Success factors of accelerator backed ventures : Insights from the case of TechStars Accelerator Program

Sammanfattning: Different types of business incubators have been established worldwide in the last decade. As the latest generation of incubation models, the accelerator provides a mix of services including mentorship, office space, access to the latest technology and a network of investors, with an aim to help ventures survive in the market. Meanwhile, startups are important to the society because they help balance the labor market and make contributions to the economic growth. The aim of this paper is to find the factors which best predict the success of new ventures based on characteristics of entrepreneurs and ventures. This research utilizes a case study of TechStars Accelerator and includes 640 startups from all industries and geographical regions which participated in the programs between 2007 and 2015. The analysis employs two statistical models, namely the Logit Model and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Model. This study finds that technology intensive ventures founded by a team of entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed. Also, other variables such as the amount of funding, previous industry experience and location have a positive effect on the success of accelerator backed startups.