San Francisco Accelerator

Key Takeaways

[Music] hi my name is Kelsey Jones and I'm with search engine Journal we're here at the search metrics event and I'm with Murray new our Deputy editor and he's going to tell us about his new incubator in San Francisco and why we should care since there's such a um amount of incubators here already in the Bay Area so our thing is that we've studied lots of the startup in the Bay Area and what they're looking for from an incubator you're really looking for what value both parties can bring to the scenario so things such as most incubators have a very quick uh turnaround with um say six weeks or eight weeks or 12 weeks you come in you've got the program and then you've got your demo day for us that's a mistake because that means they're trying to turn through as many companies as possible within that demo day process and then they have the demo day which they spend all the time preparing for and if your right investors not there you don't get funding and then everyone says why didn't you get funding and most of the companies don't get funding so what we want to do is uh we want to change the model so our model is that we want to work with very few companies but work with companies that we're very confident that we know we can get funding deliver a great um marketing for great PR and actually succeed with so we bring companies in for three months really working with them on a one-on-one basis and actually saying okay if they have to stay longer they stay longer so we're trying to there's currently set up as this is the model for an incubator and we're trying to change that model on its head um what we're finding is really interesting is that um there are lots of companies coming from around the world there's lots of investors from around the world who want to come to San Francisco and although uh there are lots of places internationally where you can do this nowhere else has the same cach a the connections and the scene the environment which you get in San Francisco and that's why people come here okay and you mentioned kind of the marketing side of it so besides funding what else are you going to provide those startups in order to get started in the incubator so everything from training them on how to set up legally where they need to set up what is funding in different gu as such as are you going to give Equity is it going to be a convertible note um what percentages you should be working on how to get your pitch deck together how to do a marketing analysis how to uh create your company and your story so that you're ready to go to Media how to go to Media introducing them to some media and so they understand both perspectives of the process working out their customer acquisition model and how investors are going to see that because it's for example it's one thing to have a great company I'm from Cambridge originally and there was a saying in Cambridge that uh just because you can split an atom doesn't mean that you can create a company that sells products within that space so really working with the founders to make sure they're successful entrepreneurs okay and um are you going to specialize in any industry in particular I know some incubators only do apps are you going to specialize in any area great question so we're looking at the internet of things so that includes everything from wearable technology but right the way through to apps for cars we think the internet of things incets are wide variety of things and obviously even with say nest and other things that's a very wide thing but we think that that's where um the market is going to be for certainly the forceable future and is it a group of you how many are starting this incubator so there's a core group of three of us and with a wide variety of advisers from many different fields because we how within the startups that we get in we want people who can partner with them with who have real specialism in and depth in certain areas and one of the things it's not just um some advice but being able to leverage connections and making introductions can be huge for a small company okay and I know you kind of touched on why you're starting the incubator here in San Francisco but what makes you want to get into the startup you know whole world because to me it's a whole separate almost community and Society what made you want to jump into that I started my first business when I was 23 I'm now 40 um I've worked I've had a number of startups I've worked with lots of startups I've been advising a number of startups I've invested in startups and for me my passion is about helping those companies succeed great yeah I definitely think incubators have helped good ideas become popular so it's really exciting that you are kind of branching out into that um when do you think you'll get started and when will it get off the ground Al so we've we've actually just recently launched and we're seeing the first companies come through now okay so if um you know who's ever watching the video wants to learn more where can they get more information you can connect with me at uh Founders space.com but also my Twitter is mar newand you can connect with me on LinkedIn on Facebook search Mar nands and you'll find everywhere I am great well thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us thank you very much [Music]