A sourcer usually utilizes 3-5 sourcing channels they generally look up to source from. However, it is not a bad idea to look at other channels from time to time to uncover crucial info that may lead to a great prospect. One such channel is an accelerator program that usually takes small equity in return for money, wherein you can find a lot of budding companies duking it out to be visible and fast track their product and its associated successes.
YCombinator
They are a seed funder in return for a small stake in the companies they invest. The companies are in the program for 3 months and get varied assistance in terms of legal, financial, and perfecting the pitch to potential investors among many others.
How is the sourcer supposed to use this platform? There is a lot of information that can be gleaned from the website and it is a sourcer’s delight indeed.
Top Companies
It lists the top companies by valuation and Top exits.
https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies/
Startup directory
They also list a directory of companies (1000+) with an added bonus of lists of Women founded, Latino and Black-founded companies. This list can be filtered based on employee size, location, Industry, status (Public or acquired etc.), and year of acceptance in this Program.
https://www.ycombinator.com/companies
They also run a YC Growth Program for Founder-CEO who are on a fast track of growth. The Company list starting from 2017 can be found here. https://www.ycombinator.com/growth-program
Hiring – Wanting to be Hired
YC runs a list that displays the companies that are hiring and the individuals who wish to be hired segregated on a monthly basis.
https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring
Founder & Co-Founder Search
Let’s say if you wanted to find Founder’s and Co-founders of companies with Automation as their main product scope. Here is a string that you can utilize. The Linkedin Profiles are listed alongside the individual names.
site:ycombinator.com/companies/*/ (Founder OR “Co-Founder”) Automation
From a research perspective on finding relevant companies
Societe-Generale, the Giant French bank, launched their startup accelerator program called “Catalyst” in India in 2016 with a focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. You can find the list of companies they accept typically 8-10 companies on average.
It is similar to YCombinator, and they have a 3 months accelerator program.
A list of the companies they accepted into their program out of their offices in Montreal, Canada in 2021
https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/techstars-montreal-ai-2021-class-announcement
They started a Catalyst program in late 2021 to provide female founders with startup education, mentorship, and access to the Techstars network.
The website also lists the portfolio of the companies they have associated with:
https://www.techstars.com/portfolio
Large MNC Accelerator Programs
Target, The giant US retailer runs an accelerator program in India for supply chain, analytics and other use cases. The Alumni list is here and others as well.
https://targetaccelerators.com/alumni/?sort=&category%5B%5D=4
Cisco has a startup accelerator program called “Launch Pad”
https://launchpad.cisco.com/c/start-ups.html
Conclusion
You go wherever possible (legally of course) to get an edge over your competition. The accelerator programs are one way to get some market intelligence and observe the trends