Top five web3 accelerators and incubators in 2023

Transcript

GM GM welcome back to another episode of web3 Academy a place for entrepreneurs business professionals and creators to learn the tools of how to use web3 how to implement web3 in your business so you can create super fans thriving communities and sustainable business models that bring you increased Revenue I'm Jaybird and I'm coming at you today with a deep dive on the top five accelerators and incubators in web 3. we all know that it's difficult to grow in web 3. we all know that it's difficult to grow in any new tech but there's so many amazing programs out there that

help you grow if you've got an idea if you need business partners you need co-founders there's amazing programs both at the start of your journey and then also during your journey that focus on different things and we're going to talk about what the differences between accelerator and incubator we're going to break that all down for you today to make sure you are ready to grow because if you're a builder you're going to need help along the way and that's where we're here at web3 Academy is to help all the builders all the doers out there achieve your goals and reach amazing amazing New Heights so let's jump in but before we do let's just take a minute to hear from our sponsor don't trust verify that's the unlock of blockchain

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memberships are the future of business and community and that's why we decided to build an unlock learn more at unlock Dash protocol.com alright so the question of many people's mind is accelerators and incubators trying to figure out if you should use them and as we know when you're on the bleeding edge of tech you know there's no proven Playbook there's no proven Playbook yet in web 3 the technology is so early that we don't even know how to use it properly in so many ways and so building a successful startup is tough that's why in web 3 and even more so in more mature Tech scenes like web 2 we have accelerators and incubators that

teach startups How To Succeed In fact Matt Espinoza who is a guest that came on our show many months ago recommend you go check out that episode if you're interested in accelerators because he is the co-founder of Agora Labs which he actually sold and made great profit on that told sold out to Talent protocol and he said that most of his success in the early days in his first year of building a Gore Labs was because of some accelerator programs that he joined so it's a really key part of growth and also a really key part of building a team and so there's never been a better time to build in web 3 we all know that

and although we're in the middle of a bear Market building the bear that's what we say and there's still plenty of money to go around from VCS and there's lots of opportunities So today we're going to break all this down we're going to talk about what accelerators incubators are what's the difference between the two how to choose the right one we're also going to talk about the difference between typical VC programs and other New Alternatives such as Dow accelerators and then we're going to talk about what are the top five programs that we've seen out there in web 3 right now so first up what are acceleration incubators so accelerators and incubators are programs that support the growth and development of startups at different stages in their life cycle

think like early stage idea incubation versus growth stage accelerator so accelerators are typically intensive cohort race programs that provide startups with a range of resources and support over a fixed period of time usually lasting several months these resources may include mentorship access to a network of Industries professionals and potential investors and often funding as well the goal of an accelerator is to help startups accelerate their growth and reach key Milestones as quickly as possible to the Moon you know what I'm saying typically an accelerator gives you Capital when you are accepted in their programs so

for example a16 Zeds crypto startup School invests five hundred thousand dollars into every company that is accepted into their program in exchange for seven percent equity yes of course you do need to give up some Equity when you get some Capital incubators on the other hand are typically longer term programs that provide startups with more flexible Support over an extended period of time Austin lasting several years they may provide startups with access to workspaces resources and mentorship as well as help with business development and fundraising the goal of an incubator is to help startups establish a solid foundation and grow at a sustainable Pace incubators typically offer funding

at the end of a program after you've refined your business plan and product Investments are usually smaller in the range of let's say one hundred thousand and come after presenting your pitch deck on a demonstration day is pretty common so when should you apply for either type of program well in general startups can apply to accelerators when they they have a clear idea of their product or service and have already made some progress in validating their business model usually in an accelerator they want to see product Market fit they want to know that you have a functional prototype you've conducted some market research that you've done some customer validation and then you have a solid

understanding of the audience and target market that your product is going to work for incubators on the other hand are typically more suited to startups that are in the earlier stage of development and are more at the ideation stage or maybe an incubator often incubators you might not even have an idea you might just know that you want to be an entrepreneur that you want to start a business and maybe you're more of a tech person or you're more of a salesperson but you're not necessarily A Visionary well you can go to certain programs where you can join and they will match you up with other people in the program M you'll have brainstorming

sessions you'll have various sessions to ideate and create ideas and then throughout the program you're encouraged to write a business plan and then you look to do a demo day to get funding at the end so there's different stages that work for different things now obviously this will vary greatly depending on the specific programs so it's up to you to find the one that best fits your current startup stage and we'll share some of this top programs in a little bit but before we get into the top programs I just want to talk about Dow startup accelerators versus VC programs because Dell accelerators and incubators are a new alternative to the traditional VC model and since this space is so new

there aren't really any standardized differences between the two but in general one of the main differences is the Dow programs are web3 native obviously making them a better choice for web 3 native startups such as those who wish to function as a dow themselves on the other hand VC programs are more suitable for companies with more traditional business structures and models another difference is that Dows are decentralized hence the name meaning that startups could have a greater chance of being accepted especially if they don't fit the typical VC criteria of high growth companies lastly one of the biggest differences comes down to ownership crunchbase analyze Venture Capital ownership percentages for 105

now public companies and they found that on average VCS own 50 percent of leading tech companies before they went public however this number can vary significantly for example Facebook had 17 of VC ownership well Twitter had 53 percent While others are even reach higher to 75 percent now regardless these numbers are a stark contrast to the ownership requirements of web 3 accelerators for example seed club which we'll dive into a bit later requires that Dallas allocate just three percent of their native tokens to the accelerator besides this participating in Dows may also receive an allocation of seed club's own token which is called Club a much better deal than VCS what's

