Skip to main content

These Are The Top 20 US Accelerators



Startup accelerators have become a prominent feature of the tech landscape in recent years, with more and more programs popping up every month.

In many ways, they have become a rite of passage for thousands of entrepreneurs who apply to and join programs annually.

Yet, with so many programs to choose from, and little publicly available data on each program, it can be hard for entrepreneurs to figure out which programs are most effective and which specific program would be the best fit to help launch their startup. We founded the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project with this challenge for entrepreneurs in mind.

Our aim is both to foster conversation about the accelerator model that has emerged over the last decade, and help entrepreneurs gain a measure of visibility into the strengths of various programs.

The project is an outgrowth of the original accelerator rankings study conducted by Aziz Gilani, Kelly Quann and Yael Hochberg in 2010.

Today, at SXSW, we released the latest version of our annual rankings.

This year, a number of trends are apparent. First, while many new programs have emerged, a good number have also shut down. Furthermore many of the newer programs are vertically-specialized, focusing on a specific industry – for example, healthcare or energy. Finally, a good number of new programs are associated with local governments or state initiatives.

Overall, we found many interesting new programs that were simply too young to have reliable outcomes, and that were therefore not included in this year’s rankings. However, we expect to see some of these programs in top categories in years to come.

In determining who qualified for the rankings, we considered all programs that met the formal definition of an accelerator program: fixed-term, cohort-based, with educational and mentorship components, culminating in a public pitch or demo day.

Additionally, programs had to have graduated at least one cohort, have at least 10 graduates, be primarily located in the U.S., and be willing to provide full transparency to our team. Of course, there are some programs out there that call themselves accelerators who do not meet these criteria, and therefore did not qualify for this rankings project. Ultimately, we verified and invited over 150 programs to participate in the rankings process.

To construct the rankings, we collected detailed data on a large number of accelerator programs and their graduates including confidential data provided by the accelerators themselves.

We then calculated a variety of quantitative measures to better understand how programs stacked up on several important outcomes, including: valuations, fundraising, exits and survival. We supplemented those measures with a broad survey of each accelerator’s graduates, in order to determine their satisfaction with the program and whether they would recommend it to fellow entrepreneurs.

Read More
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Build Your Own Awesome Personal 3D Avatar with Avatara

Do you use social networks and want to build your own awesome 3D avatar? Maybe you want to send someone a cute cuddly image of yourself (kind of)? Or maybe you have your own ideas of what you would do with an Avatar… Well look no further than Avatara which I discovered from the MakeUseOf directory . You can create 3d avatars out of pre-set up templates or create your own from scratch. To start, visit Avatara’s homepage . You will see this screen: Click Get Started to umm, get started! That will take you to this screen: You see that you can build your own Avatar using an uploaded head shot like the Obama one above (just an example, guys). Or roll with one of their awesome avatars. I chose to start with a blank avatar by clicking Start with a blank avatar at the bottom of the screen. That takes you to here: I clicked on the filter at the top and told it to filter out everything but male characters and then I saw this: I rolled with Buck and continued. You need to click Select...
1 comment
Read more

Fun Tools to Translate Your Name into Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese calligraphy is an artistic writing style of the Japanese language. Its Chinese origins can be traced back to the twenty-eighth century BCE. Calligraphy found its way into Japanese culture in 600 CE and is known as the karayo tradition. For Westerners, calligraphy is forever fascinating. However, it takes years to learn how to properly draw the signs. Two basic principles must be known to understand Japanese writing: there are different writing styles and different alphabets. Kaisho for example, is a writing style most commonly used in print media. Tensho on the other hand is used in signatures. Other writing styles are Reisho, Gyosho and Sousho. The alphabets include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Katakana is used for writing foreign words. It can also serve to highlight words, in analogy to capital letters as we know them from the Roman / Latin alphabet (Romaji in Japanese). Each Kanji character has a meaning of its own, while Hiragana or Katakana characters merely repres...
Post a Comment
Read more

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...
Post a Comment
Read more