SOUTHFIELD – Running an Accelerator I have found that it is crucially important to pick the right companies to work with as clients.  After all…your Accelerator is only as successful as your clients.  While it is equally important to assess potential clients on the strength of their technology, IP position, uniqueness of their business model and value proposition, the strength of the market, competitive positioning, etc…most in this game will tell you to make sure you are picking the right team and specifically the lead entrepreneur.

Being an entrepreneur myself, being a part of the management teams of start-ups as well as mature established firms, and also running incubators and accelerators for a number of years, assessing the attributes of the entrepreneur is the last and most vital measure when evaluating companies to prove fit for providing services.  However, assessing the entrepreneur can also be the most difficult to judge especially when you have a cohort type program where you accept applications and need to quickly make decisions on which companies submitting applications deserve to be accepted into your program. 

Our program has decided against a formal cohort with an application deadline for exactly this reason.  We have determined that it is far too difficult to assess the company’s team and lead entrepreneur(s) in a compressed timeframe.   Rather, we take clients into our program on a trial period to provide us with enough time to determine how the entrepreneurs measure up on key attribute indicators we have deemed as allowing for a higher potential of success.  What are these attributes?  Do you have these natural markings?  Listed below are the 6 indicators we believe enables entrepreneurs to be successful

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