Accelerator call recap: How startup programs are adapting to COVID19

Recently 43 people from accelerators and incubators around Australia and Europe joined in on a call organised by Startmate to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on our programs and how everyone was adapting. It was great to see so many accelerators represented on one call and a reminder of the vital role accelerators play in helping fund early-stage startups.

The good news is that all the programs are going ahead but everyone was busy adapting and experimenting with new ways to deliver a traditionally in-person experience. The programs represented a wide array of accelerators from university-affiliated to industry specific programs including; MedTech Actuator, Scale Investors, Remarkable accelerator, INCUBATE, UTS Startups, CyRise, UNSW Founder 10X, Deakin University and many more. 

The format was break-out discussions between randomly chosen group of program staff via the nifty break-out function on Zoom where we covered 4 core topics:

1. Selection: Outreach, interviews and acceptance 
2. Program: Online mentoring, weekly updates
3. Tools, Tips and Tricks: Keep the ‘cohort effect’, building community online and other tools

Below is a summary of some of the interesting points (check out the collaborative notes doc here) I picked out from the conversations. 

Moving accelerator selection fully online

There’s a mixture of approaches for each program in terms of how they select and how many people are involved. Some have already done their selection for this year while others are in the middle or selection or about to begin. 

• Selection for some of some programs are already entirely online e.g. Remarkable disability tech accelerator mostly review applications online via Gust and meet with founders via video chat – in-person meetings typically don’t happen until the programs starts.
• Some are blended online and offline selection which programs are trying new things like Zoom ‘break-out’ rooms e.g. Startmate do final interviews over Google Hangouts already but have a in-person finalists mentor interviews with 30+ mentors which they may have to run over Zoom for 2021
• Some programs are in the middle of selection and have to switch over fully-virtual which has been disruptive – but pre-recording pitches for review can help e.g. MAP are getting the startups to pre-record a pitch 1:1 with a mentor via zoom. Then that will be played back to all the mentors.
• CyRise cyber security accelerator also notes, “Our Selection Day, which is usually an intensive face-to-face session between 15 startups and 15 mentors / industry people, will have to be done online. Zoom breakout looks like a good option.”

Suggested tools:

• Application: Gust, F6S
• Google forms/Spreadhseets
• Zoom/Hangouts
• Fingerprint for success for founder profiling 

Running virtual Demo Days

Switching to a fully virtual program has been disruptive for many programs as some are about to host their Demo Day.

• Running fully virtual demo days will be challenge, e.g. Startmate will be doing 90 second pre-recorded videos and then spending the other time asking the founders questions which have been upvoted by investors over Slido 
• A lot of programs have already or are creating wikis that both founders and mentors can access, e.g. using Notion or WordPress and having pitches downloadable before presentations 
• Connecting investors with startups is still a little “unknown”, some programs are using voting tools while others still doing introductions over email after expressions of interest 
• Scale investors, a angel-investment group for women, has been running Zoom pitch nights with investors for a while and it works well for founders with families or spread across the country but some investors will still want to meet in person before writing a cheque 
• Techstars are running virtual demo day which will be pre-recorded and held on Billboard – they are sending out specific production requirements for the startups along with a media kit (microphone etc to standardise audio quality).

Suggested tools:

• Investor/participant voting and Q&A: https://www.sli.do/ for 
• Simple wiki for attendees: Notion.so, WordPress

Moving weekly check-ins and mentoring online

All programs have transferred their weekly mentoring sessions to Zoom calls and it seems to be working well for 1on1 sessions as it means less travel for everyone.

• Programs like INCUBATE accelerator/pre-accelerator and others are running Zoom calls with online whiteboards in unison to help convey concepts 
• Remarkable accelerator has found more speakers are willing to participate, especially globally, as they have more time
• Recommendation: Identify issues, and then do private/1on1 calls. After the private calls, the team needs to share learnings with the group and present. 
• Switching to ‘blended programs’ seems inevitable, MedTech actuator are exploring using learning management systems to help with technical content that has to be repeated to each cohort 
• iAccelerator are using blended learning model with a custom WordPress installation to host interactive content –– they will be also licensing this out to other accelerator programs
• Icebreakers: Group people together and ask them to do fun brainstorming activities. No wrong answer type activities to get people working together. 

Suggested tools:

• Online whiteboards: webwhiteboard.com
• Custom LMS: TalentLMS, WordPress H5P LMS Plugin 

Accelerator Cheatsheet: tools, tips and tricks

• Scheduling: 
  • Airtable with a Zap to an outlook calendar and an auto zoom link created via Startmate
  • Acuity for scheduling regular Office Hours
 via Monash https://acuityscheduling.com/
  • Kintell is a 1to1 video expert platform 
• Virtual Whiteboarding/Collaboration tools:
  • Webwhiteboard
  • Jamm.app
  • Tandem
• Custom teaching and training platforms accelerators are using
  • Coassemble
  • Teachable
  • WordPress with plugins
• Communication: Slack, Whatsapp, Telegram groups, Facebook groups
• Founder attitudes and motivations https://www.fingerprintforsuccess.com/ 
• Virtual mentoring platform: Mentorloop, Acuity, Calendly, Kintell
• Wiki / Content: Notion.so
• Conferencing – Zoom, https://remo.co/ –
• Voting tools; Submittable, Slido, Google forms 
• Mental Health considerations:
  • Being available for founders is super important
  • Reaching out to the community when you see anything negative 
  • Getting people to share fun things on chat/icebreakers to encourage talking and participation
  • All-hands with ‘fun’ additions or something similar e.g. choosing virtual backgrounds etc.
  • Supporting people for Mindfulness and mediation services
  • Giving access to resources and suggesting apps  

Example Accelerator program stacks

Startmate

• CRM – airtable and google drive
• Community – super active Slack with 450+ founders and mentors
• Zoom + breakout rooms + polls works really well
• Content sessions usually via Zoom (Zoom better than Hangouts because of gallery view)

UTS Startups

• Biggest challenge is just the scale: 367 startups / 700 people. Combination of fulltime and casually working on startup. 
• Ramping up facebook forum — posts to incentivise activity. “Take a picture of your pet” worked really well- just the positivity/ community-building element
• Monday accountability standup – testing zoom vs forum post. 
• Friday learning circle – Zoom. 
• Masterminds – zoom
• Lunch & Learns, group yoga/ exercise – facebook live
• Fun: Netflix party! / Insta takeovers
• Exploring specific community champions to encourage more online interaction – e.g. someone championing mental health. 
• Trying to mix formats so people don’t get zoom fatigue