Boston Accelerators: Navigating Your Options

Asad Butt is a Partner with LearnLaunch Accelerator, an edtech focused startup program. LearnLaunch Accelerator provides the most promising edtech startups worldwide with seed funding, an unmatched team of mentors, intensive coaching and all the tools needed to grow a successful edtech startup.

Robby Bitting, Director of Marketing at MassChallenge. MassChallenge is designed to catalyze a global renaissance by connecting high-impact startups with the resources they need to launch and succeed. MassChallenge is a 4-month program which offers mentorship, office space, education, network & community, and other resources. $2 million+ cash awards, $10 million in-kind. It’s open to all: any early-stage startup, in any industry, from anywhere in the world, no equity’s taken and there’s no restrictions on the startups

Melissa Withers, Managing Director at RevUp by Betaspring. RevUp By Betaspring is the 1st accelerator for “revenue-first” companies— where growth through revenue is the primary goal. Companies get $75,000 in cash + immersion in a 3-month program focused on increasing customer acquisition and revenue. RevUp is unique in important ways: we work with companies already generating revenue and we don’t take equity (but instead receive a return as revenue scales). Our program helps companies acquire customers and grow revenue: we aren’t unicorn hunters. Our model doesn’t depend on exits.

Ty Danco, Managing Director of Techstars Boston, a three-month mentorship-driven accelerator program. Techstars is for life — our global ecosystem of founders, mentors, investors, and corporate partners work together to create a network of support that lasts throughout your entrepreneurial journey. We make entrepreneurship accessible by opening doors to capital, mentorship, marketing, business development, customer acquisition, and talent recruitment.

Kofi Callender, Executive Director of Smarter in the City. SITC supports entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities and neighborhoods in the tech sector develop exciting new startups. Fifteen companies have successfully passed through our non-profit, no-equity accelerator program since 2014. SITC provide five months of free workspace in their Dudley Square office. Teams receive dedicated workstations and access to a shared meeting room. Dedicated mentors are matched to startups during their residency. Teams are provided with a modest stipend, in addition to in-kind support and services from local tech, marketing and PR firms, as well as free legal services from Boston College Law School.

William S. Perkins concentrates his practice on general corporate transactions, with an emphasis on venture investments, structuring and financing emerging businesses, public and private offerings of securities and mergers and acquisitions, including representation of both strategic and financial and investors and acquirors.