Today one of my best friends called me to ask about an accelerator in the UK that is trying to recruit his start-up. I was happy to share with him my learnings at HighTechXL and convince him that being part of a great start-up accelerator programme is not just about going faster but literally about switching his/her mindset to think as hopefully a successful entrepreneur.
After 8 weeks we have reached the last month of the intensive programme of HighTechXL. When we started in April we were loaded with ambition and energy. Now we believe we have more ambition but, to be honest, slightly less energy as this journey is really not for the faint-hearted. Clearly, we got our butt kicked-out to validate with our future customers any business assumptions we made and get ready for the grand final in July to pitch in front of more than 100 sharp investors. This up-hill battle goes from a validated value proposition, highly scrutinized financials, a sharp go-to-market strategy, to a bunch of other deliverables that are way too long to enumerate here. Our usual entrepreneur week used to be every day a small good news and on Friday a big bad news! Now this is magnified by 100! Trust me this is good, no time to look back or be demotivated…you hold on to the focus and the drive instead.
Every week we’re asked to present our “Wows!” to share with others the cool, nice stuff we have achieved. This week it was a strange “Wow”, how could we maintain the “accelerated” pace to develop our business after HTXL ends? Well I do not have an answer on this yet…Now we are in the hard, lots to deliver. No time to think, I just believe that when it gets harder just give more! Great to be in a highly motivated and experienced HighTechXL startup team.