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How Startup Accelerators Can Boost Your Career

How Startup Accelerators Can Boost Your Career

An unconventional way to become a leader & push innovation forward

Giammarco Pacifico & Matt Graham
March 06, 2024

What is an accelerator?

A startup accelerator is a cohort-based program designed to help early-stage companies validate and grow their businesses. Unlike incubators, which typically provide longer-term support and focus on identifying viable startup ideas, accelerators offer a more intensive and structured approach for companies that already have a team and some initial results.

Within the health & bio sectors, most accelerators help pre-revenue companies validate their scientific proof of concept or prototype, which usually means engaging the right stakeholders (e.g. pharma, hospitals, and patients) while refining the science/technology. Given the wide breadth of companies in these sectors, there are various types of accelerators focusing on different stages of startups and verticals, from therapeutics to digital health and everything in between.

An accelerator program typically has the following 4 stages:

Application: startups apply to join the program by submitting their proposals and undergoing a selection process, usually involving subject-matter experts
Cohort: Selected startups become part of a cohort, where they receive mentorship, workshops and access to resources, tailored to their specific needs
Demo Day: This is often the culmination of an accelerator, where startups pitch their companies to relevant investors, industry experts, and potential partners
Follow-on support: Beyond demo day, many programs offer ongoing support to help startups navigate the next stages of growth, such as additional funding, continued mentorship and networking opportunities

Some of the most renowned accelerators in the world stem from generalist programs collaborating with companies in these fields, such as the Techstars Healthcare Accelerator in partnership with Cedars-Sinai or the Healthcare Lab Program sponsored by Roche and EIT Health.

Many accelerators also directly invest in startups through their Venture Capital funds (usually with standard terms) such as Bethnal Green Ventures and StartCodon. The public sector is also active in these activities with government accelerators like the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, which can provide significant investments (both dilutive and non-dilutive) from national/international agencies.

Each of these programs has a different model, from aiming at financial returns through direct investments to solving important societal challenges. This of course creates different incentives and ultimately defines the way they are run.

Last but not least, there are also non-profit organizations, such as the Innovation Forum, that offer accelerator programs free of cost (in both equities and fees) thanks to sponsors, private investors and grants that contribute towards the organizational costs as well as cash/in-kind prizes for the participating startups.

Startup accelerators are career boosters

If you’re thinking about joining a startup - or even launching your own - but are not ready yet, there is no better way to get a taste for what that means than working at a startup accelerator.

You’ll get the chance to spend time with founders and startup employees who are exactly where you want to be while learning the basics of business, from marketing and business development to operations and finance.

But most importantly of all, you’ll get to work and build relationships with some of the most ambitious and driven people out there who are also passionate about innovation, science, technology and startups. Everybody says that building a network is important and this is exactly how you can build a world-class one.

What skills will you learn?

A start-up accelerator is effectively a school for early-stage founders; it provides an opportunity to perfect one’s pitch, devise an effective IP strategy, and make some crucial connections along the way.

Surely, the team putting on such a programme must be experienced founders themselves, right? Wrong!

Accelerators are an education not just for start-ups, but for the hosts too; indeed, many successful founders start their careers in this way. In many ways, accelerators are like start-ups themselves and, like any business, require a range of people to tackle important business challenges:

What’s the point of having a programme if nobody knows about it?
Is anybody going to take you seriously with those clunky social media posts? (It’s 2024!)
How can you raise funds and build successful partnerships without a keen business eye?

Marketing, graphic design, and business development are just a few examples of the skills needed to design an effective accelerator programme. Perhaps more importantly, is the opportunity they provide to develop these skills in a professional environment with a real-world output.

Look at Giammarco’s story, for example.

“I started my journey at the Innovation Forum as a part-time writer, sharing ideas on digital health and interviewing founders. Over time, I became interested in the program itself and decided to get involved in the operational aspects. Two years later together with an amazing team, we built and launched 2 programs from scratch helping 80+ pre-seed/seed founders while closing tens of partnerships that kept the company going.

One of the things that I discovered while working there is my interest in deal-making. As every deal changed based on the partner, a lot of thought and creativity went into every single one of them with the ultimate goal of supporting founders as best as we could (as a non-profit).

