780 Valencia St., San Francisco

Little bit about myself

• PM at Paragon Five. Mobile Game developer.

• Co-Founder of Meetro. Location Based Social Instant Messenger

• Co-Founder of Lefora. Acquired last year to Crowd Gather

• Currently Principal at I/O ventures

I/O Ventures

• Early Stage Investment

• 25k for 8% equity

• 4 Partners

• Amazing Mentors

• Dedicated workspace

i/o partnersAber Whitcomb – founder Myspace & Mindjolt

• Myspace has over 120+ million users, sold to Newscorp

Ashwin Navin – founder Bittorrent & Flingo• Bittorrent has over 75+ million users

Jim Young – founder Hotornot & Whoswhere• Hotonot invented virtual gifts first, sold to Avid Life Media

Paul Bragiel – founder Paragon5, Meetro & Lefora• Lefora sold to Crowdgather, Paragon 5 offices in Gliwice & Bydgoszcz

i/o mentors

i/o space

• Public Café– Community building, meetings, marketing

• Shared Workspace– Invite only, cross pollination, special events

• i/o Dedicated– Private, reserved for i/o companies

i/o space

i/o space

What is an Accelerator?

• An early stage investment fund

• Focusing on getting a product out as quick as possible

• Mentorship

• Already a product/idea

Typical Program

• Funding for a % of equity

• 3 months intensive mentorship

• Weekly dinners

• Weekly mentor ‘office hours’

• Access to partners

• Demo day

Accelerator vs Incubator

• Long term

• No idea

• Smart people in a room

• Universities and Big companies

Accelerator Examples

• I/O Ventures

• Y-Combinator

• Techstars

• Dreamit

• 500 Startups

Accelerators in Europe

• Seedcamp

• Startup Bootcamp

• Gamma Rebels

• Hack Fwd

Notable Companies

Why do an Accelerator?

• Speed the product development cycle

• Access to VC

• Speed the fund raising process

• Access to Industry Individuals

• Constant Feedback

• $$ Not lots of it!

What Accelerators Look for

• Global Idea

• Small team ( 2-3 people ideal)

• Single founders are a rarity but they must be technical (Codeval, Pieceable)

• Usable product

• Previous projects

• Cool people

What to look for in a program

• What value can the program bring to you

• Do mentors and partners have experience in your industry

• Talk with past classes

• Look at success ratio

• Location

Thanks!