Startup Expert Interviews

Looking for Development

News From Our World

Startup Expert Interviews

The Startup Journey Interviews

Categories

Startup Advice Startup Expert Interviews

9 Founders Share What To Expect From a Startup Accelerator in 2025

Startup accelerators have rapidly increased in popularity ever since Y Combinator came into existence in 2005. Since then the “accelerator model” has come into its own, providing entrepreneurs with a wealth of expertise and access to capital that simply wasn’t available in the past. A quick look at Seed-DB will attest to that. According to their data, accelerators have pumped over $88M into the global startup ecosystem. But, as an entrepreneur thinking about applying to a startup accelerator, it can often be tough to know what to expect from the process or how to do it (and whether or not it will actually benefit your startup). To help give you a peek behind the curtain, and answer some of the key questions related to startup accelerators, I enlisted some help from people who’ve actually done it. Just recently, I spoke to nine startup accelerator alumni and asked them to share their experiences. The first conversation I had was with 500 Startups alumni, Bethany Stachenfeld. She’s the co-founder and CEO of Sendspark, a startup that’s revolutionising how companies connect with their customers using video communication. Launched just three years ago, Sendspark has already completed two seed rounds and has quickly grown to over 10,000 users. Then I sat […]

Startup Advice Startup Expert Interviews

Startup Expert Interviews

Strategic Marketing Insights for Early-Stage Startup Founders [Expert Interview]

Long before joining Altar, nearly a decade ago, I founded my first tech startup and was quickly thrust into the myriad challenges of entrepreneurship. The learning curve was steep, from developing the product rationale to finding the right technical stakeholders and crafting an early-stage marketing strategy. Since then, I’ve worked in several early-stage startups, participated in the 500 Global Startup Accelerator, and helped numerous startups develop their go-to-market strategies. Throughout this journey, early-stage founders have consistently asked me similar questions: “How should we position ourselves in the market?”, “What’s the best way to ensure all teams are aligned on our narrative?” and “How can I better understand my target market?” To provide a fresh perspective, I contacted Maria Cate, an expert in early-stage startup marketing. With a wealth of experience from working with major corporations like Red Bull to startups like Whoop, Maria recently co-founded Cooth, a consulting meets creative firm dedicated to accelerating growth and building impactful marketing strategies for startups. In our conversation, Maria shares a comprehensive A-Z guide on crafting your early-stage startup marketing strategy. Let’s dive in. Contents Understanding Your Target Market Filipe: Maria, thank you so much for joining me today. My first question is […]

Startup Expert Interviews

Startup Expert Interviews

Early-Stage Marketing Considerations for Startups [Expert Interview]

In today’s business landscape, startups are notoriously hard to get off the ground – and the numbers back this up. High startup failure rate is the result of many factors, some structural, some circumstantial. No market need. Ran out of cash. Not the right team. A mistimed product. Poor marketing… The list goes on. Today’s article is about the one I know the best, and one that is often forgotten by early-stage startup founders. Marketing. Having worked with many entrepreneurs and business leaders in my marketing career, I’ve seen first-hand the common problems they face. Those problems are either: Related to the market research and orientation, also known as Diagnosis – often the lack of it; Related to the strategy (segmentation, targeting, and positioning) – again, more often than not, the lack of it. Execution related. When it comes to the first two points, the main problem is that entrepreneurs simply don’t do market research and have no strategy in mind. And I get it. In the first few months of their ventures, entrepreneurs are too busy dealing with thousands of other issues. Product, operations, hiring, investor relationships and more. Which is in no way an excuse for killing your business. So […]

Startup Expert Interviews

Startup Expert Interviews

What Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Startup Lawyers [Expert Interview]

I’ve seen my fair share of entrepreneurial mistakes over the years. And not all of them had to do with building the right product or assembling the right team. Some of them have to do with, you guessed it, legal issues that could’ve easily been solved with the help of a startup lawyer. Just a few days ago I was reading a story about an entrepreneur that decided to jump on a project with a friend. They co-founded a startup with equal equity, and then onboarded a third person, who would angel invest in the project. He worked every day for nine months, doing all kinds of jobs — planning and designing the app, recruiting, preparing sales pitches for clients, etc. The startup was growing rapidly, and they were gaining some traction. One day, he noticed that the angel investor had registered the company in his own name. Then it occurred to him, he did not have his name on anything except matters related to sales and admin. When he told his friend, he replied everything was fine. Eventually, everything would be on paper. Unsatisfied with the reply, our entrepreneur insisted he wanted clarity on his role in the company. And he asked to […]

Startup Expert Interviews

Startup Expert Interviews

What Angel Investors Look For in Entrepreneurs and their Startups [Expert Interview]

Many years ago, way before co-founding Altar.io, I quit my job in investment banking absolutely convinced I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So I set out to build my first startup, a social events marketplace. Like most first-time founders, I made some mistakes along the way. Well, maybe more than some. Including going to investors without enough to persuade them to open their wallets. I specifically remember one conversation in which I presented my idea, in great detail. About 5 minutes into my big speech he turned around and said: Paolo, I don’t give a sh*t about your idea… I need you to show me some traction. That set the tone for the rest of my quest. I was aiming at 200k for that pre-seed round and only managed to get around 40k. Ultimately, I failed to get investments because I had zero traction. I didn’t have the proof investors needed to see that people wanted my product. But traction (or lack of it) isn’t the only aspect that angel investors will look at as they decide whether or not your startup is a good bet. So to find out exactly what angel investors look for in entrepreneurs and their startups, […]

Startup Expert Interviews

Startup Expert Interviews

What Entrepreneurs Should Know Before Hiring a Business Coach [Expert Interview]

When you hit a roadblock on your entrepreneurial journey, it can often feel impossible to push through to the next milestone. And it’s a feeling all entrepreneurs face, myself included. While building my previous startup, Venga, hurdles came up, and I was often left feeling lost. I wish I’d had a sounding board. An experienced business person who I could’ve talked to about the business issues I was facing. Someone who could’ve helped me push my business to the next milestone. I wish I’d known the importance of business coaches for entrepreneurs. Having a business coach to go to for advice, almost like a business therapist, would’ve been invaluable for me in the early days of my startup journey. Someone like serial entrepreneur and business coach Diane Prince. She launched her first business in 1996, a recruitment startup, OnStaff. Just six years later the company was making an annual revenue of $50M, at which point they sold the business to a strategic partner (check out the paperwork involved in the acquisition below!) Since then, Diane has built several companies, across several verticals. Alongside this, she has served as a business coach for many entrepreneurs. So, my CMO Rui and I sat […]

Startup Expert Interviews