Startup Accelerator News

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-02-08 08:27:00 UTC
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Via a tweet from serial entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) I came across a new startup accelerator in Austin, TX called Capital Factory.

Capital Factory has elements of the Y-Combinator approach. Organizations accepted to their program get $20,000 in exchange for 5% of the company. Like Y-Combinator, it seems like the real sale is the mentorship to which CF entrepreneurs give their students access. The CF model seems a little bit more explicitly learning-centric than Y-Combinator, in that the program is structured over 10-weeks with weekly mentorship sessions.

Both models are focused on helping organizations figure out how to build a cash-positive startup with access to growth funding if necessary, and in both cases, the real draw is the set of relationships within the entrepeneurial ecosystem.

I'm still keeping my eyes open for the social sector equivalent. There are certainly programs that have elements of it. Ashoka and Echoing Green Fellowships both provide access to knowledge and networks in addition to funding. StartingBloc does a lot of the up front training and mentorship for a younger demographic. Appfrica (which I'm increasingly convinced is just going to blow us away over the next couple years) is building significant social value around the tech incubator model by placing it in the developing world context.

If anyone has more examples of a social enterprise startup incubators I'd love to hear about it.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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