Unless these 5 elements exist: it is NOT an accelerator.

Let’s get one thing straight: accelerators are fantastic vehicles for advancing the growth of a startup. I truly believe that any company, big or small, can benefit from the guidance and resources of a well run accelerator program. However, legitimate accelerators like Y-combinator and TechStars have become so popular with main stream media that knock-off versions have begun to arise. This is a problem because not all “help” is good help.

What is a true startup accelerator?

In my opinion, a legitimate startup accelerator consists of the following 5 components:

Capital

Startups need money. Capital isn’t a “nice to have”- it’s a mandatory requirement for any business. Most startups that join accelerators are pre-revenue. The business may be post idea stage, maybe they even have some early customers, but for the most part the founders decide to join an accelerator because they need help figuring out the business and revenue model. Some startups don’t even know that there’s a difference between a business and revenue model. They need help and they need cash and it is the duty of the accelerator to give them both. Any program that doesn’t provide startup capital as an investment or, even worse, makes the startup pay money to get into the program is a total scam and should be held liable for ruining the accelerator ecosystem. I’m not saying millions of dollars need to be infused, but some capital is necessary to get…