As a Startup Ecosystem Consultant at Village Capital, my role is to work collaboratively with our team to create the right support system for datatech for good startups. Most of the time, I am focused on the IBM HyperProtect accelerator program: I am the point of contact for Cohort 2, which includes a total of 15 startups who are leveraging highly sensitive data to improve the quality of and access to digital, financial, and healthcare services.
So, what’s it like to run an online accelerator program? I get asked this question a lot by people in my network. I’d say, in all honesty, that managing a cohort of 15 startups in 4 different time zones - in an online setting - comes with its fair share of technical hiccups. Preparation and coordination are key success factors.
Here’s a sneak peek at a random day working on the IBM HyperProtect Accelerator program:
7:00 AM: I am not a morning person
I wake up to the first beeping notes of the alarm. I reach out immediately and turn it off. In an effort to restore a semblance of a decent sleeping routine, I have made the conscious decision to schedule night and morning alarms to tell me when to get ready for bed and when to wake up. But, I was never a morning person, and I knew it would take more than that for me to get out of my bed. Good thing I scheduled five other 15min back-to-back alarms. That counts, right? I am a work in progress. The back and forth battle with my alarm goes on for 3 more rounds until I finally decide to give up. As I lazily dress up, I recall my busy schedule for the day. 30min later, I am back from the bakery with my breakfast. I remove my mask, get comfortable on my chair and open my laptop. 8:25 am. Not too bad. Our first session starts at 9:00 am. I take a sip of my burning coffee and check my emails. 3 new emails from participants who can’t seem to onboard properly on the Interactive Mural tool needed for the first session. I notify the team on slack. Angus, who is in charge of mentor matching, starts drafting an email to the facilitator to fix the issue. I start updating the attendance sheet; the lofi girl playlist was playing in the background.
9:00 AM: Starting with IBM session, Interactive Design thinking pre-workshop
It was the 3rd day of Cohort 2's launch week, and the IBM team was leading an interactive design thinking pre-workshop.
The workshop's goal is to understand each startup’s current technical needs, collect insights on how they plan to use Hyper Protect services, and share the regulations they will need to comply with. The facilitator, starts by introducing the HyperProtect design team and guides the participants throughout the session. I was particularly excited about this first session. It brings back memories. As a previous Product Owner who worked on digital products, this design thinking session felt particularly familiar. Throughout the session, I was multitasking: on one hand, I was listening to what was being shared, and on the other hand, I was reaching out to the founders who were still not there in the session. Switching from Zoom to Cisco at the last minute wasn’t a great idea, and some of the participants who missed the update were still waiting in the zoom link. A couple of emails later, everyone was finally on the Cisco link, and a couple of minutes later, the Mural board was filled with stickers. The session ends, and we carry on with the next one.
9:40 AM: Switching to Village Capital curriculum - Intro Pitch, Value proposition and Peer-due-diligence
Our program manager, Marta, does most of the talking, facilitating the “Intro Pitch”, “value proposition” and “Peer-due-diligence” sessions with much-needed breaks in-between. I spend most of my time checking attendance, following up with founders on the chat, and taking notes on each group’s challenges and progress during the breakouts.
We finish the day with a much-requested session from our founders: an “Enterprise selling” session led by Global Sales Leader at IBM. As sales are a big part of their business, the Q&A part was particularly animated. It was too short though. Before wrapping up, we share with the rest of our team the feedback we have gathered today on slack. It makes sense for them to know and adjust accordingly since they will be leading Cohort 3 launch week in a few hours.
04:00 PM: Weekly meeting and feedback sharing