business incubator

While researching a feature on business incubators and accelerators, we came across Chris Hexton, an entrepreneur with Invc.me who has been through the accelerator process and was able to share insight from his own experience.

Having recently progressed through the Sydney-based accelerator Startmate I can safely say that it has certainly been one of the most worthwhile experiences of my life – both for my startup and myself personally.

Before joining Startmate my business partner and I ran our own consultancy and Invc.me (our startup product) was nothing more than a pre-alpha prototype that we used internally. We had no real plan and no real momentum. Things are a lot very different now and, upon reflection, I feel there are there are three key things that we have learnt through Startmate that have changed our approach to building a product.

1. Focus. It’s not impossible to build a startup on the side whilst maintaining a day job but, having tried both, I can attest to the fact that spending 3-4 weeks solidly testing your concept and assumption with real customers is the best way to figure out if you startup has any chance of success. Bootstrapping is a fine way to fund your startup but in the future I know I will always take a few weeks to spend 80% or more of my time validating a concept new concept before I go any further. (more…)