Apr 16, 2021

Acapella - 600 accelerators with $400K/year budget - and this is just India.

By Shashikiran Rao • Issue #7 • View online

Hi there,

There are already 600 incubators and accelerators supported by the Government of India with an average budget of $400K a year in India. Last month, they announced a whopping $150 million to create 3500 more entrepreneurs through funding 300 more incubators.

So, here’s the problem - while the intentions are great, the resources are channeled through institutions, which lack the expertise and basic knowledge of how to run these programs to effectively generate more entrepreneurs.

At Acapella, we’re exactly solving this problem by enabling more venture catalysts to become independent operators of micro-accelerators.

This is our effort to build a community business in public and any thoughts and ideas that you might have will help us go a long way in solving this problem.

BTW, in case you haven’t read our previous issues, you may do so here.

😎 This Week's Update!

We ran a four-week intense sprint and took this week to recoup. We are ready for a two-week sprint from the coming week to onboard a majority of our beta users.
On the product front, to get the minimum lovable product ready at the earliest, we did some feature bundling.
We had an amazing conversation with Gautham S. from Headstart Network Foundation. Gautham’s passion and experience gave us a better picture of the Indian incubator and accelerator ecosystem and how we can tap it.
Jennifer Cabala, VP Startup Programs at Techstars also took some time to talk to us this week. From her incredible experience designing the accelerator playbook for Techstars, she not only showed us the right direction, but also agreed to help us write it.

🤯 What we learned?

There are 750 incubator and accelerator programs in India alone which have crores of money, and 500+ of them are funded by the government. They have tremendous resources, but not the man-power to effectively utilise it. That’s where the gap exists and we can come in as a product.
We learned how to leverage the power of ‘network’ as a GTM strategy. Due to the otherwise unstructured venture-building processes, Acapella will become the preferred destination for startups who are looking to get a taste of the infrastructure (processes, program, curriculum, network, resources, etc).
We brainstormed over how to build a feedback loop with our current beta users and involve them in designing the playbook based on their experience and requirements.

👀 What are we seeking?

We are raising a $125K angel round, preferably from strategic investors and funds that are interested in supporting SMEs across the world.
We are designing our own cohort to train venture catalysts to launch their micro-accelerators. If you are someone who has played a facilitator’s role in the past and knows how to run a cohort, please talk to us.
If you know any potential venture catalysts or existing micro-accelerators that we can talk to, please connect them to us.

🚀 GET INVOLVED!

Interested in chatting further? Feel free to schedule a call with our team here.

📩 - shashi@acapella.team & paul@acapella.team

Until next week,

Shashikiran Rao

Co-Founder & CEO, Acapella