Any experience applying to an Accelorator?
I see that YCombinator and TIny Seed are opening their application windows and am wondering if it is possible and worthwhile for a floundering indie hacker to apply and be accepted to these (or other similar) programs. I'm building a European travel tool and interviewing European travelers. The goal of the app is to provide inspiration and data for people to gain the confidence and knowledge to plan trips to Europe themselves.
I'm still working on features and have struggled with launching, but am curious if an incubator is a viable option for someone like me at the point I am at: App still in progress, no prior startups, solo "founder", 43 years old with a family.
I am going to complete the applications for each anyways since it doesn't hurt to do so, but am genuinely curious if anyone with a similar story has been accepted into one of these programs.
Anyone have experience / advice?
Hey Craig, I've applied to several accelerators and been accepted -- just didn't attend them. Here's my perspective: OF COURSE YOU SHOULD APPLY! But the truth is that if you have traction-- whether pre-signup list, users, email list, etc. it will help show you are solving a problem in a $B market, and it's scalable.
My recommendation is to work on a draft document with answers to the questions beforehand and put the most succinct answers that reduce any risk factors in your answers.
Also, try to get feedback from others or see other examples to help you with the application. Best of luck to you!
Thanks for the advice. I will do as you suggest. DO you think a pre-signup list or email list will be enough proof of traction? I am concerned that I am still too early for this to be viable.
But as I said (and your suggest) I am going to apply anyways since there is no harm in trying.
Thanks!
I've heard of other startups that got into accelerators just based on their waitlist/ pre-signup list, so yup! As long as it's a good metric that shows what you are building is what people need.
But it's always good to get others' feedback, because there may be insight that would be good to capture as well.
Fellow IndieHacker here, who can attest that accelerators like us. I was accepted to Antler.co (second best only to YC IMO). Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this spring but I have an open invite for the fall batch which I hope to attend.
I'm only 22, but have worked in tech since 16. I have experience working for startups from pre-seed to post acquisition in performance marketing roles, I had sold a mediocre SaaS application on MicroAcquire for just under $20k, and had a new project that showed early signs of traction (no revenue, but waitlist of 20ish users which translated to potentially $10k ARR on waitlist).
Your idea is definitely 'big' enough for accelerators, depending on how you plan to execute it. If you're aiming to target those young travelers looking to backpack across europe, do some soul searching, and eat pray love themselves so to speak, I think you really got something. I'd just toss up a simple landing page and start building a waitlist, the bigger that list is the higher the likelihood of you being accepted.
My experience: 2x final interview for YC, didn't get in.
My two cents: definitely apply but don't make it core to your strategy. I found that just filling out the YC application helps you clarify your thinking. If it works, awesome! But in any case it's good to just focus on getting traction - just getting a couple of paying customers or some revenue is way better than nothing. And yes, it's definitely a chicken-and-egg problem.
What's the business model of your product?
I have a couple ideas I'd like to try in tandem:
A user subscription model that would allow travelers to create and share custom trips/itineraries, chat with each other in a user only chat group, ask/answer travel questions in a user-only forum, create meetups with other users in European cities, hide ads
sell travel related gear for affiliate commissions
Allow Europe-oly travel-related companies (accommodations, restaurants, tour companies, tour guides, etc) to advertise on the site
Build out a Tour Guide marketplace where local individual tour guides could list their tours, and users can book them
Podcast with adverts
Primarily #1 and #5 are what I'd like to start with, but the full list would be ideal in the long term.