Questions every startup program manager should be able to answer

Startup programs are just like startups. Some of it you can learn by doing, and some you need to have thought of before you start. Below are a few questions to trigger this thought process, taken from several books and blogs I've read along the way.

Before you even start thinking about a program

What is your goal or mission?

What are you trying to achieve with the program? And if your goal is clear, perhaps ask yourself if a program is the best way to reach that goal. Are you trying to create successful startups, trying to prevent bankruptcies, creating an investment funnel or just prototyping tech ideas? It's all good, but the goal changes the process.

Are you for profit or not for profit?

This is often the same question as: are you public or private? Do you take equity or not? In the case of a public and non equity entity there might be another question you need to answer: what is your business model?

What kind of culture are you trying to create?

This might be a bit on the soft side, but think about it this way: will you accept startups which could be each other competitors and how would you handle the day to day activities? Do you think competition makes everyone better? Or you should shelter some startups from others? Are cooperation and trust the key drivers? Or is it something else?

General or focused on (one or several) industries?

Programs work because startups share similar challenges/milestones in certain periods of their lifetime. They also share challenges when they share an industry (think about certification issue in medtech, or the lack of knowledge on AI/ML in AI). It's also much easier to "connect" to an industry than if you are "general", the same could be said for finding mentors with industry experience. On the other hand: focusing on general ideas might offer you the opportunity to only select the best ones out there.

Who are you after?

Are you looking for teams, solo entrepreneurs or both?

Research showed that teams are more likely to succeed when building a tech startup, but every team once consisted of just one team member that looked for others. Coming back to your goal: are you trying to build teams? Or creating successful startups?

How selective should you be?

It's very, very hard to assess the strength of a team and their idea very early on. Can you tell who is going to make it or not? How selective should you be? Open to everyone, or only admitting 1% of your admissions? And how much time should this process take? Can you automate this to a certain extend or is this a human effort?

Work with cohorts or batches or have a rolling admittance?

Batches give you the upside of groups. It's easier to build trust and cooperation within the group. The downside is that startups might have to wait to enter a program, and time is very important for a startup, this might be a good reason to allow rolling admittance!

The program

Are you offering a structured program or ad-hoc coaching?

A 1000 startups, a 1000 problems, a 1000 solutions, figured out by 1000 teams with different backgrounds. There is something to be said for ad-hoc coaching instead of a structured program. There will always be people who do not need your training, or your coaching sessions because they are already an expert in the field, or are focusing on different problems. Will you keep them in the class? Let them skip the training? Or ditch the structured program all together?

What can be done online and should be done offline?

Last year a lot of programs had to switch to a 100% online version. How did this work out? Can all programs actually be done online or will there always be an offline part? What are you trying to achieve and what medium is the right one to do this? What can already be found online and does not need extra explanation offline? What are the costs and scalability of both?

Will you work with external trainers, internal trainers of will you mostly use peer 2 peer learning?

Will your internal trainer/coaching team host all the workshops? Or will you hire experts in all fields? Or will you use the knowledge of the group and focus on peer 2 peer learning mostly? Having an expert in might sound nice, but they are costly and it makes it hard to change schedules and stay flexible with your program. Doing it all internal require a pretty large team and peer 2 peer learning is of course only possible when the group actually has a certain knowledge level.

Will you work with mentors? If so, who are they? Where will you find them?

Everyone should have a mentor in their life, and most often we have: a parent or grandparent sharing some of their own experiences. But what if you are the first of the family to start your own business? Having a mentor might be valuable, but not every entrepreneur is a good mentor, and how will you know if someone is not just joining as a mentor to scout some angel investment opportunities? A good spot to start looking for mentors might be entrepeneurs in the region or alumnis from the local university: people who like to give something back to the community.

The add ons

Will you offer office space?

Does your program contain office space? Are you asking startups to join for several weeks in a row or are they flying in for a day of workshops? Do you want them to work together outside of the workshops as well?

Will you offer specialized support (legal, IP, accountants, etc)

The workshops might trigger questions on legal issues, IP, financials etc. Are you able (and willing) to offer startups specialised support on these issues? Do you have or want preferred lawyers or accountants?

The afterlife

When is the program done?

Are there certain milestones to achieve for a startup? Is there a demo day? Or an investment day? Or is it a set amount of weeks (how many?) without a certain closing ceremony?

What happens when the program is done?

Will startups become alumnis? If so, what do you expect from an alumni? Will they join the program as a host the next year? Will they come together once a year for a BBQ? Do you expect them to mentor the next batch?

Behind the scenes

What kind of support tools will you use?

Will you have a CRM in place? Or another way to keep track of all the startups you are selecting? Will you need Crunchbase? Pitchbook or F6S? Do you need to build something yourself? How will startups share presentations and information? Slack? Whatsapp? Drive? Onedrive? Own server?

The success

How will you be able to "proof" your success?

Programs are often short sprints, and the effect of the program often comes months or years after. How will you know the success even happened and how are you able to contribute this success to your program? What are the KPIs you like to deliver on? Is there a way to measure those at the start and end (and perhaps 6/12 months after) of the program?