How to prepare a project for acceleration: the INTEMA checklist

Getting a project ready for acceleration

Startups are entering the global market by leaps and bounds. According to RBC, 137,000 startups pop up every day (50 million new companies a year). In Russia, 42% of new small business representatives are confident that their product is absolutely unique and innovative, while 19% believe that their product has no comparables on either the domestic or the international market. However, 90% of all startups fail, with 10% of these failing within their first year of operation.

To avoid becoming one of these sad statistics and improve their chances of breaking into the lucky 10%, aspiring entrepreneurs can turn to business accelerators for assistance. This article is here to tell you about these organizations and the ways to prepare your project for acceleration.

Meet your Accelerator!

A Business Accelerator is an organization that helps a startup focus on the important things (as opposed to wasting time and resources), minimize errors, scale their business and gain access to infrastructure, expert support and the possibility of cooperation with international partner companies in the shortest possible time. Accelerators also facilitate the search for investors and provide startups with financial support. Preparations for project acceleration should be carried out in two directions at once.

Direction 1: Team preparation

The right team spirit is an important component of successful acceleration work.

First – don’t make the mistake of thinking that once you’re in the accelerator, you can relax and do nothing while hardworking experts do all the dirty work for you. This approach would have the same effect as if you were to go to the gym every day and do nothing but countless sets of selfies with the machines.

Be prepared that the experts won’t just advise and recommend, but will also demand and push your team from time to time. The task of the accelerator is to help the startup as quickly as possible – not to wait for you to get moving.

Second – prepare your team for the fact that multiple trips or even a move will be required. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the issue of such movements is aggravated by strict conditions whose observance will require additional actions from each team member.

Such trips may be associated with participation in local and international conferences, meetings and seminars, helping to elevate the startup to the desired level.

Direction 2: Product preparation

Product readiness is the second component of successful project acceleration.

Many accelerators take up projects with products at the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) development stage. This stage entails minimal costs, but allows for launching the product and tracking the market’s reaction to it. At the MVP stage, the startup’s growth reference point begins.

MVP allows you not only to understand the market reaction and make timely adjustments, but also to get your first real clients. The initial audience and channels for interacting with it will become the starting point for further project acceleration in these areas.

In addition to MVP, you should pay attention to two more checkpoints: the team and the market. First, a team of at least two key team members must be assembled before acceleration. And second, an initial target market assessment must be carried out. For example, to apply to the INTEMA Accelerator, the estimated market size must be $10 million or more.

Successful acceleration is in the hands of the startup itself

A team that’s ready for anything and a project backed by a strong idea form the bare minimum necessary to apply for acceleration. If your DeepTech startup project is ready in terms of all of the points described in our article, the INTEMA Accelerator space welcomes your applications.