Big ‘depends’

It can be forming and essential, but it can also be a waste of time (they one should have spent finding/helping customers).

Also, in many cases, an accelerator == VC path (e.g. YC), so if one really wants to stay independent, one should think carefully.

writen by Kirill Rogovoy

Also, if you are making your very first company/product, you’re very young, and you want to work 10 hours a day, you should probably go for it.

At such point, you should care a lot more about learning fast and accelerators might be a great way.

writen by Kirill Rogovoy

What Kirill said

writen by Benedikt

Interesting, I do find accelerators not as popular as 5-8 years back.

writen by Andre Flores

I think it’s because there are too many of them now causing a sort of inflation making each of them (at least appearing) less useful. YC is still the same it seems.

Another force of nature is that the recent recession made self-funded companies a lot sexier (both because staying profitable by default in the absence of cheap capital became crucial, and because the cost of development is generally plummeting), and since accelerators often == VC, there is some change in perspective too.

writen by Kirill Rogovoy