
 Accelerat.io – Yelp for accelerators - antr
http://accelerat.io/
======
smt88
I think this is a fantastic, important project. Keep up the good work.

That said, the UI is encouraging visitors to prioritize information that isn't
important. For example, % equity, $ per %, and average funding.

The equity stuff isn't important because all of them take so little that an
early-stage company shouldn't be worrying about it. The mindset that "we're
gonna be a $1B company, so 1% is worth $10M to me" is common and insane. New
founders need to snap out of that.

I've seen tons of founders quibble over a few percent, and none of them were
successful. Successful founders get past those issues and execute.

As for the average funding: the _most successful_ company won't need to raise
anything at all after going through an accelerator. So the metric of "how much
was raised after leaving the accelerator" is lumping the failures along with
the super successful. That makes it a useless metric.

Here's the data that would be ideal, although I'm well aware that it's not
necessarily possible:

0\. Reviews! Great idea. These will be absolutely vital once you get some
traction. You need to have a very strict way of verifying identities though --
maybe force people to show you their certificate of incorporation for the
company that went through the accelerator, even if their review is anonymous
to the public. Some accelerators will act like a cabal and game the rankings
if you don't do this.

1\. % funded companies that either exit or survive for 5 years

2\. % of mentors who have successfully exited in the past (an accelerator with
investor-only mentors is just a shitty angel investment)

3\. [x] alumni with highest valuations (3 would probably be enough)

4\. Age of accelerator

~~~
sjaakkkkk
Wow, great feedback! Totally agree regarding average funding (it's biased and
averages don't say much about distributions), I'm working on ways to get other
metrics.

Also love your suggestions for better ones. I could do 3. and 4. relatively
easy, 1. and 2. are harder but definitely worth considering.

Regarding verifying identities, I'm fully focused on getting real reviews.
I've been gathering more than 100 reviews already by reaching out to people I
know that have actually been through accelerators. As for the reviews that
come in via the website, there is a verification process to make sure they are
real.

~~~
ericb
Median funding might be interesting (and less skewed by larger follow-ons).

~~~
smt88
True, but still wouldn't solve the problem: the best outcome and worst outcome
look the same in that data set ($0 raised).

~~~
solve
That's what quantiles are for.

------
sjaakkkkk
Hi HN,

Creator of Accelerat.io here. Just launched today and would love to get your
feedback.

I built this site because when I was applying to accelerators some months ago
I wasn't really sure which ones to apply to as there were so many of them but
so little transparency about how valuable they really are. We all know Y
Combinator is good, but how about all those others out there?

For the interested, the site's built in Python/Flask, custom design on top of
Bootstrap (inspired by ProductHunt and NomadList), and makes heavy use of the
DataTables.js plugin, which had been awesome so far.

Would love to answer any questions you may have and of course, if you've been
through an accelerator first hand, I'd love to include your experience on our
site.

~~~
rajington
Really great site. The call to actions in-line is kind of distracting though,
may be necessary to get enough volume but it's annoying until then. You could
have the footer information be at the top and then remove the call to actions
mixing with the data.

~~~
sjaakkkkk
I agree it's can be a bit annoying, but as you mention it's a trade-off we
intentionally chose for: we can only succeed when people add accelerators and
reviews and this seemed a good way to grab some attention. Will be monitoring
how succesful it actually is and if I could make it less intrusive or better
targeted.

------
ha292
Setting October 2005. Krugman writes

"I used to live next door to a Russian émigré. One day he asked me to explain
something that puzzled him about his new country. "This place seems very
rich," he said, "but I never see anyone making anything. How does the country
earn its money? The answer, these days, is that we make a living by selling
each other houses. Since December 2000 employment in U.S. manufacturing has
fallen 17 percent, but membership in the National Association of Realtors has
risen 58 percent."

This services-dedicated-to-startup industry is smelling very much like a
bubble.

[1]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/opinion/12krugman.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/opinion/12krugman.html)

------
ambrop7
I work in the particle accelerator control systems field and always get my
hopes up when I see "accelerator" :)

------
lacker
There aren't enough accelerators to need a Yelp. What you need is more like a
"US News & World Report" college rating, but for accelerators. Heavily
manually designed to ensure that the top few look logical.

This seems like a fair comparison since for many people accelerators
essentially replace business school.

------
AnotherMarc
Great idea, hope that you are successful with this! If you're able to get
good, verified reviews, the site will be tremendously valuable.

The other area I'd personally like, which might be hard to get reliable
information for, is mentor accessibility and expertise. Both during and after
the program.

------
adamzerner
Why "$ per %" instead of valuation?

I don't have a good idea of what's a good "$ per %" but I do have a good idea
of what is a good/bad valuation, so I find myself having to do calculations. I
sense that others are the same.

~~~
sjaakkkkk
No specific reason, didn't think of it. Got some other comments along the same
line, will think about changing it, thanks!

------
solve
Extremely nice. So many people have gone through these programs, but so few
have taken the time to build something that makes it easier for the next
people who will want to go through them. I always found that strange.

------
mikeleeorg
I've heard a few people say they were going to build a "Yelp for
accelerators," but none of them actually followed through. So I'm glad someone
finally did this!

------
pgroves
Suggestion: Repeat the the column headings every 20 rows or so or make it
sticky. By the end of the page I had to scroll back up to remind myself of
some of the columns titles.

~~~
pgroves
Another minor UI issue: The Title for the page is "Yelp for..", causing the
tab I have it in to have the visible title of just "Yelp" with your logo.

