Betaspring is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator program for technology and design entrepreneurs who are ready to launch a company and change the world. Apply by 6/12 for our fall session, which begins on 8/26.
02.28.13
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mwithers
Fifteen U.S. and international startups - including three from India - moved into Betaspring HQ on February 11 and hit the ground running as we launched into our Spring 2013 session.
The spring cohort was selected from a talented pool of global applicants representing 20+ countries. Every session is different but, this spring, Massachusetts takes the “where’d they come from?” lead with six of the 15 companies hailing from the Bay State. The group is rounded out with founders from New York, Rhode Island, Colorado, and Washington DC., England and India. This is the first session that Betaspring has welcomed companies from India. With international applications on the rise, both in quality and quantity, we selected three India-based startups to join us for Betaspring’s sixth session. Our only regret is that the lads arrived smack in the middle of Blizzard Nemo, greeted with...
12.12.12
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owen
In a previous post, I discussed the importance of angel investors for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Startups need angels. But do they need angel groups?
As it turns out, formal angel groups aren’t a good fit for many early-stage companies and in recent history have played a diminished role in the startup scene. So much so, that angel groups are not even on the radar for many younger founders. Unless your company has strong intellectual property, significantly developed market proof, or a team with obvious pedigree, angel groups are not a great source of funding--and often a waste of time--for fast-moving founders.
The irony is that if your startup has cleared these hurdles, you probably don’t need angel groups anymore - you will likely finish up your round with investment from individual angels or VCs. For groups, this dynamic has created a deal-flow death spiral, where angel...
12.10.12
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jtemplin
Soliciting and receiving in-person feedback is one of the most valuable skills an entrepreneur can develop. Compared to other types of feedback -- reviewing your analytics, participating in forums, receiving feedback via email, etc -- in-person feedback is, or should be, the most intimate and most valuable feedback you can get. In-person feedback is real-time, face-to-face, information-rich and highly personal.
As a Betaspring Partner, I’m regularly giving in-person feedback, and as the co-founder of my own early stage startup -- Lockify -- I’m constantly soliciting it. In the hopes that it might benefit other entrepreneurs, here are some things I’ve learned from working both sides of the in-person feedback loop:
--Remind yourself that your primary goal for the session is to learn. You’re not there to impress the other person or to get them to like you. While both of those things...
12.10.12
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mwithers
Congrats to Spring 2012 alum Care Thread, which today announced a partnership with Yankee Alliance, a group purchasing organization. This partnership will allow over 96 acute care hospitals and more than 12,800 member sites in the Yankee Alliance network to leverage Care Thread's secure mobile messaging and team-based collaboration solution to maximize communications and productivity across care teams.
Now that's what I call getting to market.
Care Thread delivers a HIPAA-compliant mobile messaging solution that enables hospitals to support real-time mobile communications while avoiding the security risks of provider texting and the potential for breach. Care Thread maps each patient’s hospital provider care team and utilizes a suite of tools, including hand-off summaries and task lists, that are shared amongst team members to foster better care coordination. These...
12.05.12
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owen
Angel investors are an important source of capital for early stage startups. Without them, many startups would never get beyond the idea phase. However, not all angels are equal. There are many individual investors, but certain traits separate the average investor from the true angel.
A true angel not only enables a startup with fuel in the form of dollars invested, but also has the ability to make game changing contributions during startups critical early stages. Those contributions may be advice and mentorship, customer connections, and/or bringing other high quality investors into orbit around the startup. Founders should search for the angels that can augment their strengths, shore up their weaknesses and help them get whatever they most need to succeed.
Here are some additional qualities that set the best angels apart from the pack. The more of these qualities an angel has,...
12.04.12
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mwithers
By Jon Bittner, Co-founder of Splitwise
Application deadlines for the Boston-area’s most prominent technology accelerators are fast approaching: Betaspring’s deadline is 12/5 and TechStars Boston deadline is 12/17 (there’s actually a common application here). If you are thinking about an accelerator, you’re probably asking yourself: Is it worth applying? What value do accelerators add? Why should I pursue one accelerator versus another?
The answer to these questions comes down to something more basic: what am I trying to do, and what will help me get there?
Accelerators like Betaspring and TechStars seek companies focused on building high-growth businesses. In start-up slang, people often ask “does this scale?” – meaning, is it creating something of value that can be sold to a huge market. This doesn’t mean the initial market must be huge; it means the core technology or insights...
12.03.12
By Max Winograd, President & Co-Founder of NuLabel Technologies, Inc.
It’s Spring 2009. Citigroup stock is trading below $1. Nearly a trillion dollars of stimulus has been signed into law. The economy is - to quote Coolio - “in the valley of the shadow of death.” But me? I’m in a Gangsta’s Paradise. I’m a Senior in my last semester of college, and I’ve accepted a great consulting job offer. Job security. A nice base salary. A several hundred million dollar employer with great stability. The anti-startup.
Meanwhile, I’m in the midst of a yearlong engineering project with two partners – Ben Lux (a polymer science whiz) and Mike Woods (an engineer who hasn’t met a mechanical device he has not taken apart) – and we saw an opportunity to eliminate the back of the label - the “liner” that companies like Walmart and FedEx pay for, then print out, then throw away....
11.30.12
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mwithers
In late 2011 I took on a project at Betaspring to develop strategies to help our accelerator better support more women founders. Two years ago, the stats were grim…less than 5% of the founders we worked with were women. Pretty sad given that women are the globe's most abundant and under-leveraged economic resource.
Betaspring was not alone in its estrogenic scarcity. Nor were we the only ones who set out to reverse that trend--incredible people and orgs have been working non-stop to recognize women in the startup scene and bring new XX chromosome talent into the ranks.
One year later, Betaspring is trending in the right direction, doubling the number of women founders in our two most recent accelerator sessions. I hope when our application period closes on December 7, there will be some great women founders in the mix (apply at betaspring.com). It's good to see but...
11.29.12
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atear
An interesting thing is happening: accelerators across the globe are working at their stated goal of massively increasing the number of startups, while also making them more viable (increasing their “survivability rate”) versus the average startup on the street. For example, since summer 2009, Betaspring has accelerated 57 companies, and are on track to launch 30 a year. 45 of our startups are alive and growing.
Globally, accelerators have minted a couple thousand startups, and the tech press is starting to chatter about a “Series A crunch”. Anecdotes and some statistics claim that many of these startups are raising a seed round, but are not “succeeding” at raising a Series A from venture capitalists. Enter predictions of collapse of the whole shebang.
I think we are seeing this through the completely wrong lens. An old lens from our Pre-Cambrian startup era, before...
11.28.12
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mwithers
If you have applied for our Spring 2013 accelerator session (and there are no reasons in your application for us to immediately disqualify you from consideration) then get ready to join us on December 13 in Providence for the Betaspring Experience--the day during each application cycle when we welcome early applicants to see our space, meet our team, and talk with Betaspring alumni.
As a bonus, mentor and special guest Dave Balter will be here to drop some wisdom based on his experience as a founder, angel investor and super-champion of the New England startup scene.
Choosing an accelerator is one of the most important decisions a startup can make. We feel the same way about choosing companies. We have the luxury of choosing which companies we interview. We think it's fair that you have a chance to check us out too.
See it. We have a galactic headquarters where the...