As accelerators have fully taken root in Seoul's burgeoning startup ecosystem, with at least ten being worthy of mention, statistics have just been released to help founders get visibility into the profile of successful applicants to startup Accelerators. More than 250,000 founders and 47,000 startups globally use F6S’ accelerator recruiting tool, and approximately 90% of Accelerators globally use the advanced platform to take applications, manage community and select successful applicants.
The results are based on 62,262 applications from February 2013 to February 2014 to 1,564 Accelerator Program Cohorts from over 150,000 founders in 95 countries.
Sean Kane, F6S Co-Founder, commented, “These results not only provide the first global view of who gets into an Accelerator, but also support key lessons we’ve learned as an ecosystem like success is a group effort and the only way to win is to fail along the way.”
Acceptance Rates
-On average, 3.98% of applicants were accepted into Accelerator programs.
-Regional acceptance rates were competitive overall and varied broadly, ranging from:
-3.78% in the United States
-3.67% in Europe
-5.09% in South America
` -5.12% in Asia
-5.38% in Australia/New Zealand.
The overall acceptance rates for Accelerators ranged from a low of .41% (roughly 1 `in 244) to a high of 55% (roughly 1 in 2).
Gabriella Draney, Founder of leading B2B Accelerators Tech Wildcatters and Health Wildcatters, commented, “There are a limited number of spaces in top programs and getting in is highly competitive for even the best founders and startups. Fortunately, new Accelerators are moving quickly to expand founder opportunities in vertical markets from healthcare to energy.”
What do startups that are accepted to Accelerators look like?
Jason Seats, Managing Director at Techstars, said, “Founders are at the core of what we do and selecting a class is as much about the mix of founders as the individuals. Of course it doesn’t end at the stats – you also need a killer idea and the commitment to move it forward.”
Startups that apply and successfully enter Accelerators, on average:
-have 2.3 founders (vs. 1.9 founders for rejected startups)
-have founders that are 86.8% Male and 13.2% Female (vs. 85.2% Male and 14.8% Female for rejected startups)
The top 10 industry areas for accepted startups are:
-Web Applications/SaaS 36%
-Mobile 15.3%
-Media 12.4%
-Marketing 12.3%
-E-Commerce 9.2%
-Data and Analytics 8.9%
-Advertising 8.8%
-Social Networking 7.6%
-Entertainment 7.5%
-Education 6.7%
Many successful applicants had failed multiple times before gaining a place in an Accelerator. In fact, startups accepted into an Accelerator tried an average of 3.34 programs on F6S, while unsuccessful applicants took a shot at only 1.8 programs on average.
Marc Nager, President/CEO at Up Global, commented, “The startup ecosystem needs to serve founders through the cycle of failure and success. Accelerators are an amazing driver and part of the toolkit that also includes hack weekends, pre-accelerators and mentoring. The ecosystem is working together to drive founder growth as never before.”
Patrick Riley, head of the Global Accelerator Network, an invite-only group of over 50 mentorship-driven accelerator programs, said, “The results from the F6S founder and accelerator community help us see how well the short-term mentorship-driven accelerator model is working. Data like this also helps us understand how to best find and support startups and allow our members to better invest in them, which will drive economic growth.”
