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 working one-on-one with the companies. I have weekly meetings with the companies that are formalized. >>>

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 are a bunch of things that we’re trying to do to further leverage Excelerate’s place in the marketplace to help not just the 10 that we accept, but also the hundreds that apply. >>>

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 every year. I don’t think the process is perfect. We do the best we can. We have to balance – and this is sort of like entrepreneurship – there’s a saying, “Don’t let perfect get in the way of good.” When you’re launching company, if you want the company to be perfect, you’ll never actually launch it. You’ll always be working on your product. You’ll be internally focused. You’ll miss the opportunity. >>>

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 some personality characteristics that most entrepreneurs share. Not all. You can definitely find exceptions. >>>

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 years. We are in the process of admitting our class for 2011, which will be 10 more great companies to shine that bright spotlight on and show what Chicago can do.

>>>

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 their payrolls. We started working on that in 1999, launched it in early 2000, raised a bunch of venture capital. >>>