Case Study

Case Study: U.S. Launch of B2B Accelerator

Business Challenge

Position late entrant consultancy’s accelerator in crowded market. Develop and leverage competitive advantages to overcome competitors’ lead in time to market.

Role

Director of Strategic Alliances with venture capitalists, law firms, Internet consultancies, marketing firms, executive recruiters, investment bankers, technology firms. Lead role in developing Accelerator’s engagement and delivery model.

Rollout

Rapidly galvanized multidisciplinary support around late entering Big Five accelerator launch. Conducted roadshow in which interviewed VCs, attorneys, incubators, marketers and recruiters known for successful portfolios of start-ups. Leveraged pre-existing network to invite select alliance prospects into beta alliance while soliciting their viewpoints on the accelerator/incubator market and advice on positioning the new accelerator. Developed on-point knowledge regarding competitive advantage vis à vis accelerators, incubators and Internet holding companies. By rapidly mobilizing alliances, quickly brought outside expertise into the accelerator, which enabled ramp-up of dealflow. Worked with launch team to pioneer accelerator model for several other locations worldwide.

Devised new accelerator engagement model that focused on managing start-ups’ and (corporate) Spin-outs’ life cycles by coordinating all resources to minimize transaction costs among alliance partners. Leveraged engagement model as unifying principle for alliances and clients, for all parties would win, the more rapidly the start-up/spin-off client got to market dominance. Organized technology partnerships to build pilot extranet to deliver the model.

Results

• Successfully developed value proposition that quickly brought world-class executive recruiters, law firms, VCs and marketing firms into the accelerator within weeks of launch.
• Developed competitive vision based on previously undiscovered competitive advantages posed by business structure.
• Created community based approach to attracting alliances by focusing on unifying value proposition: all players with start-up clients would win when their clients got to market more quickly and none of them addressed the client life cycle in its entirety.
• Attracted several world-class start-ups to the program.