As a bioengineer by training, I would have never had the opportunity to dive deep into deal-making and lead large deals as a newcomer if it wasn’t for the Innovation Forum.”

Matt has a similar experience.

“I joined the Innovation Forum at the beginning of my PhD in 2021. I wanted to develop a skill set that went beyond the lab, and have always been interested in the formation of life-science start-ups. I met and worked with an amazing team to put on a programme for start-ups ranging from Cambridge to New York, connecting them with influential investors, lawyers, and mentors - and developing my own network along the way.

Like any business, the Innovation Forum has evolved since then. What I did not expect was to be part of that evolution, helping to identify and develop alternative revenue streams for the organization. I joined to learn more about start-ups - what better way to do this than effectively working at one? The leadership skills, business principles, and connections I’ve developed during my time here will undoubtedly be hugely influential in my career post-PhD.”

Building a world-class network

There are a lot of ways to build a network but they all have one thing in common: you need a good reason to get in touch with successful (and busy) people.

Working in a startup accelerator gives you exactly that: a great excuse to connect with people you admire by providing value upfront, instead of being transactional like everyone else.

For example, you have an opportunity to connect with investors and invite them to a demo day where they can find potential investments and connect with fellow investors. You can also get in touch with renowned companies, CROs and firms of any sort that could become partners/sponsors of the program. Not to mention university professors and thought leaders who make great speakers at any startup event.

Getting into a startup accelerator

There is no better way to demonstrate your suitability for a role than by showing you can do it. To work at an accelerator, you need to demonstrate some initiative and independence; you need to be proactive and willing to learn; and you need to be confident in your ability to network.

Directly contacting an accelerator to inquire about any open positions is a great way of demonstrating all of the above. Moreover, unlike a corporate graduate role, which may have a psychometric test and several rounds of interviews, the hiring process for an accelerator is much less cumbersome. What have you got to lose?!

Equally important are your reasons for joining an accelerator.

Do you want to meet a co-founder?
Do you want to network with individuals in a particular industry?
Do you want to develop your sales skills, or build up your marketing portfolio?

Having a clear goal for what you would like to get out of the experience will not only increase your chance of getting a role but will also make the experience exponentially more valuable for you. It will also differentiate you from the generic ‘CV tickers’, who just want to add a few lines to their resume (don’t be that person!).

Joining a startup accelerator can change the trajectory of your career, as it did with ours - we hope you’ll give it a try.

Check out the Innovation Forum website and if you’re interested in their activities ↓

This week's top scientific reads

Epigenetic Editing for Non-Invasive Gene Therapy (Nature)
CAR-T Therapy Trials for Multiple Sclerosis (Nature)
Genomic Data Integration for Rare Diseases (Biorxiv)
MEGA CRISPR: A Promising Shift from DNA to RNA (Nature)
Ageing Biomarkers to Extend Healthspan (Nature Medicine)

Read the highlights of these articles here.

Latest European funding rounds in health & bio

LimmaTech raised €2M for the development of their vaccines against gonorrhoea while advancing their clinical trials against diarrheal infections 🇨🇭
Aktiia raised €27.5M to further advance the commercialization of their device for 24/7 blood pressure monitoring 🇨🇭
Yendou raised €1.2M for their automation platform that allows biopharma companies to better design and run clinical trials 🇩🇪
Bioptimus raised a €32M Seed round to develop a universal AI foundation model for biology 🇫🇷
CaSRevolution raised €1.3M in a crowdfunding round to further develop their therapies against Alzhaimer’s 🇮🇹
Vitrue Health raised €3.7M to provide workplaces with a digital health platform for musculoskeletal conditions 🇬🇧
Artiria Medical raised €5.5M to complete its clinical studies on stroke in Europe and the US after a promising first in human and FDA clearance 🇨🇭
Food Brewer closed a €5.2M round to further develop its cell lines for the production of alternative foods, starting with cocoa and coffee powder 🇨🇭
Yurtle raised €1.6M for its platform that supports caregivers 🇬🇧
Sorella closed a €5M Seed round to provide hybrid health clinics for women 🇫🇷

Looking for a startup role?