The Accelerator Conundrum: The Herd Mentality and Groupthink Trap

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

When you gather a cohort of startups, put them through the same program, expose them to the same “mentors,” and push them towards the same Demo Day objective, you inevitably foster a dangerous phenomenon: the herd mentality and groupthink trap. 

This environment, far from encouraging disruptive innovation, often breeds conformity to a prevailing dogma: Blitzscaling from the get go. Go big or go home. 

True disruption rarely emerges from groupthink. 

Yet, within accelerator walls, there’s often an unspoken pressure to conform to the “Silicon Valley way,” to adopt the prevailing wisdom on aggressive fundraising, blitzscaling, high burn, and Unicorn chasing.

This is not the only way to build a successful venture.

In fact, this route is fraught with failures.

Even at YCombinator, the most exclusive (98% rejection rate) and best performing of the 3-month accelerators, failure is common.

Roughly 39% of YC companies have raised a Series A round. This is exceptionally high compared to the broader startup ecosystem, where most startups never get past the seed stage. But, 61% have NOT.

Why not?

Because it takes time to pivot, find product-market fit, and a viable trajectory. 

If the herd mentality within an accelerator is blitzscale or go home, entrepreneurs who might have succeeded as bootstrapped businesses get dismissed.

And they fail.

Photo Credit: katerinavulcova from Pixabay

This segment is a part in the series : The Accelerator Conundrum