Frequently Asked Questions

Our Most Frequently Asked Questions

“What types of startups will benefit the most from your platform and programs?”

Stage-wise: Early-stage startups from pre-idea validation, to pre-seed, to seed-stage.

Product or Service-wise: SaaS, IoT, marketplaces, physical products, and just about anything tech-based that solves a problem that your market faces.

“What’s the difference between your online incubator and accelerator?”

Incubator

Our online startup incubator helps aspiring entrepreneurs who are pre-product with not yet validated startup ideas. The incubator program helps potential founders to find out whether or not their startup idea is worth pursuing further. 42% of startups fail because there was no market need for their product. It would make sense to say that you should validate your startup idea properly before moving further with it.

We provide an idea validation/invalidation course and tons of resources to help you successfully test out your idea. This prevents people from wasting years and thousands of dollars on turning their startup ideas into startups that won’t pan out.

What’s more, the idea validation course also prepares you for our 3-month accelerator program or just building your startup on your own based on an idea that’s truly validated.

Accelerator

Our accelerator program is for startups who already validated their idea and are ready to start building, growing, and fundraising soon after.

It’s a three-month course that’s paired with a platform resources, however, you can take longer if you need to due to your own circumstances.

In the platform, we have lots of growth-based content in different verticals that will help you build your strategies, pick your tactics, and find what works best for your type of startup.

“Why don’t I have to apply to get into your accelerator?”

Most startups don’t get accepted into accelerators that provide investment and co-working facilities. Fewer than 10% of startups do.

We believe in equal opportunity for the startup community, and that means providing a quality 3+ month accelerator program available to any startup with optional mentoring subscriptions.

We have democratized startup acceleration.

“How long does the accelerator program take to complete?”

The Short Answer:  The accelerator program will take three to six months, depending on your pace of work, team-size, and outsourced projects.

The Long Answer:  You can take as long as you need to complete the program — as long as you maintain an active subscription for it and submit all of the required materials to achieve the program’s completion.

The ability to complete this program on schedule within three months will require you to be working on your startup for at least three or four hours a day.  But if you can do six to eight, more power to you! Just be very careful to not burn yourself out.

However, if you and your team work full-time jobs, then you’ll find yourselves working on your startup part-time after you come home.

This type of schedule will be demanding but it will also enable you and your team to get close to finishing the accelerator program within the three-month time-frame or around there and get prepared to raise enough venture capital where you can quit your day jobs and focus on growing your startup.

And, we urge you to move as fast as you can without being careless. But don’t beat yourself up if you and your team take longer than three months to complete the program we’ve laid out for you. Everyone works at their own pace.

However, if you’re a solo founder, then this program is likely to take a lot longer because you’ll be doing everything yourself until you have built a team.

So, if that’s you, then give yourself more time to complete each part of the program. It can take two to four times as long for a solo founder, depending on the skill sets of that person, the scope of the project, and how much work is outsourced.

Regardless of whether or not you’re part of a team or you’re a solo founder, be meticulous with your planning, your processes, and how you organize all of the moving parts. It will prevent you from wasting time and give you clearer direction. Do your best to be productive and focused with the program and you’ll be fine.

The bright side of this is that it prepares your startup for a fast-paced environment once you launch and start scaling.

As with any accelerator program, your limits will likely be tested and you will go outside of your comfort zone, so you need a strong team of people that you can trust and have a good relationship with so you can all tackle your projects and challenges head-on. You’re going to be around them a lot (even if it’s working remotely), so this is super important.

However, if you need to ask for help or advice, then don’t be afraid to reach out to us, other founders in our community, or other entrepreneurs in your niche. Most entrepreneurs are mutually supportive.

“Can I join the incubator or accelerator at any time or do I have to wait for a cohort to start?”

You can join at any time! We don’t have any cohorts because we don’t want to hold any startups up from joining our program. You’re building your startup on your time, not ours.

“Do you provide seed funding from your incubator and accelerator?”

We don’t provide funding right now. However, this helps you save equity for when you fundraise. Moreover, this will increase your startup’s valuation when those fundraising rounds occur because you’ll have more equity to use for fundraising.

“Do you help me find investors?”

No and yes. No because we do not directly help you find investors. But yes because the accelerator program teaches you how to find the best investors that will fit with your type of company.  We also share really helpful lists and networks of angel investors and venture capital firms. They’ll help you find investors quicker (saving you 50+ hrs).

“Do I automatically get mentoring if I sign up for a paid membership?”

Unfortunately, no. We wish we could mentor everyone who signs up, but we can’t be sustainable if we do that. However, you can get on-demand mentoring by signing up for a weekly or bi-weekly mentoring subscription. Mentoring once a month is too ineffective for startups so we don’t offer that. We have a limited number of these plans available but we will be working to secure more mentors who are equally qualified as Carl to meet greater demand.

“Will you have a demo day with investors?”

This is something that we’re planning on doing, but it is not determined when. When we do have a demo day, though, it will be online only, you’ll have to apply to pitch, and you will have had to completed the accelerator program and submitted all of your necessary documentation for completion of the program.

“Can my venture capital firm or university entrepreneurship program use your platform?”

Yes – enterprise plans can be available for these types of institutions. Please reach out to us at sales @ startupdevkit dot com for a quote.

“Can our agency take part in your accelerator program?”

No because agencies are not true startups which have a product they’re selling, they’re service-based businesses and our program doesn’t apply to them.

However, you can sign up for our lite membership or incubator program which will get you either freemium or full access, respectively, to our resource library and forums.

“When is the right time to start the accelerator program?”

The best time to start is once your startup’s idea validation phase has been completed and the idea has become refined and validated.

However, if you have already validated your startup idea and already have started building it, but you’re looking for more direction, help, processes, and resources, then our accelerator program is still going to be a good fit for you.

If you still need to validate your idea, then you can take advantage of our idea validation course before you start our accelerator program.

It’s vital that you complete your idea validation process first and we’ll tell you why. Going through the idea validation process will prepare you for this program, prepare you for having a healthy startup with a strong foundation, and will greatly lower your chances of startup failure being that 90% fail. You could be wasting valuable time and money if you’re pursuing an idea that does not have strong enough potential in the market to be profitable.

Again, 42% of venture-backed startups fail because there was no market need. We don’t want to see that happen to you! Do you?

“What should I know before I start the accelerator program?”

Assuming that you’ve validated your startup idea, your task is to keep your startup alive and make it thrive. You’ve jumped over your first of many hurdles. But the battle to be successful is fought not only in the market, but in our minds and within ours startups.

It’s a long and difficult journey and it’s not as glamorous as a lot of people believe it to be. It takes guts, grit, and thick skin. But it’s also important to have humility and seek feedback. Startups are not for the faint-hearted, so we hope this is something that you’re determined to do.

Despite the difficulties you will inevitably face, a positive attitude is insanely important.

As Henry Ford, the Founder of Ford Motors, said, and we’re paraphrasing, “If you think you can do something or think you can’t, you’re right.”

As long as your startup idea is validated, then you can do it if you align yourself with a positive mission.

Don’t build a startup just for the prospect of getting rich — do it for the passion of fixing the problem for the customers you serve and improving their lives. You will have a much more fulfilling experience and the money will follow.

“Is it the right time in my life to start a startup?”

Timing is so important and sometimes people aren’t at the juncture in their lives where they will have the time to pursue a startup. Sure, you can move slowly and have your startup as a slowly built side-hustle, too.

But speed is also important because there are other market forces in play that could change market need.

We recommend that pursuing your startup is something you really want to do and that you also have the ability to do at this point in your life and for the foreseeable future.

Also make sure that your spouse, partner, or even parents (for college students) are on board with you pursuing your startup.

Hopefully, now is the right time for you!

“Why pay for a membership to StartupDevKit when I can apply to a physical accelerator?”

Did you know that approximately 90% of startups applying to physical accelerators don’t get accepted in those programs? It’s easier to get into an ivy league university!

Physical accelerators also have fixed schedules, cohorts, and will generally require you to quit your job and work on it full time, adding more stress and uncertainty to your life with regard to your financial stability.

We don’t have cohorts. You can sign up at anytime. You can take as long or as little as you need to complete our programs. And you can do it from the comfort of your own home or office!

We also provide pathways to you to build and grow your startup so that you can

Moreover, 90% of startups fail and we help startups prevent the top reasons for startup failure through our program.

The startups do who don’t get accepted into physical accelerators search for alternatives or wind up bootstrapping and that’s where we come in.

With StartupDevKit, we have democratized our accelerator program so you get a 3+month process to follow via course content, on-demand mentoring, a huge platform of resources to help you, community, and more.

“How long does the startup idea validation course take?”

The idea validation course will generally take between two weeks and month to complete.

“Are your startup resources just lists and checklists or is there more to it than that?”

While we have and share lots of great lists and checklists, we have much more than them on our platform.

It has curated and original articles from industry leaders, templates, excellent video series, select podcast episodes, presentation decks, and more.

However, there are a several lists in particular that you’ll find especially helpful:  1) Our startup tools list of over 550 startup tools, 2) venture capital firm lists, 3) a press contact list, and more.

What’s more, you will save $20,000 worth of time spent (~480 hours) from hunting for the right startup resources. Awesomeness!

“Who do you source your curated content from?”

Venture capitalists, their firms, successful tech companies, authors, serial founders, top-tier entrepreneurial sites, and leading universities.

We source our content from these institutions and more:

Nextview Ventures, First Round Review, NFX, Y-Combinator, HubSpot, 500 Startups, Harvard Business Review, Openview Venture Partners, Startup Grind, Sumo, The Startup Chat podcast, The Lean Startup, Lifehack articles, Entrepreneur, Forbes, and more.

“Do you have a startup network and/or an online community?”

We have a Facebook group and Slack community which are free to join and are for open networking.

We also have forums on our platform where you can ask questions or find answers to existing questions.

“Can I receive discounts from your partners?”

Yes, we have a member perks and benefits page with available discounts from participating partners. They’re available after purchasing a membership subscription of at least three months long.