1. Accellerators and incubators
@ Nesta Startup Factories
Gianluca Dettori, founder dpixel
http://about.me/dgiluz
twitter.com/dgiluz
dgiluz.wordpress.com

2. Venture Lab Project Goal
Goal: Provide the first systematic ranking of seed accelerators/
incubators for use by entrepreneurs when picking a
program in which to participate
Team/Sponsors:
• Aziz Gilani (DFJ Mercury)
• Frank Gruber and Jen Consalvo (Tech Cocktail)
• Gianluca Dettori and Marco Ciccolini (dPixel)
• Kelly Quann (Kellogg School of Management,
NorthWestern University)

3. What is a Seed Accelerator?
Key Criteria
For Profit
Closed Terms Less Than 1 Year
Paid in Equity
Notable Seed Accelerator Graduates
• Airbnb (Y Combinator 2007)
• DailyBurn (TechStars 2008)
• Dropbox (Y Combinator 2007)
• Foodzie (TechStars 2008)
• Heroku (Y Combinator 2008)
• Ignighter (TechStars 2008)
• Next Big Sound (iVentures10 2008 /
TechStars 2009)
• Posterous (Y Combinator 2008)
• Reddit (Y Combinator 2005)
• RunMyErrand (fbFund REV 2009)

4. Project Approach
• Internet-based and primary research to identify comprehensive
program list and quantitative data points including:
Quantitative • Duration, Stipend for three co-founders, Equity, Companies per
Research session, Total Alums, Qualified Financing Events, Exits
• Interviewed VCs to obtain perspectives on programs, particularly
to assess quality of mentorship, participating startups, and demo
Qualitative days
Research • Also talked to program participants to gain additional insights
• Developed methodology to apply quantitative and qualitative
findings to ranking
Synthesis & • Finalized a ranked list of programs to be used to drive written
Analysis publications and presentations

5. Research Sources US
Quantitative Qualitative
Seed Accelerator Program Websites Rob Schultz Illinois Ventures
Crunchbase Scott Lenet DFJ Frontier
VentureSource Stewart Alsop Alsop-Louie Partners
Business Publications Jeff Bussgang Flybridge Capital
(BusinessWeek, Forbes, etc.) Partners
Brad Feld Foundry Group,
Industry Blogs TechStars
Tech Crunch Danny Schultz DFJ Gotham
Industry Researchers Blair Garrou DFJ Mercury
(Jed Christiansen, Robert Shedd) TechStars
David Cohen
Seed Accelerator Program Contacts Indinero
Jessica Mah
Kulveer Taggar Auctomatic

6. Research Sources Europe
Quantitative Qualitative
Seed Accelerator Program Websites Lea Bajc Northzone Ventures
Crunchbase Will Prendergast Eden Ventures
VentureSource Carl Fritjofsson Creandum Ventures
Business Publications Evan Nisselson Entrepreneur, mentor
(BusinessWeek, Forbes, etc.) Manager, Mentor
Paolo Borella
Industry Blogs AALTO
Kellee Glass Mentor Seedcamp
Tech Crunch
Martin Kelly IBM
Industry Researchers
(Jed Christiansen, Robert Shedd) Barry Mulligan Entrepreneur,
Mercury360
Seed Accelerator Program Contacts Sofinnova
Alessio Beverina
Stefano Bernardi TheStartup.eu

7. Methodology
Qualitative Analysis
Evaluation Factor Weight
Mentorship Quality 12.5%
Participant Quality 12.5%
Demo Day Quality 25%
VC Awareness 50%
Overall Ranking
Evaluation Factor Weight
Stipend Value 5%
Equity Stake Taken By Program 10%
Size of Alumni Network 10%
Qualified Financing Events ($350,000 within 1 year of program completion) 25%
Exits 25%
Qualitative Evaluation 25%

8. U.S. Results
Rank Program
1 TechStars Boulder
2 Y Combinator
3 Excelerate Labs
4 LaunchBox Digital
5 TechStars Boston
6 KickLabs
7 TechStars Seattle
8 Tech Wildcatters
9 DreamIt Ventures
10 The Brandery
11 Capital Factory
12 NYC Seedstart
13 Betaspring
14 BoomStartup
15 AlphaLab

9. EU Results
Rank Program
1 SeedCamp (UK/Europe)
2 Startupbootcamp / Tetuan Valley (Spain)
3 Startupbootcamp (Denmark)*
4 Springboard (Cambridge, UK)
5 Openfund (Greece)
6 NDCR LaunchPad (Ireland)
7 Propeller Venture (Ireland)
8 Startupbootcamp (Ireland)*
*Currently Not Active

10. Main Takeaways US
• In VC, you must be active in social media to stay relevant to
your network
• Accelerator programs are valued by VCs more for the
connection to the venture community than for deal flow
– Recognized for their educational value to entrepreneurs
• Y Combinator and TechStars are the “gold standard” of
accelerator programs, but have different models
– TechStars and its followers utilize a mentorship-driven, open and
replicable model
– Y Combinator has a “guru” model, with a closed/exclusive
approach
• Growing awareness and publicity for the TechStars Network likely to make
YC become more open

11. Main Takeaways EU
• Europe is much more complex and diversified with different
models. Europe is much less connected than the US
ecosystem, fragmented in ‘islands’ that seem to have
developed their own recipes and variations.
• A more detailed study would be necessary to really get the
picture of what’s happening
• SeedCamp is the European “gold standard” of accelerator
programs with a Ycombinator model, while StartupBootcamp
is following the Techstars model
• 50% of seed accelerators/ incubators started in 2010, we’ll
need a couple of years to really figure out what works and
what does not work in Europe

12. Next Steps
• Aziz Gilani & Gianluca Dettori to present findings to Kauffman
Fellow Program (July 14th 2011)
• Used as background research for accelerator case studies
• Extend European map to 40 entities, build a US/Europe
merged chart. New criteria (Europe), adjustments to the
current ranking algorithm to account for our peculiarities and
differences vs the US. New extended map criteria
For Profit/No Profit entities
Closed Terms Less Than 1 Year
Stipend value /Charge fees /Investor mode

13. Where is this going?
40+ entities active in Europe right now
2007 2008 2009 2010