Session 8

Question 1

What is Y Combinator?

Answer 1

Accelerator

Question 2

What is the idea of accelerators and incubators?

Answer 2

they try to solve the problems that SMEs face in order to profit from the opportunities

Question 3

What is a business incubation/incubator?

Answer 3

is a public/private, entrepeneurial , and social development process designed to nurture business ideas through a comprehensive business support program, help them establish and increase their growth and succes

Question 4

What is an accelerator?

Answer 4

is an intensive (usually 3 months), business program which includes mentorship, eductional components, networking and aims growing business rapidly, ending in demo-day. usually an entrepeneur moves into shared office space with other new founders for a period of time to work under the tutelage of advisors and experts to grow their business rapidly. in exchange for the expert mentoring, exposure to investors/future capital and cash investment that entrepeneurs get from the accelerator, the entrepeneur gives a portion of his or her company’s equity to the partners of the program and for this reason is often called a “seed” or “venture” accelerator

Question 5

Which different stakeholders of incubators and accelerators exist?

Answer 5

• SMEs
• corporates
• investors
• research institutions
• local community
• governments

Question 6

What is the characteristic for incubators (difference to accelerators)?

Answer 6

• long term programs
• usually take no equity stake
• Industry focus: technology intense companies
• Stage focus: seed and early stage
• not highly selective
• Strategy: helping the company to establish and develop first product

Question 7

What is the characteristic for accelerators (difference to incubators)?

Answer 7

• short term programs
• usually take an equity stake
• Industry focus: broad industry focus
• Stage focus: early and late stage
• highly selective
• Strategy: helping the company to grow fast and on international scale

Question 8

What is the criticism on accelerators?

Answer 8

1. ) good companies still fail after accelerator programs
2. ) they attract companies that are already struggling
3. ) they are just startup schools’ in areas with no entrepeneurial education
4. ) they are helping to create a bubble
5. ) they exploit startup founders

Question 9

Was sagt Schwartz auf die Frage: “Are SMEs that go through accelerators or incubators more successful than other SMEs”?

Answer 9

• unklar, ob Start-ups durch unterstützte Inkubatorinitiativen höhere Überlebensraten als vergleichbare Start-ups besitzen, die keine Unterstützung besitzen
• Analyse versucht das Problem des Selektionseffektes zur Rechenschaft zu ziehen, ein nicht-parametrischer Anpassungssatz wurde angewendet, um eine Kontrollgruppe zu finden