How to Get Into an Accelerator

I mentor at Techstars and Rockstart and have seen both sides: the applications that come in, and the conversations about why a team did not make it. Most of what founders assume about selection is beside the point.

Whether it is worth it at all

An accelerator is a trade: you give equity, you get money, a programme and a network. Whether it is a good trade depends on which of those you actually need.

It is worth it when:

• You have no network. If you are in Central Europe and want to raise in London or Berlin, the investor access you get through a demo day and mentors otherwise takes years to build.
• You are entering a new market. A programme in the target country shortens market entry more than any amount of marketing.
• You are early and need tempo. Three months under weekly pressure does more than a year without it.

It is not worth it when:

• You are already growing and have investors opening doors. Equity for a network you have is expensive.
• You mainly want the money. The cheque is small and the equity is not cheap — compare it with an ordinary pre-seed round.
• You cannot give it three months. These programmes are not part-time. Anyone who runs one alongside something else comes out with nothing, minus the equity.

What they actually select on

Founders assume the idea is being judged. What is really being judged is how far the team will move in three months — because that is the only thing the programme can affect.

• Learning speed. The strongest signal in the whole application. What have you learned in the last three months and what did you change because of it? A team that can say "we thought X, we found Y, we turned" has an enormous edge over one describing a plan.
• Team composition. Is there someone who can build and someone who can sell? A solo founder has it harder — not impossible, but it has to be offset elsewhere.
• Why you. A connection to the problem. Not "we find healthcare interesting" but "I did this job for eight years and know exactly where it hurts".
• A market that can carry a large company. Not a TAM from a report — a credible path to something big.
• Traction, if you have it. It helps, but less than you expect. Pre-product teams get in when the points above line up.

The application: what decides it

1. Answer the question that was asked. It sounds trivial, but half of all applications answer a different one because the founder pasted text from the deck. "What did you learn last month" is not a request for your mission statement.
2. Be specific down to numbers and names. "We spoke to 34 head nurses across 9 hospitals, 6 want a pilot" says more than a paragraph about market validation.
3. Admit what you do not know. "We do not yet know whether this sells direct to the hospital or through an IT supplier — that is what we want to resolve in the programme" is a strong answer. It shows you know where you are.
4. Record the video yourself, unscripted. It is not an advert. What is being assessed is whether someone can listen to you for three months and whether you sound like you know your subject.
5. Apply early. Most programmes review on a rolling basis. An application submitted on the last day lands in the largest pile.

The interview

If you get through, expect one or more conversations of twenty to thirty minutes. They are not presentations — they are interrogations, and that is a good thing.

What is being judged: whether you answer directly, whether you distinguish between what you know and what you assume, and how you react when someone tells you that you are wrong. The worst response to an objection is defence. The best is "good question — here is what we know, and here is what we would need to find out".

Having a prepared answer to "why now" and "why hasn't someone done this" saves half the conversation.

Where to apply from Central Europe

Neither Techstars nor Rockstart runs a programme in Slovakia — you apply to a batch elsewhere, which is itself part of the value, since three months in the target city moves market entry further than anything done remotely.

Regionally, Startup Wise Guys runs vertical programmes across CEE, CIVITTA Challenger is non-equity, and teams with a university connection can look at STU InQb or the Comenius University Science Park incubator. All of them are covered in more detail in the regional fund and accelerator list.

The last thing, and the thing I say to founders most often: an accelerator is not a substitute for fundraising, it is preparation for it. Most programmes end with a demo day, after which you still have to build an investor list, approach them and close a round. If you are applying because you do not want to do that, the programme will not spare you — it will postpone it by three months and some equity.