VCS typically offer now at the same time the flip side of that is VC's bring a lot to the table they're more well established they've done this before so it really comes down to what your needs are and finding the best program that fits your needs so let's talk a little bit about what are the best programs out there so top web 3 incubators and accelerators are we're going to cover five of them we're going to talk about techstars mesh which is by consensus Labs outlier Ventures seed club and Alliance now I want to be clear that this is by no means a comprehensive list there are hundreds of these programs out there

just Google them you'll find a lot we like these programs for specific reasons and we're going to talk about each one of those but I really do encourage anybody that is looking to get involved in the incubator or an accelerator to do your own research so let's talk about Tech Stars First Tech Stars is huge they're a Global Network of accelerators that provide support and resources to early stage startups the programs typically last for three months and culminate in a demo day you'll hear a lot of demo day common common term used at accelerators and incubators and at this demo day startups pitch their business to a room full of investors and other industry leaders now out some of the key features of techstars and why we

like techstars our mentorship funding their Network and resources so on the mentorship side startups in their program receive guidance and support from experienced entrepreneurs investors and corporate Partners Tech stores is so well known that they're able to attract some incredible mentors and why would you Mentor in a program like this well the mentors are often the ones that are looking to give funding or they're the ones that have been through the trenches and done a startup themselves and so having a program that you join that has a lot of clout like Tech Stars means that you're going to get higher quality of mentors funding startups funding in exchange for a small Equity stake in the company

participants also have the option to redeem a convertible bond for additional funding so if you join Tech Stars you're going to get funding for a small stake and most of the time you're looking for funding when you join this type of program Network techstars provide access to a Global Network of entrepreneurs investors and corporate Partners which can be valuable I mean so valuable for startups looking to grow their business Tech stores is huge they've had so many businesses go through that program businesses have both succeeded and failed and that says a lot because their network is going to be very large and of course resources so with techstars you receive a range of resources including office space legal support access to marketing and PR experts and so much

more so you're really going to get a lot of that back office support such as the legal support the admin support all those things that might be more difficult when you are in a startup and you don't necessarily have legal expertise you can get that through techstars techstars has accelerated programs in a variety of sectors so they have technology Healthcare social impact but they also have some web 3 specific programs Tech stores has so many accelerator programs that it's not just web3 but here's a few that are specific to web free they have file coin Tech Stars accelerator they have launch pool web 3 Tech Stars accelerator and they have techstars crypto Boston powered by

algorand so they've got three programs already specifically for web3 and I'm sure they have many more that I didn't list their programs are highly competitive and only a small percentage of applicants are accepted each year so if you're going to apply to techstars make sure you're prepared to put yourself out there and really put a lot of work into your application you're going to need that for any program that you apply for next let's talk about mesh by consensus Labs mesh is a venture Production Studio and incubator focused on building and scaling blockchain based software products and is backed by consensus Labs mesh supports early stage startups that are building on blockchain technology with a focus on ethereum-based projects

the company provides startups with a range of resources including funding mentorship and access to its network of experts and Industry Partners consensus offers a number of programs and initiatives through mesh designed to support the development of blockchain-based software products including an incubation program this program provides startups with funding resources and mentorship to help them build and scale their business tachyon accelerator this is the three-month accelerated program that provides startups with funding resources and mentorship as well and then consensus grants and this is a grants program that provides funding to projects that are building on ethereum and aligned with consensus mission of building a decentralized future in addition these programs consensus Labs

also hosts hosts events and workshops and runs a number of research initiatives focused on blockchain technology and its applications so there's a lot happening within the consensus ecosystem highly recommend checking out mesh though it's a really great program next we've got outlier Ventures Elara Adventures is a leading accelerator and founder Community that's also a top three Global crypto investor they have been supporting web3 startups since 2014 talk about OG boasting 350 million raised by participants and access to 400 mentors and 400s plus successful Founders so they're the web 3 native accelerator their programs don't

have any geographical restrictions and they accept projects across several niches including defy nfts and infrastructure plus they're fully remote they're fully decentralized they also provide startups with several specialized accelerator options thanks to their partner ecosystem which includes polygon polka dot hedera ipfs file coin and more on top of this some of the biggest companies in the space have gone through the program as well talking about chain link Cosmos and brave all went through outlier Ventures the three-month program includes access to support across all aspects of web 3 companies such as token model development and legal guidance now to get into their startups you will need

