What is the online Starta pre-acceleration program, and why do you need to check it out?
Batch 10 startups shared insights with us pertaining to their experience in the online pre-acceleration program, so that founders from all over the world could understand whether or not it’s a good fit for them.
Valeriy Makovetskiy, Founder of Everytale
Our product is a marketplace for online and hybrid conferences. Based on your preferences, the platform generates a selection of the most relevant webinars. We use simultaneous interpretation technology for international events. The development has been ongoing since mid-2019. We plan to grow to 150 thousand users by the end of the year. Revenue in September amounted to $3.400, and by October, $40.000. By the end of the year, we plan to show at least $140.000 ARR.
What is a pre-acceleration program?
If an accelerator is something like a university for startups, then the pre-accelerator is a high school. The essence of both is to develop the skills of the teams, but the pre-accelerator deals more with basic knowledge. One of the most exciting and motivating parts of the program was listening to real experts. We also received all kinds of educational materials and completed weekly tasks. The pre-accelerator helps with learning common legal and accounting mistakes, organizing CusDev, and building a business strategy. It covers your basics.
What did we want to learn at the pre-acceleration program?
We had questions about our unique selling proposition and go-to-market plan. During the program, we found our answers and instantly saw results. It was beneficial to watch videos from professional mentors with extensive experience in creating successful startups in international markets. Coaches not only provided us with knowledge but also helped set goals to grow our business. In addition, not having to pay for these resources truly makes the program invaluable.
Beyond the conclusion of the program, we were accepted to the Starta Ventures accelerator in New York. In Europe, everyone knows that Starta Ventures creates an excellent opportunity for startups to conquer the American market. We had to try, and we succeeded.
Was it useful?
There was a lot of learning and then one day, we overviewed pricing strategies. In my opinion, this was one of the most important topics. Before going through the pre-acceleration program, we wanted to offer the cheapest product, a strategy known as predatory pricing. Later we realized that people in the US are accustomed to paying for quality, and as a result, we can price more accordingly to portray our product value. An important conclusion came to light: we are selling a quality product. It’s acceptable that it’s expensive.
We were consistently given a large load of “homework”. We performed pretty complicated tasks, for example, a competitive analysis, building the profile of an ideal client, and developing a pitch deck, which we struggled with. Going through the program helped us build a list of competitors, raise awareness about our company, and even put together legal documents. Since we are 100% dedicated to growing our business, we prioritized task completion. We went through the seven-day program within three days, but for some people, even a week is not enough. It depends on what your goals are.
Who should participate?
In my personal experience, entrepreneurs at the proof of concept or MVP stage, have to go through the pre-accelerator program. It will help you immediately establish the right mindset, ultimately saving you a lot of time and effort. For $1M ARR startups, the program will no longer add value. Here you will get basic, but essential knowledge. Consequently, top performers from the pre-accelerator make up half of the Batch 10 startups in the Starta Accelerator.
Thoughts From Other Founders
Oleg Kolesnikov, founder of Heymom:
We participated in a pre-acceleration program when we first launched. We had test users, and now have over a few dozen.
We wanted to be a part of Starta’s Accelerator and then saw an opportunity to do just that. I think Starta’s Pre-Accelerator definitely helped us get noticed. You shouldn’t doubt whether to participate in the pre-acceleration program or not. Every week we spent 3–4 hours on take-home assignments. I consider the pre-accelerator as an additional course in entrepreneurship.
King Li, Co-founder of Artpot:
Prior to joining the pre-accelerator, I was skeptical if it could help; boy was I wrong. From something as basic as company setup to developing the mission and goals of our team, the program was well organized and structured for us to follow. The program curator, Gabriel Arant, was extremely active in making sure we participated in each of the exercises and helpful when questions arose. This is the best first step founders should take prior to joining the Starta accelerator and ultimately achieving future success.
The Pre-Accelerator
Gabriel Arant, Program Curator:
The Pre-Accelerator is a great way for any new founder or even an aspiring founder to get basic guidance on how to create and scale their business. We give you the ‘bare-bones’ version of our actual Accelerator Program. This 6 week long course culminates in a ‘Partner Meeting’ with myself and our NY team- this is essentially an interview for the upcoming batches. So instead of waiting to be selected or not via Online Application, you can better yourself and your business over 6 weeks and on that last week, you are guaranteed an interview with our team! If I were a startup, I would be frothing at the mouth to get an opportunity like this.
The pre-accelerator program consists of Live & Pre-recorded online content with Q&A’s and quizzes. If you are still doubting whether you should proceed with the online pre-accelerator, this is what you will get a chance to do during the program:
- Incorporate & establish — save your time, money & frustration by taking advantage of our expert guidance to avoid common legal & accounting pitfalls that international founders face.
- Become a local — adapt to the cultural and business environment in the USA; get your materials reviewed & polished by local professionals; develop, localize, and test your pitch and messaging.
- Learn custdev like a native company — get insider support from local professionals: discover the channels and tactics you wouldn’t have thought of by yourself; super-charge your customer development and obtain rapid results.
Geography and Statistics
- 550 registered companies (+ 170% to the previous quarter)
- 227 completed the entire course / completed all tasks: (+ 846%)
- Geographical diversity: Russia ~ 42.2%, CIS ~ 16.5%, other countries ~ 41.3%
- Starta Accelerator Participation: 23 were interviewed, 6 were accepted
