{"id":47218,"date":"2023-10-20T15:52:50","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/investors-want-to-see-traction-not-accelerator-credentials-says-shark-tanks-steve-baxter-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:52:50","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:52:50","slug":"investors-want-to-see-traction-not-accelerator-credentials-says-shark-tanks-steve-baxter-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/investors-want-to-see-traction-not-accelerator-credentials-says-shark-tanks-steve-baxter-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Investors want to see traction, not accelerator credentials, says Shark Tank\u2019s Steve Baxter &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"352\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/l_stevebaxter445.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"l_stevebaxter445\"><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Being able to prove traction is more attractive to investors than having completed a mentoring or accelerator program, according to investor Steve Baxter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Speaking on a panel titled &#8216;The harsh truth: before, during and after the accelerator&#8217; at Slush Down Under on Wednesday, Baxter said while accelerators such as Startmate and AngelCube play a crucial role in building an ecosystem, when it comes to investment, nothing makes a startup more attractive than traction.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI don\u2019t believe that entrance to an accelerator or completion of an accelerator is a credit to value \u2013 when you finish that accelerator you should have traction,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe two don\u2019t necessarily go hand in hand. I prefer to see businesses funded by customers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Alan Downie, co-founder of BugHerd, admitted his startup \u201csucked majorly\u201d at traction even after completing Startmate and then 500Startups.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cBy the end of Startmate we had zero paying customers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cBy the end of 500startups we had about 100. So we didn\u2019t have the traction to raise \u2013 we raised on a story and a good vision. But I don\u2019t think that will fly these days.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Downie says the number one thing he got out of both accelerators was tapping into a network of supportive, like-minded people who knew their stuff.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cFor us, we were missing the whole concept of distribution, marketing and analytics,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cSo getting into an accelerator was really about us learning about that side of the business. I think one of the big takeaways was how to grow a business.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The other benefit is that the accelerator never really ends, according to Downie.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI\u2019m in regular contact with Niki [Scevak], a few of the mentors form Startmate and investors in the business,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cSo we constantly have contact not just with the mentors in the program but with the teams. There\u2019s a lot of ongoing support and comradeship as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Niki Scevak, founder of Startmate and managing director of Blackbird Ventures, says it\u2019s difficult for people outside the startup scene and even new entrepreneurs to figure out which accelerator will best suit them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHopefully over time the stories of founders who\u2019ve been through all the accelerators in Australia will be widely heard, as I think that\u2019s the only mechanism through which you can make a decision as to who\u2019s a good accelerator or investor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>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 Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being able to prove traction is more attractive to investors than having completed a mentoring or accelerator program, according to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47218"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}