Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 10)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What are your daily personal challenges? What do you think could help you to be more effective? Troy: You mean other than having 48 hours in the day? Irina: Yes, other than time limitations. Troy: My role is overseeing the operations of Excelerate. More important, it’s

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Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Troy: We have a rigorous curriculum. We make a huge degree of use of the mentors. We do have some other services around, for example, as I mentioned, pro bono legal for their business conversion [to the right corporate structure].

Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What advice do you usually give to those who are not accepted in your program? Troy: We e-mailed everybody who applied, thanking them for applying and encouraging them in the best way we can in terms of acknowledging that we may have made a mistake. There

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Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Did TechStars implement their universal application idea that David Cohen discussed with me when I interviewed him? Troy: TechStars is working with the Kauffman Foundation on implementing it.  They are working on it. Irina: How do you process your applications? Troy: We get hundreds of applications

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Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Troy: The ecosystem is ripe for high-tech startups in Chicago.  We have great universities.  There are more Fortune 500 companies based here in Chicago than in any other metropolitan area, so – on the B2B side – we have the businesses to sell to.

Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What are the core benefits that your accelerator provides? Troy: Here’s the way I look at it. There’s been a debate for years about whether entrepreneurs are born or whether they’re taught. I actually think the right answer is a hybrid. My belief is that there’re

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Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Troy: So, by all objective measures, [last’s year program], it was a success. There is a lot of energy and passion in the Chicago marketplace and we’ve decided, obviously, to continue. We have funded the program for the next three years. We raised a fund for three

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Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Troy: SurePayroll eliminated the cost of all those pieces: the paper checks and reports, the delivery guy, the car he drove in, and the building drove from and the operator. It really reduced the cost and make it much simpler and easier for small businesses to process

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