What is a startup incubator / accelerator program –
In most cases it is a profit driven programs that accept open applications from new companies ( startups) with small founding members to attend limited classes . After the initial idea is well developed by the founder members , the accelerator program will assist the startup the much required by providing seed capital, guidance and events for a limited period of time ( generally from 12 to 16 weeks ) in return for a small percentage of equity, which varies from 5 % -10 % . Finally at the end of the program, the selected companies after pitching their ideas at a ‘demo day’ get a seed investment from investors along with mentor-ship from industry experts . Incubator facility means a startup will get a office space along with resources and assets for more 1-1.5 years ( on rent or in exchange of equity ) after the completion of accelerator program. In general most of the startup accelerators provides these facilities to selected companies at the end of their program.
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Here is the list of some of the best and Top 10 startup incubators and accelerator programs in USA you must apply for in 2017
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Techstars
Techstars is a mentorship-driven 13 weeks startup accelerator program that was founded by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown, and Jared Polis . It organizes its programs in various parts of US including Boulder, New York City, Boston, Seattle, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago and London.
It is considered as one of the best startup accelerators in the world with less than 1% of the companies that apply to Techstars are selected.
As of June-2015, Techstars has accepted more than 500 companies into its program. Collectively, these companies have raised more than $1,300 million. Program mentors includes some of the best entrepreneurs in strtup world including Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, tumblr CEO David Karp, HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures
500 Startups
500 Startups is an early-stage venture firm and startup accelerator, founded in 2010 and run by Dave McClure . As of July, 2013, 500Startups had invested in 500+ companies, including some notable startups including Punchd ,Console.FM, CoContest, Safe Shepherd, Markerly, idreambooks, Fileboard, myGengo, Artsicle, ChinaNetCloud , Cucumbertown, Udemy, ZipMatch, Visual.ly, E la Carte, Canva and RidePal.
500startups is also engaged in other startup events and accelerator around the world including Europe and Asia apart from USA directly or indirectly making It may be noted out of its total investments more than 20% have participated in other accelerator programs, 10-15% are gone international and more than 10 startups have been acquired. 500 startups has locations in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and . In 2015 they announced they would be starting a three month growth program in London, UK as well as a pre-accelerator in Oslo, Norway. It has shown significant interest and started their prelim operations in other Startup hub in Asia including China and India .
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YCombinator
YCombinator is a leading and one of the most popular startup accelerator based in USA . It was first started in March 2005. Forbes has mentioned Y Combinator to be the most commercially successful startup accelerator in the world. Leading technology magazine Wired notes that Y Combinator a “boot camp for startups” and “the most prestigious program for budding digital entrepreneurs”. World’s one of the most influential investor Marc Andreessen has called Y Combinator as the best program for creating top-end entrepreneurs that has ever existed.
In mid 2015, Y Combinator has launched YC Fellowship Program, primarily focusing at companies at their earliest stage than the main program. YC Fellowship program targets nearly 1000 startups every year. The first batch of YC Fellowship program consist of nearly 33 companies, which has received an equity-free grant instead of an investment.
In October 2015, YC has launched the YC Continuity Fund, focusing on companies at a later stage than the main program, this will allow YC to make investments for companies that is valued under $300 million. In October 2015 Y Combinator has launched a long term research based investment program YC Research
Since 2005 YC has funded nearly 800 startups and has a founder community strength of 1600. The startups they funded have a combined valuation of nearly 30 billion dollars now.
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MassChallenge
MassChallenge is a very popular startup accelerator in united states.. Its primarily focuses to promote innovative ideas, collaboration,full fill the seed-stage investment gap, empower founding team and provide them educational opportunities .
Unlike most of the other startup accelerator programs Mass Challenge is a nonprofit organization . It selects upt o 128 early stage startup companies each year to participate in its 16 weeks accelerator program, which provides entrepreneurs access to mentors including industry leaders, digital marketing and media resources, Investment opportunities and a free office space, . At the end of the program i.e after 16 weeks, MassChallenge awards $1 million to the program’s top companies.
