Now that you have decided to go ahead with your business idea, next big question is resources. Limited funds, time and personnel can make this process tedious and leaves most entrepreneurs demotivated and stuck despite having a solid potent idea.
With an aim to provide enhanced operational efficiency and value chain benefits, professional innovation programs, better known as Start-up Incubators and Start-up Accelerators aim to induce business growth by facilitating the start-up journey.
Struggles of start-ups
- Initial investment Money
- Improper sales and marketing
- Lack of networking
- Poor Management
- Lack of Mentorship
- Lack of proper mentoring
Accelerators
Aiming towards achieving business growth in a limited amount of time, mostly 12-18 months, Accelerators end-to-end facilitate project development with tools to establish strong value propositions.
Start-ups that are product or prototype ready are then designed into sustainable businesses with addition of valuable resources, usually difficult to put together by the entrepreneur.
While the best advantage of start-up accelerators is that they are very timely, they invest capital in return of a small equity stake of the business.
If you are an early stage start-up with an MVP or prototype and require seed investment, Start-up Accelerators, in addition to that, provide a large mentorship network composed of venture capitalists, industry experts, and external funding options, in exchange of a small amount of equity.
Incubators
Aiming towards long term business development, Start-up Incubators provide time and resources to design and build a sustainable and efficient business model. With an aim to mould start-ups at ideation stage, incubators facilitate the journey towards a successful and self-sustaining business. The difference between start-up incubators and accelerators is that incubators provide complete investment and take higher equity in businesses.
Choosing between Accelerators and Incubators
It can be a daunting task to choose between an incubator and an accelerator. While each has its own pros and cons, depending on how much time and resources you have, and the kind of services you need, you could opt for either of these two models.
Advantages of Start-up accelerators and incubator
- Comprehensive support
- Extensive list of activities
- Investment and financial
- Domain knowledge and experts
- Skill development and resources
- Risk management
- Pre-sales and sales network