Business accelerator governance
Tahseen AnwerAccelerators
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Abstract
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This paper examines the governance structures of business accelerators, highlighting the importance of managing relationships with various stakeholders, including mentors, investors, and government agencies. It critiques the existing literature for its narrow focus on accelerators' services to portfolio companies, advocating for a holistic understanding of how accelerators function within their ecosystems. Through case studies of Techstars and Start-Up Chile, it identifies key internal and external stakeholders and discusses the governance mechanisms employed to foster collaboration and achieve organizational goals.
Key takeaways
- In some cases, such as for most corporate accelerators, members from the sponsor organizations also participate as accelerator mentors (Kohler, 2016).
- While this challenges the entrepreneurs' intention to retain full control of their new ventures (Wasserman, 2016), equity stakes provide a formal governance mechanism for accelerator organizations and help align the interests of accelerators with their portfolio companies.
- Examples of corporate accelerators include the Wayra Telefonica accelerators or the AppCampus 1 accelerator.
- So far, few has been known about accelerators' important internal and external stakeholders and their relationships with the accelerator.
- Besides the reconciliation of interest conflicts, we suggest that another interesting avenue for future research on accelerator governance relates to the differences across accelerators and their impact on portfolio companies' trajectories.
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