As a nonprofit organization, MassChallenge never takes any equity in the companies or place any restrictions on the entrepreneurs ! The primary funding comes from sponsorship from large corporations like Fidelity Investments, Oracle, Microsoft, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, American Airlines, Verizon and others
As of May 2015, MassChallenge claimed that more than 600 alumni had collectively raised more than $900 million from outside investments, generated nearly $500M in revenue and created 5000+ jobs.
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AngelPad
AngelPad is a very popular 10 week startup accelerator program in USA, to help nearly 12-20 web-technology based startups, which are at their earliest stage, to make their product much better, raise the initial investment and mentorship from industry experts alng with use of resources . It organizes their program twice a year
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The program primarily focuses to help entrepreneurs for a fundraising and demo day. Its demo day is conducted at the end of the program when founders / entrepreneurs present their business to numerous potential investors for an initial invetment. Mainly Angelpad selects those startups in their accelerator program who did not get any outside investment within 6-10 months of the launch of the product
Angelpad was first launched in 2010 and its companies have raised $400+ million in funding and generated $800+ million in exit value. Notable exits include Mopub (acquired by Twitter), Adku (acquired. by Groupon), Astrid and Blink (acquired. by Yahoo), Spotsetter (acquired. by Apple) .
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Blue Startups
Blue Startups is a technology accelerator that was founded by Henk Rogers, founder of Blue Planet Software . Blue Startups focuses on helping scalable-tech related companies including Internet, software, mobile, gaming and e-commerce to compete on a globally. Bluestartups is a member of the Global Accelerator Network and follows the Techstars mentor-driven accelerator model. It has presence in Hawai‘i, Asia and the Silicon Valley ( USA ). Blue Startups is one of the fast becoming a nexus of early stage startup’s founders in Hawai‘i, and between Asia and Continental U.S.
Startups that are accepted into a GAN accelerator have the access to a variety of perks including over $1 million worth of free services, introductions to a network of potential investors and access to soft landing spaces worldwide.
Know more about BlueStartups
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The Capital Innovators
The Capital Innovators accelerator Program is based in St. Louis MO, provides primarily tech early stage startups with $50,000 in seed funding, project based mentorship and guidance from industry experts stellar perks, networking, and follow on funding opportunities over the program length of 12 weeks
It is also a member of GAN ( Global accelerator network ) To date It has raised nearly 140 million dollars and has more than 50 companies in their portfolio.
Know more about accelerator program by The Capital Innovators
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StartX
StartX was founded by Cameron Teitelman in 2011. It is a non-profit accelerator associated with Stanford University with at least one member of each startup must have some Stanford connection.
The StartX accelerator differentiates itself from other startup accelerators in Silicon Valley, that it is an educational non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that takes no equity in excange in the companies it helps start
In 2013, Stanford announced received a grant of $1.2 million for each of three years to StartX. Along with Stanford Hospital and Clinics, it created a new Stanford-StartX fund to invest in current and alumni StartX companies.To receive the investment from Stanford, StartX companies must raise at least $500,000 on their own from professional angel investors or venture capitalists. Stanford-StartX has selected 6 companies by 2013.
One of its first ventures, Alphonso Labs which was developed the Pulse App. WifiSlam was acquired by Apple Inc for nealry $20M .
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Brandery
Brandery is a seed stage startup accelerator that is expertise of the Cincinnati region including branding, marketing and design. Startups will be allowed to connect with some world-class creative agencies and have access to some largest corporations in the world including P & G , dunn humby, and Kroger.
The Brandery conducts four-month accelerator program once a year for nearly 12 companies. They also receive a 6% equity stake in each early startup in exchange for $50000. They also provide free office space for a year and $200000 in additional benefits.
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Amplify
Amplify is a startup accelerator with a great team of investors, mentors and executives,primarily focuses in helping founders to build their startups into a strong, scalable, successful companies.
Amplify’s accelerator program is generally four to eight months long within intense collaboration. They invest between $50,000 – $200,000 in seed funding and also provides their free workspace at their Venice campus and guidance from industry experts.
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