Access, sales & scenarios

Accelerators, mentors, and selling to government and enterprise.

What founders use for access, sales & scenarios, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. A government-published, startup-specific walkthrough of how public procurement works, tenders, GeM, exemptions, and the process... startupindia.gov.in Article · guide (PDF, ~1 MB) Startup Guide to Public Procurement (Official PDF) Startup India / Invest India
  2. When half your revenue comes from one customer's custom asks, the real risk is not the roadmap slipping, it is quietly becoming... Startup Folsom Article Service as a Software: The Startup Trap That Looks Like SaaS but Scales Like Consulting Rich Foreman
  3. Once you have even one happy customer, this is how you turn that into the proof that wins the next one. Amy Saper (who did... Uncork Capital on Medium Article · About a 12 minute read Let Your Customers Do Your Marketing: A Practical Guide to Creating Customer Case Studies and Testimonials Amy Saper (Uncork Capital)
  4. Before you say yes to the custom features nobody else wants, this essay makes you sit with the real risk: one account that pays... Startup Patterns (Medium) Essay The One Big Customer Trap Sam McAfee
  5. If a US fund pushes you toward a Delaware structure, this is the India-specific legal and tax manual for what you are actually... Treelife Article · 20 min read Flip Structure for Indian Startups: A Complete Guide Treelife
  6. Written by a pre-seed investor who reads these emails for a living, so it is the six-part anatomy of a cold email that actually... Sterling Road (Medium) Article · 10 min read How to Cold Email an Investor Ash Rust
  7. This is the canonical source on the highest-stakes 30 seconds in startups, from the people who coach hundreds of founders... Y Combinator Article · 12 min read A Guide to Demo Day Presentations Y Combinator
  8. The strain at home usually comes from a moving target: your family cannot tell whether you will grind on this forever. This... First Round Review Article · 25 min read Grit or Quit? Tactical Advice for Founders Facing Tough Company-Building Decisions First Round Review (with Annie Duke)
  9. A solo founder does not need a hundred contacts, they need four or five people they can be candid with and a repeatable way to... First Round Review Article · ~3,500 words, 15 min read Advice is More Important, and Overwhelming, Than Ever. Here's How Founders Can Cut Through the Noise First Round Review
  10. The practical step-by-step the official page leaves implicit: incorporate, register on the portal, submit entity details and an... IndiaFilings Article · 12 min read DPIIT Certificate of Recognition for Startups: Process, Benefits and Criteria IndiaFilings
  11. This is the actual application that got Basedash into YC (S20), question by question, with the founder's own annotation on why... Basedash Article · 15 min read How to write a successful YC application (with the real answers that got Basedash in) Max Musing
  12. The clearest breakdown of what the founder video is actually for: not a pitch deck read aloud, but proof that you and your... Pilot Article · 8 min read How to Prepare for Your YC Application Video Pilot team
  13. Written by someone who volunteer-reviewed thousands of YC applications, so it tells you how a form actually gets read: fast, by... TechCrunch Article · 10 min read You can't hack your YC application, but here's what to avoid Christopher Morton
  14. This is the clearest 'what changed between attempts' story you will read. Waqas Ali's Markhor was rejected by YC in 2012 with... Startup.pk Article · 12 min read From Okara to Y Combinator: The Founders Who Got Rejected, Came Back, and Got In Alina Atta
  15. Fourteen YC-accepted founders on the record, and the headline finding answers the reapply question directly: most of them got... GrowthMentor Article · 18 min read How to Get Into Y Combinator (According to the Founders That Did Get In) Foti Panagiotakopoulos
  16. This is your actual question sheet: it tells you to interview program leadership about founder EXITS (not the staff's own... Entrepreneur Article · 7 min read Due Diligence on Accelerators: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know Wiley Larsen
  17. This one names the predatory pattern precisely: a program whose real business is charging you thousands to build your website... Anthill Magazine Article · 6 min read Three Red Flags to Watch Out for in an Incubator Tilda Yeow
  18. This is written by a VC that sits on the other side of demo day, so the questions are the ones investors wish founders asked:... Sierra Ventures Article · 15 min read Startup Accelerators: How to Choose, With Side-by-Side Terms for 13 Top Programs Sierra Ventures (Ascend)
  19. When a program can't or won't name its raise rate, this is the number to hold them to: across 8,580 companies in 408... Knowledge at Wharton Article · 8 min read Do Accelerators Improve Startup Success Rates? Valentina Assenova and Raffi Amit (Wharton)
  20. This is the closest thing to an audited scorecard for accelerators, run by three former founders turned academics who collect... MIT Sloan Article · 6 min read Seed Accelerator Rankings Project: How Programs Are Actually Measured Yael Hochberg, Susan Cohen, Daniel Fehder
  21. This is the clearest breakdown of WHY a corporate accelerator behaves differently from an independent one: it spells out that... Elev X! Article · 10 min read Corporate Accelerators: How They Work and Why Enterprises Run Them Elev X! editorial team
  22. When you decide to grab credits from a corporate program, this tells you which of the big three to pick and why, with real 2026... guptadeepak.com Article · 14 min read AWS Activate vs Microsoft for Startups vs Google for Startups (2026): Who Each One Is Actually For Deepak Gupta
  23. This is the India-specific route into corporate credits: NASSCOM 10000 Startups is an approved AWS Activate provider, takes... GrowthGurukul Article · 12 min read NASSCOM 10,000 Startups: India's Tech Launchpad Founders Shouldn't Ignore (2026 Guide) GrowthGurukul editorial team
  24. A founder logs a Techstars batch day by day: Week 1 KPI workshop and kickoff, a brutal seven-day 'mentor madness' of... austinhenley.com Article · 15 min read My startup diary: Techstars Austin Z. Henley

Show the next 24

The questions

Incubators, accelerators & competitions 21

Get in, get funded, get connected.

Should I join an incubator or an accelerator, and which one? 3 → My college has an E-Cell and an incubator, how do I actually use them? 2 → Which incubators and accelerators give grant money, not just space and mentorship? 4 → How do I get into YC or a top accelerator, what do they actually look for? 3 → Is the equity an accelerator takes worth it? 3 → All 21 questions in Incubators, accelerators & competitions →
Selling to government 21

GeM, tenders, and the public-sector playbook.

How do I actually sell to the government, where do I find the buyers? 3 → What is GeM and how do I get my product listed on it? 2 → How do government tenders and procurement actually work for a tiny startup? 3 → Do I need certifications or empanelment to sell to a ministry? 2 → I'm a DPIIT-recognised startup, what procurement relaxations do I actually get? 3 → All 21 questions in Selling to government →
Selling to enterprises (B2B) 21

Land your first big logo.

How do I land my first enterprise customer when nobody has heard of us? 3 → How long is a B2B sales cycle and how do I not run out of money waiting? 3 → Who do I actually sell to inside a big company, and how do I find the decision-maker? 3 → They want a free pilot, should I do it? 3 → Should I use design partners, and how do I structure the deal? 3 → All 21 questions in Selling to enterprises (B2B) →
Mentors, advisors & network 21

Find the people who accelerate you.

My network is all corporate colleagues, how do I actually meet founders and investors? 3 → Can I build a serious startup from outside the big startup hubs, or do I have to move to Bangalore? 3 → How do I find a mentor or advisor who will actually help me, not just add a logo to my deck? 2 → How much equity should I give a startup advisor? 1 → How do I actually ask someone to mentor or advise me without it being awkward? 2 → All 21 questions in Mentors, advisors & network →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →