Accelerators
One Route Into the Inner Circle of Tech Founders
Another founding member of the team helping us out this week. She is the QUEEN of inner circles. 👑
Dear Diary,
Great news — I was recently accepted into the RAIN Catalysts Spring Tech Accelerator and sessions start later this week! 🎉 While there are many great things about this particular accelerator, there was a lot of back and forth internally to decide if this was something worth pursuing. Some of the things I love about this accelerator in particular:
💸 It’s free, and they mean it. 💸
Because it is funded by the US Economic Development Administration and run by a non-profit, there is no claim to equity, no claim to IP, and they don’t charge a fee.🌎 They’re focused on community, inclusivity, and belonging 🌎
“RAIN exists to reduce barriers to entrepreneurship and innovation for underrepresented populations and communities.” With a community-centric approach to business development, they follow an investigative process to building a startup instead of a prescriptive one.🕵️ They’re “investigative, not prescriptive” 🕵️
meaning “we join-in to existing community activities/conversations, engage local stakeholders, listen, map ecosystem assets, identify and leverage strengths, identify gaps, and spin-up programming that meets the needs of that community’s entrepreneurs.”🧠 They’re experienced 🧠
“Existing since 2014, RAIN Catalysts has been invited to serve 52 communities in Oregon and Washington, plus 4 cities in Pakistan, to help them build inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems and innovation economies.”🌱 They’re connected with Portland Seed Fund 🌱
meaning if you’re looking for investors, there’s some funds set aside for graduates who are ready and scalable.
So with all the good, why was there hesitation? Well, accelerators have a reputation of not always being a great option. Early on when I searched for and applied to accelerator programs (only 2, one I was ghosted and the other I was accepted 🥳) and again when I got my acceptance into RAIN, I spoke with engineers and founders in the industry about the accelerator itself and accelerators in general. Most of them, if not all of them, had similar comments and experiences with accelerators. Some of the highlights:
⏳ “There wasn’t anything new that I learned there — it ended up being a waste of time.”
💰 “The program was poorly run and they had rights to equity in my company if they so chose to.”
📈 “Sometimes they’re tied to venture capital, so in those cases there’s a lot of pressure to perform since you have already been given money in exchange for equity.”
🔍 “You can get the same info by just talking to people and searching online.”
In my research, I found support for the arguments I heard countless times. However, when I searched independently for information I needed on founding a tech startup, I discovered it was hard to come by. While information on the internet exists, most of it was unvetted and/or gate kept. Of course, Y-Combinator was always a resource for free videos, including their Startup School. To me, however, it was not sufficient on its own. So why was information and connections hard to come by for me but easy for others?
Exclusivity
In the tech startup world, there is a perception of an inner circle. Once you’re in, you’ll have ample access to connections and information sharing. But before that time, you’re on the outside trying to understand what the landscape even looks like. This is where accelerators come in. A good accelerator program will connect you to resources, information, networks, mentors, and more. But a good accelerator program often has an application process and won’t accept every applicant. Further, if you get in, many will want equity of your company and/or some other monetary value to participate in the program. And thus, you get stuck on the outside.
So why is it that some folks have terrible experiences with accelerators and others need it just to figure out what is going on? It becomes about who you know. Unfortunately, this is a type of culture that exacerbates the issue around diversity in the field. While entrepreneurs don’t intentionally keep info away from folks starting out in their world, platforms like LinkedIn make it difficult for them to be exposed to different types of people without putting in extra effort on their own. Just the other day, I was sitting in a room filled with local founders and executives of UAV companies in my area and I heard one of them explicitly say “LinkedIn is really just for people like us — I don’t really see anyone else on there.” So if they don’t see anyone else except folks like them, how are they supposed to network with people more than once removed from their circle?
The second problem comes from time. While many well-intentioned people exist out there, many founders and executives get bombarded with requests for sales of products, mentorship, advice, interviews, conference invitations, and more. Even in my two weeks of public-facing entrepreneurship I’ve already seen a significant increase in these requests. And when so many people are trying to get information from you directly, especially people you’ve never met, it becomes difficult to know what’s a connection to make that is genuine. And with that kind of filtering, you continue to grow the walls around the inner circle that is tech founder culture.
So what do we do? We keep trying to make reliable information more accessible. We keep moving forward in the journey to learn, grow, and thrive. And along the way, we pave a path that makes entrepreneurship in the tech industry more inclusive in the future.
Adventure awaits! 🚀
Leila Kaneda
Co-Founder and CTO
she/her/hers
