{"id":42651,"date":"2023-10-20T15:22:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/river-city-labs-and-muru-d-accelerator-produces-impressive-first-crop-of-startups-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:22:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:22:46","slug":"river-city-labs-and-muru-d-accelerator-produces-impressive-first-crop-of-startups-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/river-city-labs-and-muru-d-accelerator-produces-impressive-first-crop-of-startups-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"River City Labs and muru-D accelerator produces impressive first crop of startups – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The inaugural cohort in the River City Labs and muru-D accelerator program have come \u201ca hell of a long way\u201d, especially behind the scenes, Outbound co-founder Ryan Hanly says.<\/p>\n

The 14-week program kicked off in September, offering the five teams $20,000 in funding in exchange for 3% equity, along with co-working space, mentoring, training and access to global networks.<\/p>\n

Following the accelerator\u2019s demo day last week, teams have been offered double the funding as part of a three-month extension of the program. If they choose to take part, the startups will get a further $20,000 cash injection for another 3% in equity.<\/p>\n

Growing internally<\/h3>\n

Outbound, a social media platform for travellers<\/a>, has seen its user base nearly double during its time at River City Labs, with downloads nearing 26,000 and active users up by 85%.<\/p>\n

But Hanly says some of the most important aspects of the program were the internal benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outside we may not be that much different but internally we\u2019ve come a hell of a long way,\u201d Hanly tells StartupSmart.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a better, more rounded team than we were coming in and it gave us the opportunity to really focus on the product. That was the best thing for us personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the accelerator program also gave unrivalled access to other entrepreneurs, investors and mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people we\u2019ve been exposed to and some of the masterclasses have been amazing,\u201d Hanly says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe calibre of the mentors in the program has been really good, and they\u2019re people we otherwise wouldn\u2019t have been able to get in front of by ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inaugural cohort<\/h3>\n

The other four participating startups have also seen significant benefits from the program.<\/p>\n

Peer-to-peer lawn moving platform GreenSocks has doubled its team size during its time in the program and has enjoyed rapid growth, Social betting app Puntaa is on the hunt for a $750,000 funding round and has already secured $150,000 and ProcessPA is set to close a $90,000 seed round early next year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an impressive result for the program\u2019s first incarnation, River City Labs general manager Josh Anthony says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bar has truly been set by the five teams of our first ever accelerator program,\u201d Anthony says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been fantastic to see their consistent gains and achievements and I am looking forward to their continual growth in the coming months and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Runway to do it right<\/h3>\n

Most of those involved are now looking to complete funding raises and Hanly says one of the main benefits of the program extension will be to give runway to make sure this process is done right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will give us the time to not rush that process and it\u2019ll give us breathing space,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Outbound came into the program more established than the usual accelerator startup \u2013 it was already used in 100 countries – and Hanly says it\u2019s important for founders to recognise the benefits of these programs for companies of all stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never too late to join a program like this,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome teams might think they\u2019re beyond it but you can be quite advanced in product and team and still get a lot out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Outbound team now, it\u2019s all about expansion and capitalising on the many lessons taken from the accelerator program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to expanding the team and spending some money on advertising,\u201d Hanly says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the extra funding we\u2019ll be able to pour some fuel on the fire and that\u2019s a luxury we haven\u2019t had before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The inaugural cohort in the River City Labs and muru-D accelerator program have come \u201ca hell of a long way\u201d,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}