Lessons learnt from managing a startup accelerator

Having grown up watching tech entrepreneurs go from zero to ‘overnight success’, it was a dream come true to get to spend 4 years of my career managing a startup accelerator, supporting 100s of founders from all kinds of industries and walks of life. A startup accelerator is just as you would imagine it to be: brimming with ideas, optimism and colourful brainstorms on white-walls.

Of course, when you get to be around entrepreneurs day after day, you realise that the reality of running a startup isn’t anything like those tech entrepreneur stories. There is equally as much stress, despair, and failure too; but no one is phased because everyone knows what they have signed up for and the camaraderie between founders in a place like this is unrivalled.

I learnt a lot from working closely with founders on their accelerator journey, some lessons are more surprising than others.

1. Success is rare

Being an entrepreneur is HARD. The idea of running your own business is definitely romanticised in the media and that’s because we only ever hear about major milestones. I don’t just mean difficult like you have to work 10x harder, but like every-day-seeping-into-your-personal-life, hard. Many people create a small sustainable business, but only a few are hugely successful.

Would you be able to give up your luxuries in life for the next, say, 5 years, to focus on something that may be a huge success, change the world and make you a millionaire, but equally likely may completely fail and you have to go back to square one? If the answer is no — then founding a startup may not be your bag.

2. The idea is nowhere near as important as character

Ever since I started reading about startup journeys, I have heard one phrase repeated over and over again, ‘it’s not the idea, it’s the execution’. I totally agreed with this but I didn’t know how much I really believed it. In my time managing a startup accelerator I saw this play out numerous times and it could not be more true.

I have seen entrepreneurs come in with a business idea that seemed as though it could very well be the next big thing, but the founder just didn’t have the passion, drive, or tenacity to keep it going. What was even more common, was the average, strange, or just absolutely absurd ‘this will never work’ ideas that I came across that had a powerhouse founder leading them, which became a bigger success than anyone could have imagined.

3. Having a support community is everything

Being an entrepreneur is not only one of the most difficult career choices, but it’s also a very lonely one. Even if you have a lot of friends, a supportive family, and a great team — you will still feel alone sometimes. Because the journey you’re on is unique and finding people who can relate to your worries, thoughts, and way of living is hard to come by.

The only people who can really understand you are other entrepreneurs, and an accelerator is the perfect place to build those friendships, and to feel like you’re not alone on this strange path you have chosen for yourself.

4. Entrepreneurs are my favourite kind of people

In the nicest sense of the word, entrepreneurs are not your average ‘normal’ human. They are individuals who risk everything for a vision that (a lot of the time) only they believe in, they are resilient beyond a lot of people’s comprehension, and it can sometimes seem like they’re functioning at a different frequency to others. This makes entrepreneurs really interesting people to be around, to debate things with, and to work with.

5. Mentorship is important but not for the reasons you might think

Mentorship is a big part of entrepreneur support programmes and accelerators and it can be extremely valuable if used in the right way. Being an entrepreneur is extremely overwhelming with things to think about, do, develop — and your focus is always shifting.

Mentorship helps not because entrepreneurs need to be told what and how to do things in their business, but because it forces accountability, structure, and detail. Unless you have a specialist mentor who is helping you define a specific part of your business model and you have asked them for advice, IMHO, mentors telling you what to do are just adding to the entrepreneur’s problems.

Hi, I’m Kristina.
I write about my experience working with startups, raising funding, self-development, and other random topics that pique my interest. 📚 👩🏼‍💻 🚀