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How do I do accelerator diligence in reverse: what should I ask alumni and staff before I say yes?

A starting point

You are evaluating them as hard as they evaluated you. Ask alumni: did you raise after, who from the program actually helped, and would you do it again. Ask staff: how many of the last batch raised, which investors show up at demo day, and what happens the day the program ends. If they dodge the raise-rate question or can't name active investors, that tells you what you need. Get alumni contacts they did NOT hand you.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked

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📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it 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: track record, mentor quality, expectations, and post-program support. The real edge is the comparison table listing actual equity taken by 13 programs (YC $500k/7%, Techstars $120k/6-9%, MassChallenge equity-free), so when an Indian program quotes you 5-10% for INR 10-50 lakh you have a global benchmark to hold it against before you dilute permanently.

Startup Accelerators: How to Choose, With Side-by-Side Terms for 13 Top Programs

From Sierra Ventures by Sierra Ventures (Ascend) 15 min read

  • A program is worth what happens after demo day, not during it: post-program investor access is the single biggest separator between top accelerators and the rest.
  • Pin down exact equity and cash terms up front and compare them against named global programs, because dilution is permanent and the network has to earn it back.
  • Ask about mentorship depth and reputation directly, then verify both against people who went through it, not the program's own testimonials.
Open sierraventures.com →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it 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 accelerators in 176 countries, accelerated startups were only 3.4% more likely to raise VC and pulled in about $1.8M more in the first year. That is real but modest, so it arms you to read a program's fundraising claims with a cold eye and to notice that outcomes depend heavily on program design, not the accelerator label.

Do Accelerators Improve Startup Success Rates?

From Knowledge at Wharton by Valentina Assenova and Raffi Amit (Wharton) 8 min read

  • The average accelerator bump is real but small (3.4% higher odds of raising, roughly $1.8M more year one), so treat any program promising transformation as making a claim it has to back with cohort data.
  • Outcomes hinge on specific design elements like pitch training and industry-specific guidance, not the brand, so ask what the program actually does week to week.
  • The right accelerator depends on your stage, sector, and founder experience, which means a top-ranked program can still be wrong for you.
Open knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it This is the closest thing to an audited scorecard for accelerators, run by three former founders turned academics who collect confidential portfolio data under NDA. It hands you the exact metrics to demand of any program you are evaluating: qualified fundraising, startup valuations, survival at 12/24/36 months, and founder recommendation (NPS). Tellingly, Y Combinator declined to participate once it became a fund, a reminder that the programs most worth your equity are usually the ones willing to be measured.

Seed Accelerator Rankings Project: How Programs Are Actually Measured

From MIT Sloan by Yael Hochberg, Susan Cohen, Daniel Fehder 6 min read

  • The metrics that matter are qualified fundraising, valuations, survival at 12/24/36 months, and whether graduates would recommend it, so ask the program for those numbers directly.
  • Real founder satisfaction comes from surveying nearly 1,000 graduates, not curated testimonials, so backchannel to alumni the program did not hand you.
  • A program dodging transparency is itself a signal: the strongest accelerators submit to confidential outcome audits, weaker ones stay opaque.
Open mitsloan.mit.edu →

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