‘Say yes to everything’: These founders have advice for joining Big Tech accelerators.

Big companies are often not treated as philanthropic to the little guys. They can be bureaucratic, slow, slow – but they’ve mastered lessons that keep their big ships afloat. In contrast, startups are new-idea hubs. They’re fast-moving, scrappy, lean — but their leaders often lack the ability to know where to grow next or the resources to get there. Both parties can learn from each other if they create space to foster those relationships.

In the tech world, it’s not uncommon for Big Tech companies to support startups (especially those who can use their services) with money, product credits, and connections. For example, Google has Google for Startups, and Amazon has Amazon Web Services (AWS) startups, both of which offer accelerators.

What is the real benefit of participation? In particular, exposure to high-profile relationships is higher, thanks to the scale and influence of the host orgs.

Two Philly-area startup founders who have joined these accelerators in the past year share their experiences and advice with Technical.ly.

Edlite

Terin Thomas, CEO and founder of edtech company AdLight (a 2023 RealLIST Startups honoree) participated in the Google Startup Accelerator: Black Founders at the end of 2022. founders and potential investors through her experience at Google.

After completing the 10-week program, Thomas said the accelerator came at the perfect time for Edlite, a digital platform teachers use to organize and provide feedback to students on their work.

“It’s clear that the program runners understand the challenges and opportunities that organizations of similar size face,” Thomas said. “As a result, every aspect of the Accelerator feels designed to inspire and develop its participants.”

Thomas said the accelerator gave her the opportunity to make connections and learn from skating and technology experts as well as her peers.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to learn first-hand from technical and renowned experts at the accelerator like Ovetta Sampson,” she said, referring to Google’s director of user experience for CoreML and a machine learning expert. “Also, the relationships you can build with other participants is one of the unexpected resources of participating in the speed.”

Her advice to any company leaders considering a similar program is to “say yes to everything that comes your way.”

Walking

Megan Valentine, founder of Walkthrough, a personal financial advisor app, participated in the AWS Impact Accelerator: Women Founders in Fall 2022. This program provided networking, $225,000 in cash and AWS activation credits, and technical guidance to 25. Accepted starters. Valentine said it included workshops on sales, pitching, production and technology.

“A community of powerful female founders who are changing the world inspires us, business mentorship allows us to grow B2B sales, and technical mentorship helps ensure we’re building robust and secure software,” she told Technical.ly. “The entire program had a lot of heart in it—the people at AWS cared deeply about helping each team succeed, and many aspects of the program and mentorship were tailored to each company’s needs.”

The accelerator provided valuable connections to mentors and experts, and introduced Valentin to VCs and biz leaders who could use her company’s platform.

“AWS has amazing resources!” She said. They have many business consultants with experience running startups and relationships with key decision makers in large companies. Their technical experts continue to help us build our support on AWS. [infrastructure]. AWS has given us key introductions to VCs and businesses who are piloting Walkthrough’s financial advice for their employees and the communities they serve.

Valentine’s advice to other founders who may be pursuing similar programs: Go into the experience by understanding what they want from the community, VCs, business education, customers, etc. Also, talk to as many people as possible.

“Go in thinking everyone has something valuable to teach you,” she said. “You never know where a key input or way of thinking is going to come from, and being open is very important here. Make real connections with people, arrange meetings with all the advisors and ask lots of questions.

Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2023 Fellow for US Report, a Groundtruth Project initiative that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This site is sponsored by the Lenfest Journalism Institute.

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