
Accelerators
Startup accelerators are one of the best ways to accelerate your business growth. They also help entrepreneurs identify their growth strategy and enact a better plan to achieve it. Thanks to the amazing assistance accelerators offer in assisting newbies in growing their business. Their number has also increased, with many new programs appearing in large metropolitan areas that are rich with startups. Resultantly, the competition between these accelerators has also been improved, with every accelerator trying to outdo another.
Pros
- Accelerators offer remarkable advice to business aspirants. Their star-studded team consists of entrepreneurs, market strategists, and business experts who are there to give you the best business-related advice.
- A business aspirant gets a chance to learn from the experiences and mistakes of the experienced businessperson. It can prove to be beneficial, as you will not repeat the same mistakes that others did.
- The mentors are not compensated. So, the Startups have to make sure they do their homework and ask insightful questions. In this way, Accelerators help you broaden your horizon and make you insightful, inculcating in you the basic sense of doing business.
- Accelerators offer access to the best investors in town. They can link you up with successful business tycoons. They can help the startups financially by taking part in fundraising. Though fundraising is not desirable, yet the option is always there if, in case, self-financing ceases to work.
- The important benefit of being a part of an accelerator is that you get assured about the authenticity of your ideas and business strategies, as being accepted into an Accelerator is an uphill task, so getting accepted is akin to getting external validation.
Things to Remember while Opting for an Accelerator
For startups, it is highly important to make the right decision when it comes to choosing an Accelerator for themselves. One should be decisive about the strategies and future plans for their business. It will help them choose the right option. Though there are only a few options available, these options are pretty diverse.
Since the entrepreneurs often move to metropolitan areas for their businesses, the Accelerators are also located in the urban areas to give greater exposure. There are different types of accelerators, but the primary focus of all these accelerators is to be aligned with either vertical markets or horizontal technologies.
- Vertical Accelerators:
They engage startups targeting a specific industry, trade or customer. It aims to leverage the peculiar power of the regional investor community in the vertical market to build a mentor network around it. The most common themes amongst the Vertical Accelerators are financial technology, health and education technology, energy, media, real estate and fashion. In addition to that, they also exist in nonprofit firms and food. The common type of Vertical Accelerator is Techstars, which is one of the biggest accelerator organizations. It has the honor to collaborate with many organizations with the aim to deliver a variety of vertically focused programs like Barclays, Disney, Kaplan, and Sprint.
- Horizontal Accelerator
Horizontal accelerators are ideal for those startups that are hoping to target a specific product or technology. These refer to the accelerators focused on startups aiming to develop a product that fulfills customers’ needs across different market niches. The horizontal accelerators are focused on the Internet of Things, commonly referred to as IoT products.
Best Edtech Accelerators and Incubators
Now that we know enough about the Incubators and Accelerators and we know the difference between the two adequately, let us look at the list of best Edtech Accelerators and Incubators below.
1. NYU Steinhardt Edtech Accelerator
NYU Steinhardt Edtech Accelerator is yet another name on the list of best Edtech Accelerators and Incubators. It requires just one establishing member of Edtech business to be there at the entryway to the NYU Steinhardt Edtech Accelerators.
Similar to any great Accelerator, it also performs splendid mentorship to the newbies who want to start their own business. Additionally, the program offers around $170,000 in funding for a post-beta product.
The program requires all Edtech services to change education for this three-month program.
2. LearnLaunch Accelerators
The first option on the list of best EDtech Accelerators and Incubators is LearnLaunch Accelerators. This option serves as the best way to fund a startup that is at an early stage yet. The program is basically based in Boston, and it proudly boasts a mentorship organization of around 150 people who render reduced services and crucial training to startups. LearnLaunch Accelerators offers around two edtech-focused programs that run for three months or four weeks minimum in exchange for 6% equity in the business.
The program can prove to be a great help for business aspirants to learn new ways, gain experiences, and learn from the mistakes and experiences of the mentors. Under the supervision of great mentors and successful business tycoons, the new entrepreneurs certainly learn a great deal.
3. Intel Education Accelerator
Its Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Intel Education Accelerator helps aspirants acquire around $100,000 in funding. Also, it provides a chance for you to seek consent from marketing experts to have a market insight. The best part about Intel Education Accelerator program is its location that helps you build connections with successful people.
4. NYU Steinhardt Edtech Incubator
If you liked the concept of NYU Steinhardt Edtech Accelerator but did not have any post-beta product, the good thing to do would be to take your idea and switch it over to their Incubator program instead.
The program is a little less privileged in a way that it does not offer the financing, as their Accelerator program does; however, you can still have access to their coaches, market professionals, skilled businesspersons, and partners for a month-to-month sum, who are always there to help you in business matters.
In short, it is an amazing place to spend limited time to help your edtech company to grow up.
5. BoomStartup Accelerator
The second name on the list of desirable Edtech Accelerators and Incubators is BoomStartup. It is based in Salt Lak City and proves to be a great picture of edtech Accelerators and Incubators to perform well at your new startup. Their main focus is on edtech companies and several other software application replacements. Moreover, it proudly offers up to $100,000 in seed financing and around $1 million in services, including hosting, which is a great deal. In return, BoomStartup will get around six to nice percent equity in the business aspirant’s latest business.
6. Y Combinator
Who doesn’t want to visit a silicone valley, a hub of the technological world? Well, if you also dream of going there, you can join Y Combinator. They have got a spectacular mentorship program that helps you teach more about edtech and software applications.
You can get suggestions from experts and a medium to test your markets. Moreover, they use a three-month program and $120,000 in the financing, and in return, they ask for a 7 percent stake in the company.
7. Lowa Startup Accelerator
Lowa Startup Accelerator is one of the most convenient and super-efficient ninety-day programs. It renders mentoring, funding, and most importantly, development experience to edtech startups.
The program imposes certain conditions. For example, those who wish to participate in this program should ensure that their business is pre-revenue or holds less than $1 million in revenue. Lastly, the program offers around $20 000 in the start seed money with an extra $50,000.
8. The Summer Institute
The Summer Institute is based in Canada and offers a three-month extensive program to teach you the ways to develop your own company from scratch.
It offers you great pieces of advice through its coaches, mentors, and expert business people. The best part about The Summer Institute program is that it requires nothing in equity,
9. Telluride Venture Accelerator
It is the last option on the list of best Edtech Accelerators and Incubators. There at the program, you get to receive counseling from more than 100 coaches. They offer $30,000 financing assistance and, in return, ask for five percent property. If you are really interested in joining it, we suggest you opt for the Colorado-based program.
10.Michelson Runway Edtech Accelerators
It is one of the most extended Accelerator programs. It offers 4-month programs to aspiring entrepreneurs with their skilled coaches. They also help you find the area to work, give legal suggestions, and ask for feedback. Moreover, it also provides $150,000 in equity financing utilizing safe notes to the deserving companies.
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Final Words:
These are some of the best accelerators for you to join to help you grow your startup. While joining any, prioritize your needs, focus on the pros and cons of each program, and look at the specifications. Moreover, while joining any program, make sure the one you are joining has a larger database, as it would be a better choice instead of opting for a brand new program.