to give six percent equity and six percent of future token Supply according to the program's criteria participants will also have the option to accept formal investment offers or an interest-free repayable loan depending upon their performance in the program so you can see what's interesting about outlier is because their web3 native they focus on very important web 3 elements of business such as tokenomics they have expertise in tokenomics that can help you early on so if you are a business that thinks that tokenomics is going to be a key part of your business model you might want to look at outlier Ventures next up we've got seed Club

seed Club is a network for Dow Builders and operators with the goal of making community own networks some of the most powerful organizations in the world C Club hosts what they call an internet native accelerator they don't love the word Dao they prefer the word internet native interesting language between the two what they do is they connect Dow Builders with Innovative thinkers and operators in the web3 space through strategic partners and successful alumni to be eligible for the accelerator projects must be internet native organizations that use tokens to incentivize people to contribute to a shared Mission and they must align with the idea that Community ownership is a fundamental value proposition of web 3.

the accelerator program runs for 12 weeks and helps participants refine their plans and prepare for capital in community formation Milestones over the 12 weeks you can expect lectures and workshops accountability squads collaborator connections Network building and visibility and dedicated work sprints it then culminates in you guessed it a demo Day event where participants can present their projects to over 1 000 prospective contributors and community members now in the case of seed Club their demo day is open and it's online you can attend see Club demo day anybody can and you can then invest in most of C club projects by buying some of their tokens so very different

than the more traditional accelerator where the funding all happens through VCS and basically if you don't have big dollars you can't invest in any of these startups but with web 3 we are able to tokenize these startups early on and you can get involved so I highly recommend regardless of if you are a builder and you have your own startup even if you're just involved in web3 check out the next seed Club demo day it is a great event it'll be coming up I think the next one will be a few months from now that just recently so it'll be at the end of their next cohort but check it out it's a really really fun event probably one of the most fun web3 events I've been to

and it'll give you a great idea of all the top projects top Dows in the space so far C Club has hosted four cohorts with prominent Dows such as Kraus house and boys clubs pool Suite jump so many prominent Dows have been through this accelerator okay number five final accelerator and incubator that we recommend is Alliance Alliance has been helping top web3 Founders start and grow companies since early 2020. their accelerator is an intensive three-month program that connects Builders with leading web3 experts such as Sandeep nawal polygon coo other notable mentors include and entely the founder and CEO of Solana stani the

founder and CEO of Ave and Daniel Robinson the head of research at Paradigm if you're accepted into the this free accelerator program you'll be exposed to three main activities first educational sessions on different aspects of building web 3 such as tokenomics late stage teams or developing product marketing fit for early stage teams you also get one-on-one mentorship sessions with alliances partners and network and you'll get weekly group mentorship sessions where Founders work together to solve their roadblocks the program then culminates in a demo day which participants begin preparing for in week six of the program on the day startups had the opportunity to present their

accomplishments to the alliance Network like outlier Ventures alliances programs are entirely remote with teams expected to dedicate at least 10 hours per week two sessions and mentorship successful participants will also have the option to secure a 250 000 investment from the company with different conditions depending on whether they're an early or late stage startup here's what I want to say about accelerators and incubators is a helping hand never hurt anyone growth is hard entrepreneurship is hard running a business is hard you have no idea what you are going to hit along the way so having mentors and people that can

support you makes a big difference these people can act as a source of support but also a source of funding in your early days and in web 3 some programs don't even ask for equity in your company don't be afraid to apply because as Matt Espinoza said when he was on our podcast a few months ago it was a life-changing experience also at the same time if you are building in web3 and you want to understand which businesses business models and tactics are winning then you need to check out web3 Academy Pro this is our new premium product where each week we break down a business or a protocol by diving deep into on-chain Data to uncover the truth behind what's

really happening in their business is it successful what are their revenues what are their on-chain expenses how are their royalties working are they making money off royalty is that a sustainable business model all the questions that web3 entrepreneurs have you can learn the answers by looking at other businesses through web3 Academy Pro and then you'll be able to confidently build in web 3 and stay at the Forefront of this space so if you're not already signed up for web3 Academy Pro make sure you do check out the link in the show notes below and join us as we break down on chain analytics like never before if you are going to join an accelerator incubator I would love to hear or if you're part of one I would love to hear

reach out to us let us know we'd love to know your experiences in these programs and we'd love to know if you have any questions on how to join these programs happy to help anybody out that is looking to join these programs and push you in the right direction thanks so much for listening in everybody have a wicked awesome week until next time I'm out thank you for listening to web3 Academy we hope this helps you along your web3 journey if it does please share this episode And subscribe so you don't miss the next one nothing in this podcast was Financial advice crypto and web 3 can be risky you can literally lose it all in fact if you invest on account of what we say you probably will lose it all so don't do

that in all honesty the point of this podcast is to remove the noise of markets and price and focus on utility and implementation anyway so you should not take any of this as Financial advice thank you friends and see you in the next one