Are Startup Accelerators Worth It For Founders? | Collin Wallace, Lobby Capital | E5

Collin Wallace is the Former Head of Techstars Silicon Valley (one of the top startup accelerators), co-teaches the Startup Garage accelerator class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), and is a partner at Lobby Capital (formerly August Capital), a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Previously, as a repeat founder, he also was a participant in Techstars and Y Combinator (YC is, of course, also a top startup accelerator). One of the startups that he founded (FanGo) was acquired by Grubhub pre-IPO, where he became Head of Innovation. In this interview, we talk about startup accelerators, how they've changed, and whether they are worth it for founders. We also talk about how much equity startup accelerators take, the amount of funding they provide, and some details regarding SAFEs and other startup accelerator financing terms, as well as differences between startup accelerators. We also talk about the types of problems startup accelerators are especially good at helping founders solve. In addition, we discuss the differences between accelerators: Y Combinator vs Techstars vs Pear VC, etc. Collin has invested in over 80 early-stage companies, including PayJoy, Landed, Mosaic Voice, Postscript, and Vellum. He has a BS from Georgia Tech, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In addition, he speaks Mandarin Chinese.
🎥 Watch the video version of this episode on the Next Unicorn YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/sGBS8w0iLv0?si=2Sb8FhmMX_fnrZyy
Follow Collin Wallace
👥LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-wallace/
🐦X: https://twitter.com/pithyprof
💻Lobby Capital: https://lobby.vc/
Follow Sasha Earnheart-Gold
👥LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashaearnheart-gold/
🐦X: https://twitter.com/EarnheartGold
🎥Next Unicorn YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@nextunicorn
📬Subscribe to the Next Unicorn email newsletter on Substack: https://nextunicorn.substack.com
💻Next Unicorn podcast website: https://www.nextunicornpodcast.com/
Interview Contents:
0:00 Intro
1:07 What are startup accelerators and why are they important?
5:05 Differences between startup accelerators: YC vs Techstars vs Pear
9:32 Are startup accelerators worth it for founders?
13:38 Why speed is so important for startups
19:38 Startup accelerator funding and equity details
26:29 Startup problems that can be solved in an accelerator
31:33 Stanford GSB's Startup Garage
36:15 How to find user empathy
38:42 If Collin started a new type of accelerator today...
41:32 Techstars' partnerships with big companies
47:17 Lobby Capital
1:02:15 How to get into venture capital
1:07:14 Career advice: finite and infinite games
1:09:49 Something unexpected in Collin's career
1:11:31 Bonus round!
Books mentioned in this episode:
📖 The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton M. Christensen: https://amzn.to/3TS2N0H
📖 Finite and Infinite Games, by James Carse: https://amzn.to/41RR0lc
Our recording setup:
-Webcam used in this episode: https://amzn.to/3NZNOhH
-Cheaper version of the webcam (if you just want to level-up your Zoom calls): https://amzn.to/3Sb4QMe
-Microphone used in this episode: https://amzn.to/3Sf9o40
Credits:
Video/audio editor and engineer – Oleksii Kyrkach