Posts Tagged boot camp
Part 2 of 5: The Tech Wildcatters’ Program
Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous on October 20, 2009
Yesterday, I introduced the Tech Wildcatters micro-seed project in Dallas. Today, we review the program.
Gabriella Draney and Jon Feld started Tech Wildcatters. On Sept 3, I had the great opportunity to sit down with Gabriella and talk about her new venture. I organized her responses into each of these general question categories.
What is the program?
The program will put entrepreneurs through a 12 week program that will be like a mini MBA/entrepreneurial boot camp. Rather than just letting the entrepreneurs get money and go on their own, Tech Wildcatters will start with the basics and examine if the company has the right product. Most inventors/entrepreneurs never take this time and think they have a product. Gabriella’s background with her MBA and experience at a venture fund taught her a lot of the strengths of weaknesses of a typical startup. Realizing that all startups have some weaknesses, typically in product development, Tech Wildcatters want to address these up front. In month 1, they will explore who the entrepreneurs are, why the entrepreneurs are, and the fundamental strategy of their company. They do not want the founders to touch the keyboard again until they figured out something along these lines. They will complete this within the first month.
What is the advantage of using Tech Wildcatters?
Best-in-class big companies use business intelligence, voice of the customer, stage-gate product development processes to create their next products. How can two people working in a garage do this? That is the point with Tech Wildcatters. With their approach they want to bring the big time product development to the small startup.
Why 12 weeks?
The intent is to speed up the first year of business. It takes time for prospects to respond, product development and to market your products. It takes longer to make the right connections because these are often done at events, via introductions that take time, and as relationships are developing. Startup owners often do not have the experience and connections to know how to take advantage of every single day and week. There is a lot of time lost as this is developed. Tech Wildcatters intends to make every day count in an accelerated approach by providing guidance and connections through their own network and knowledge base.
The Tech Wildcatters’ environment will be one of camaraderie and teamwork, but also of high competition. Competition keeps things rolling quickly as teams will feel pressure to perform and make decisions. The environment of working closely with other startup teams will lend itself to speeding up the company’s development. Fear of making the wrong decision often delays many businesses, and this is definitely the case with startups. One of the advantages of working with others is that when you see someone else dealing with similar issues and making decisions it helps dissuade the fear you may have in making a similar decision.
Instead of just giving money, they are going to stack the odds in the entrepreneurs’ favor: close guidance, mentors and collaborators. The program has structure, focus, and the intention of putting the entrepreneurs in the best possible positions for success.
Tomorrow, we will look at their suggestions for the successful fundraiser, which will provide insight into how to get their attention.
The microseed accelerator model
Posted by Steve in Capitalization, Execution on September 14, 2009
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview the founder of a new venture in Dallas, a microseed accelerator. This is a relatively new business model for venture capitalists.
Originally, there were incubators, which were venues that provide office space and a variety of business office and infrastructure back office services to startups. The idea was that by providing these specialized needs to startups they could focus the startup on what they do best, create and sell a product. The result would be rapid growth.
The biggest weakness of incubators was that while they treated all startups the same and did not provide them much in training, mentoring, and/or coaching. Also, the startups themselves did not necessarily recognize they needed anything other than a place and support. The reality is that startups have a different mix of skill sets and experience levels. Some need more help than others in their core competency: creating and selling a product.
In comes the accelerator. Accelerators took the incubator idea one step further. Accelerators would also provide two key elements: some funding and a lot of coaching/mentoring to the startups. The startups joining would take the money and be receptive to the idea of being coached.
More recently, the microseed accelerator is emerging. These companies or portfolio management firms differentiate themselves by invest a small amount of money, focus on idea/prototype stages, focus on specific niches, and provide very customized support to a small team. Some of them, such as the one I interviewed, have a program that puts the startup through a “boot camp”. The boot camp helps them complete out the rationalization of their business plan: make it even more focused on what customers need (not just want) and put them in touch with prospective customers. Rather than “hope and pray” as the earlier incubators, they stack the odds in their favor by fostering growth and success proactively.
To read more about check out the article at www.firstascentventures.com titled: New Venture Capital Models – The Rise of Business Accelerator Seed Funds (Part 1) – 01/13/2009. Check in later this week to learn more about one starting in Dallas: Tech Wildcatters.